 |
Ford built exactly 57 of these R-code Fairlanes in 1966, not for showroom sales, but to satisfy a NASCAR homologation rule requiring a minimum production run. Every one wore the same white-over-black color combination and hid a 427 side-oiler under a stripped-down interior. Only about 25 are believed to survive. Here is the story behind Ford’s rarest mid-size muscle car.
Filmed on the lot at Garrett Classics in Lewisville, Texas, this 1966 Pontiac GTO wears the setup serious muscle car buyers wanted most: a 389-cubic-inch V8 with Tri-Power carburetion and a genuine four-speed manual. Factory power brakes, power steering, and correct Rally wheels round out a car Pontiac loyalists in the comments call one of the best-preserved examples they’ve seen. It’s unrestored, unmodified, and exactly as honest as a 1966 GTO should be.
Greening Auto Company built this 1970 Chevrolet Camaro around a Mast Motorsports supercharged LS7 pushing roughly 800 horsepower, sent to the pavement through a paddle-shift automatic and, surprisingly, a Ford rear differential. The body mods are subtle by design, a relocated gas filler, mirror-integrated turn signals, carbon fiber accents, meant to reward a closer look rather than shout for attention. Commenters compared the hood bulge to everything from a Grand National to a 1968 427 SS. Why would a Chevy-focused shop reach for a Ford part on a build this ambitious?
This 1985 Chevrolet El Camino crossed a strange threshold: old enough to be called a classic, but built for buyers who still saw it as a practical work vehicle rather than a collectible. Nicknamed the Cowboy Cadillac for straddling truck and car in equal measure, it carries original paint, original bench seating, and a full comfort-options sheet, plus a GM Goodwrench 350 crate engine standing in for whatever came from the factory. Read on for what made this coupe-utility, and its unlikely nickname, last eight years longer than its closest rival.
This blown alcohol engine was mid-pull on ALEXort2007’s dyno when something let go — and the comments have been debating exactly what ever since. Was it a dropped rod, an electrical arc, or a motor simply held at redline too long? Whatever the cause, one thing everyone agrees on: it’s a far better place for an engine to fail than in the middle of a quarter-mile pass.
As Dodge wound down production of its most unhinged sports car, D3 Performance Engineering decided the Viper deserved a proper send-off. Starting with a track-focused Gen V ACR, the shop added an F1X Procharger and a Nitrous Express kit to push the V10 past 900 horsepower, then took the car to the most demanding stretch of asphalt in the world to prove it. The result: D3 now holds the record for the quickest Gen V Viper on earth.
This 1966 Pontiac GTO convertible carries PHS documentation tracing it back to Moody Pontiac in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it left the factory with the 389 four-barrel, power steering, power brakes and factory air conditioning. 1966 was the year the GTO stopped being an option package and became a model in its own right, and buyers responded by making it the best-selling muscle car in America. The convertible was always the scarcer half of that story. Read on for what separates a documented survivor from the clones.
A top-of-the-line 1974 Dodge Charger SE with a 440 under the hood and a set of quarter windows unlike anything else on the lot — Victoria Friday’s ride sits at the crossroads of the Charger’s Bullitt-era fame and Detroit’s mid-1970s retreat from raw horsepower. Read on to see what actually separated the SE from an ordinary Charger, and why the 440 badge still mattered in a year emissions rules were choking performance everywhere else.
A 2014 Camaro SS and a 2015 Dodge Challenger RT go head to head in this Los Angeles street race, but the real story is the setup — the host studies the Camaro’s 6.2-liter LS3 before racing it against his own daily-driven, 5.7-liter HEMI Challenger. The displacement gap suggests an easy winner. Real pavement doesn’t always agree. Watch the pull to see which V8 actually gets there first.
The 1968 Plymouth Road Runner was built to bring performance back to buyers who could not afford a GTX, which makes the 426 Hemi option one of the strangest contradictions Detroit ever offered. A stripped-out car with rubber floor mats and a cartoon bird on the fender could be ordered with the most feared engine in America. Car and Driver clocked one at 13.54 seconds at 105 mph straight off the showroom floor. Read on for what that combination actually cost and how few buyers took it.
Chevrolet’s LS-series V8 didn’t stay locked inside the Corvette — this roundup tracks down five cars, including a Firebird, two different Impala SS builds, and an unexpected Buick Roadmaster, that share real engineering DNA with America’s sports car. Every one of them can reportedly be found today for under $10,000. Budget performance doesn’t get much more specific than this. Watch the full list to see all five.
This 1962 Buick Invicta wagon carries the nickname “Airwagon,” earned when Air Ride Technologies took on the rare nine-passenger body style as a build project. Under the hood sits a numbers-matching 401 Nailhead V8, swapped from its original two-speed Turbine Drive automatic to a smoother four-speed. Gateway Classic Cars photographed the full car for this gallery, from the engine bay to the polished chrome trim, one of the least common body styles Buick built during the Invicta’s run.
In February 2013, Lars Skroder challenged his brother to find an unrestored 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda with a build sheet, a four-speed, and its original owner still attached. Three weeks later, a YouTube video led him to Greg Peterson, who had owned the Hemi Orange car since he was sixteen. Read on to find out how a graduation gift became one of the most original ‘Cudas on the planet.
Saabkyle04 gives the 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 the same in-depth, first-person treatment he brings to everything from vintage Impalas to Lamborghinis — start-up, exhaust note, and a full walkthrough of what changed when Ford swapped in the 351 Cleveland V8. One commenter’s memory of staring at his brother-in-law’s Mach 1 for hours in 1972 says as much about this car’s legacy as any spec sheet could. Watch the full review to hear that exhaust note for yourself.
Plymouth built just 2,128 Road Runner convertibles for 1969, and only 769 came with a four-speed manual behind the 383. This one’s got both, plus the Air Grabber hood and a full options list that shows exactly how fast Road Runner buyers dressed up Plymouth’s bare-bones performance idea. Here’s the full story behind the rarest configuration of the model’s debut convertible year.