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This 1970 Chevelle SS wears a period-correct red and black paint job over something Chevrolet never built at the factory, a modern 572-cubic-inch crate engine capable of blowing past the legendary LS6’s numbers. The swap raises a real question about where resto-mod ambition ends and factory-original respect begins. Read on to find out what it actually takes to make a fifty-year-old chassis survive that much power.
Finished with only three days to spare before Cruisin the Coast, this 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS is a near-stock restoration that skips the flashy paint and stretched stance in favor of getting every factory detail right. Read on to find out why 1967 marked the Impala SS’s last real high point before the package faded away.
This 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 pairs a rare four-speed manual with a factory-correct Medium Garnet Red paint job, restored to a standard clean enough for both show judging and a summer cruise. Read on to find out what separated Chevrolet’s three versions of the 396 and why the manual gearbox matters so much to collectors today.
Chevrolet sold a record 86,307 SS 396 Chevelles in 1969, but the base 350-horsepower L34 and the rare, 375-horsepower L78 with its aluminum-head L89 variant were two very different ownership experiences hiding under the same badge. This particular survivor’s exceptional condition suggests there’s more than fresh paint and chrome going on underneath the cowl induction hood. Read on to find out what actually separated a garden-variety SS 396 from a genuine numbers-matching legend.
This 1961 Chevrolet Impala SS convertible carries a badge that traces back to a genuinely rare factory combination, only 142 original Impalas got both the SS package and the new 409 V8 before a production issue shut it down. This particular car skips all of that history entirely, running a modern 572 cubic-inch big block that dwarfs anything Chevrolet’s engineers could have offered in 1961. Read on to find out just how rare the real thing actually was.
Chevrolet’s brand-new Camaro needed a real performance engine to compete with the Mustang in 1967, and the answer was a small block nobody had seen in a showroom before: the Turbo-Fire 350. Read on to find out why this debut engine mattered so much, and how it set the stage for everything the Camaro nameplate became.
This 1967 Chevrolet Nova SS hides a 565 cubic-inch Dart Pro M aluminum big block reportedly making 900 horsepower — a number that has nothing to do with anything Chevrolet built for this body style. A narrowed 9-inch rear on ladder bars, a transbrake, and a tubbed six-point cage all point toward serious quarter-mile intentions, while custom Indigo Blue paint and stainless trim keep it show-worthy too. Gateway Classic Cars documented every part on this Chicago showroom build. Watch to see what a full Pro Street transformation of a compact muscle car actually looks like.
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 1987 Monte Carlo Aerocoupe gets the NASCAR headlines, but the quieter LS trim outsold it by a wide margin that year. Standard throttle-body injection modernized the 4.3-liter V6, while an optional 5.0-liter V8 added real muscle through the same four-speed automatic. Production numbers and pricing reveal a car built for everyday buyers, not superspeedways, and one that closed out the G-body era on its own understated terms.
This 1965 Chevrolet Malibu SS convertible wears Evening Orchid over a white bucket seat interior with a four-speed manual, which is about as bold a specification as a buyer could order that year. The Malibu SS was a trim and appearance package rather than a factory hot rod, but 1965 turned out to be the year Chevrolet quietly changed what a Chevelle could be. What arrived partway through the model year reshaped the entire line. Read on for the mid-year decision that made 1965 matter.
The 1973 El Camino was the biggest one Chevrolet had ever built, and it arrived carrying federally mandated bumpers that nobody had designed the styling around. Underneath sat a raft of genuinely thoughtful engineering: a wider track with deliberately mismatched camber for crowned roads, computer-designed coil springs matched to each vehicle, standard front discs, and a 22-gallon tank. Read on for what the fourth generation got right in the worst possible decade for performance.
Chevrolet built the Chevy II because the Corvair could not beat the Ford Falcon, and it built it fast — a full range of five body styles and four trim levels, on a wheelbase deliberately half an inch longer than the Falcon’s. Then drag racers noticed how little it weighed, and a dealer-installed V8 changed the plot entirely. Read on to find out how a compact economy car ended up in the same conversation as the GTO.
This 1967 Camaro pairs a deceptively restrained exterior and factory houndstooth interior with a 502-horsepower ZZ502 crate engine, filmed in detail at Fast Lane Classic Cars in Missouri. A Borg Warner four-speed and 12-bolt rear handle the power, while front disc brakes and modern tires keep it planted. Commenters can’t stop calling it a dream car. Watch the full walkaround to see what 502 horsepower looks like in a car that doesn’t announce itself.
This numbers-matching 1968 Chevrolet Impala SS 396 runs the streets of Dallas with air conditioning, power steering, a 12-bolt rear end, bucket seats and an AM eight-track. Full-size performance was never as popular as the Chevelle or Camaro, which is exactly why a genuine SS 396 Impala with its original drivetrain has become so much harder to find. Read on for what the Super Sport package actually bought and how many were really built.
Pontiac says the 1964 GTO invented the muscle car. Chevrolet launched the Chevelle SS package the same model year. Chrysler loyalists point to the letter cars of the 1950s, and Oldsmobile fans go back to the 1949 Rocket 88. The argument has never been settled and probably never will be. Here is what each side actually claims, and why the Chevelle ended up mattering more than the debate itself.