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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.
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 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.
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.
Jaguars E-Type earned its reputation on a racetrack before it ever reached a showroom, tracing its lineage to a D-Type that won Le Mans three years straight. By 1966 the car had grown into its most well-rounded form, pairing a 4.2-litre, 265-horsepower six with mechanical upgrades that fixed the earlier cars biggest complaints. It is a combination collectors still chase today.
The 1963 Buick Riviera almost wore a Cadillac badge instead, GM’s styling chief originally designed it as a LaSalle-branded personal luxury coupe before Cadillac passed and Buick claimed the project. Deliberately limited to 40,000 units to preserve its exclusivity, the Riviera paired genuine luxury styling with a 325-horsepower Nailhead V8 capable of 0-60 in around 8 seconds. It’s a car built on a rejection that turned into one of Buick’s most important models of the decade.
The front subframe on a Charger or Challenger carries the engine and sets the entire front suspension geometry, which makes replacing it far less forgiving than it looks. A cradle installed a few millimeters out of position throws no codes and makes no noise, it just quietly ruins how the car drives. Here is what the job actually involves, where it goes wrong, and what is worth upgrading while everything is apart.
Frank and Tina Ayres spent about five years turning a 1958 Chevrolet shortbed Fleetside into something that rides and stops like a modern vehicle while looking like it never left 1959. The build passed through a now-defunct trade school campus and a Sacramento custom shop, picked up a Heidts Mustang II front end and a 350 small-block along the way, and ends on Coker wide whitewalls. It also starts an argument about what year it actually is. Read on for the details.
A car that quietly pulls to one side or wears through a set of tires years too early usually isn’t a tire problem at all — it’s an alignment problem hiding behind three angles most drivers have never heard of. CNET’s Brian Cooley breaks down camber, caster, and toe in plain language, and more than one viewer went out to check their own wheels after watching. Watch to find out which of the three you’re most likely feeling every time you drive.
From the outside it reads as a pearl orange Plymouth Cuda with a Hemi under the shaker, which is already a serious thing to own. Look through the driver’s window and the story changes completely, because the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Schwartz Performance built this E-body for an owner in India, and moving the wheel turned out to be the smallest part of the job. Read on to find out what had to move with it.
This show-quality 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air has covered just 42 miles since its restoration, and almost nothing under the skin is what General Motors installed. A 1969 Corvette 350 replaced the original small block, an overdrive automatic sits where a Powerglide once did, and the car now stops on power front discs it never had. The result is a Tri-Five that looks period-correct and drives like it was built this decade. Read on to find out what changed and why it matters.
Roadkill’s David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan take delivery of a 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat, a 707-horsepower Charger Hellcat, and a 645-horsepower Viper GT straight from Dodge, then head for a motocross track with zero regard for what any of these cars were actually built to do. With guest appearances from Motor Trend, Dirt Every Day, and a professional drifter, this episode marked the start of Dodge’s sponsorship — and it shows exactly why the partnership worked. Watch to see 2,059 combined horsepower meet terrain built for dirt bikes.
Larry F. bought his first car in 1977 for $400: a white 1970 Pontiac GTO that broke his father’s one rule about first cars. He spent two years rebuilding it, drove it for years, and sold it in 1988 for $800 before the muscle car market took off. Years later, walking through an Illinois junkyard with his son, he found out exactly what became of it. Read on to find out what he saw.
This Iris Mist 1965 Pontiac GTO carries the 389 Tri-Power, a four-speed, and a rotisserie restoration that leaves nothing to argue about. It also carries an option General Motors was about to take away from every division except Chevrolet’s Corvette, which is exactly why fewer than a third of that year’s GTOs have it. Read on to find out what those three carburetors were really worth.