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A 1970 Buick GS hid an engine most muscle car fans have never heard of: an 11.0:1-compression 455 built for Super Stock racing and estimated past 500 horsepower, that Buick scrapped before a single customer could order one. Only two prototypes ever existed, and incoming emissions rules buried the program before it ever reached a factory build sheet.
Throttle House hosts Thomas and James put an 807-horsepower 2020 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock through its paces on a closed test track, running the supercharged Hemi that Dodge certified at 10.5 seconds and 131 mph in the quarter-mile. Priced at $106,645 CAD, the Super Stock sits atop the Hellcat family as one of the most extreme factory-built muscle cars Dodge ever sold. The review doubles as a farewell note, arriving as the gas-powered Challenger’s production run was nearing its end. Comments below split between nostalgia for Dodge’s V8 commitment and complaints about the car’s brakes and traction struggling to match its power.
NHRA’s 50 Greatest Drivers list wasn’t slapped together as clickbait – it came out of a genuine blue-ribbon panel debate for the sanctioning body’s 50th anniversary, weighing everything from national event wins to the sport’s technological history. Don Garlits sits at number one, with John Force, Don Prudhomme, Bob Glidden, and Shirley Muldowney rounding out a top five that basically built modern drag racing. Decades later, NHRA even expanded it into a Top 75 list for its 75th anniversary. So who’s your pick for the top spot?
Jim Isherwood spent decades behind the wheel of Mopar Super Stock race cars, and this ride-along in his 426 Hemi-powered Satellite GTX Belvedere captures exactly why fans still talk about him. Since his passing, the comment section has turned into something between a technical breakdown and a tribute. Watch, and listen, to understand why nothing else sounds quite like a Hemi under full throttle.
Dearborn Steel Tubing built 21 Mercury Comet A/FX cars for 1964, each with a NASCAR-derived 427 High Riser rated at a deeply understated 425 horsepower, fiberglass hood, fenders, doors and bumpers, and Plexiglas windows throughout. At roughly 3,200 pounds they ran 11.3 to 11.6 at around 125 mph. Dyno Don Nicholson, Ronnie Sox and Jack Chrisman all drove them. Read on for what separates a documented original from a very good tribute.
Ford built roughly 100 Fairlane Thunderbolts for 1964 with fiberglass hoods, fenders and doors, Plexiglas windows, no heater or radio, and a trunk-mounted battery, all to get a 427 High Riser into the most favorable Super Stock bracket the rulebook allowed. The 425-horsepower rating on the paperwork fooled nobody in the sport. Gas Ronda won the Winternationals with one, and Ford lost money on every car it delivered. Read on for what separates a real Thunderbolt from a very good tribute.
Somewhere on a quarter-mile strip in the early 1960s, a Detroit engineer watched a factory-built sedan run a number that shouldn’t have been possible for a car with roll-up windows and a back seat – and the horsepower wars officially had a battlefield. Before that moment, drag racing was mostly outlaw street stuff. What turned quarter-mile runs into an organized sport, and which factory cars actually broke the barriers first? Read on to find out.
Ford built roughly 50 genuine Cobra Jet Mustangs in each limited run since reviving the nameplate in 2008 – and every one of them was designed to run a specific index number, not chase outright records. This car left that rulebook behind entirely, pulling 1,400 horsepower from just 305 cubic inches of supercharged Coyote. Read on for how the outlaw racing scene around cars like this got started, and why a small-block ended up making numbers Ford never advertised.