 |
The Triumph TR6’s sharp, squared-off styling looks like an all-new design, but German coachbuilder Karmann only reskinned the outgoing TR5 — the chassis, engine, and doors underneath stayed the same. Of the nearly 92,000 TR6s built through 1976, over 83,000 were exported to the US, where detuned carbureted engines made noticeably less power than the fuel-injected versions British buyers got at home. It’s a roadster built on borrowed bones that still became Triumph’s best seller.
This 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, powered by a two-barrel 351 Cleveland and loaded with comfort options like a cassette radio and tilt wheel, quietly marked the final year of the original first-generation Mustang platform. Ford built fewer Mach 1s that year than any other in the option’s run before downsizing the entire lineup for 1974. Read on to see what made this overlooked model year different.
Studebaker rarely shows up in muscle car conversations, but in 1955 the independent automaker’s flagship President Coupe was a legitimate rival to the Ford Thunderbird and Chrysler 300, armed with a 259-cubic-inch V8, a four-barrel carburetor, and a driver-focused three-speed manual with overdrive. A strong public reaction to a handful of Speedster show cars even pushed Studebaker into limited mid-year production. See what made this overlooked flagship worth a second look.
This 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 tribute build recreates one of muscle car history’s most pivotal model years — the year Chevy turned the SS from a standalone series into an option any Chevelle buyer could check off. Down to the factory-correct trim and an era-appropriate eight-track deck, Gateway Classic Cars chased period accuracy rather than cutting corners. Here’s why 1969 was the Chevelle SS’s biggest year by the numbers, and what made the rare L78 396 the engine every enthusiast wanted.
This numbers-matching 1970 Plymouth Cuda pairs its factory 440 Six Pack V8 with a pistol-grip 4-speed and a restoration matched down to the original paint and trim codes. In the comments, one owner recalls an unrestored French example with the same drivetrain selling for ,000. Watch to see what a correctly restored Six Pack Cuda looks like today.
1970 finally gave the Ford Ranchero its own identity — Ranchero or Ranchero GT badges on the glovebox instead of Fairlane or Torino script, plus a pointed grille, hideaway headlights, and coke-bottle styling that left the old body looking dated overnight. Four distinct trims rolled out that year, from the woodgrain Squire to a GT that could be ordered with a 370-horsepower 429 Cobra Jet. Here’s how Ford split its unibody truck-car into four very different personalities for one model year.
Studebaker restyled its 1955 President to compete with Cadillac and Lincoln, but the real story is hiding in the engine bay. A quiet running change partway through the model year gave later cars more horsepower than earlier ones, with no visible way to tell them apart. Here is what changed, and why only 24,665 were ever built.
Nineteen sixty-seven marked a quiet turning point under the hood of Buick’s personal luxury flagship, one most people walking past a showroom would never have noticed. The engine that had powered the Riviera for years was being retired in favor of a genuinely different design, and the replacement lasted only three model years before Buick moved on again. This numbers-matching hardtop carries that engine in a color combination Buick used for a single season. Read on for what changed and why the window was so narrow.
The Jaguar XK120 began life as a one-off testbed for a new engine, but the reaction at its 1948 debut convinced Jaguar to build it — and the resulting car became the fastest production car in the world at the time. This 1952 example carries the original 3.4-liter inline-six good for 180 hp and a genuine 120-mph top speed. Jaguar built just over 12,000 XK120s between 1949 and 1954, with alloy-bodied cars now among the rarest of the breed.
This restored 1966 Chevelle SS looks period-correct on the outside, but its 565 cubic inch supercharged V8 making roughly 750 horsepower has nothing to do with the factory 396 options Chevrolet actually offered that year. Even the rarest original engine, the 375-horsepower L78, doesn’t come close. Here’s how this build compares to what left the factory floor.
This 1970 Chevrolet Nova SS pairs a numbers-matching 350 four-barrel with a Muncie four-speed, a 12-bolt limited-slip rear end, and believed-original mileage in the mid-70,000s. It’s the kind of sleeper build that hides serious performance behind understated styling. Watch the full walkaround to see exactly what’s under the hood.