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Posts Tagged: V8

Corvette Stingray 1967 Plus the L88 Option (’67-’69)

by Ross Mills

Chevrolet officially rated the 1967 Corvette L88 at 430 horsepower — a number almost nobody believes, with real output reputed to be closer to 560 or even 600. Only 20 of the 22,940 Corvettes built that year carried the option, which required deleting the heater, radio, and air conditioning just to qualify. A Sunray DX-entered L88 went on to win the 12 Hours of Sebring outright that same year. Read on for how Chevrolet built the most powerful — and most deliberately hidden — engine it ever put under a Corvette hood.

Old white car parked on grass with a rusty front bumper.

Mercury Monterey 1962 S-55 406/405HP Tri-Power 4-Speed Barn Find

by Kiril

A 30-year barn find just resurfaced wearing one of the rarest factory engine combinations Ford ever built — a triple-carbureted 406 big block that fewer than 124 full-size Mercurys ever received from the factory. Paired with a factory 4-speed and a special-order 4.11 rear axle, this Monterey is a genuine sleeper hiding inside a plain-looking family sedan. Read on to find out what made this engine option so rare, and what a numbers-matching survivor like this is worth today.

Classic Dodge Coronet parked on a suburban street at sunset.

Jay Leno gets cozy with his 1966 Dodge Coronet

by Kiril

Jay Leno owns hundreds of cars, but few tell a story as understated as his 1966 Dodge Coronet, a boxy family coupe hiding one of the most feared engines Detroit ever sold to the public. That small “426 Hemi” fender badge marks the first model year Chrysler offered the Hemi as a genuine street engine rather than a race-only exotic, sold in just three B-body nameplates. Read on to find out why a car this plain-looking still commands serious respect from collectors like Leno.

A bright orange 1970 Dodge Charger Daytona 426 HEMI parked outdoors.

Test Drive 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona 440 V8

by Wes

RamblinAround tracks down one of only 503 original 1969 Dodge Charger Daytonas ever built, still running its factory 440 V8 and finished in correct T5 Copper paint. The Daytona’s nose cone and rear wing were built to break NASCAR speed records, and did, forcing the sport to change its rules. Watch to see the winged Mopar that inspired decades of dream-car regret in the comments.

1966 Ford 7-Litre 427 Convertible in blue.

1966 Ford 7-Litre R-Code 427 Convertible

by Wes

Only two buyers in 1966 ordered a Ford 7-Litre convertible with the dual-carburetor R-Code 427 instead of the standard 428 — and this Brothers Collection car is one of them. Muscle Car Of The Week digs into what actually separates the R-Code’s cross-bolted big block from the ordinary version riding under most 7-Litre badges. Watch to see why this one stopped the crew in their tracks.

A car performing a burnout with smoke around its rear tires at sunset.

Pontiac Firebird 1971 Formula 455

by Kiril

Built in the year everyone blames for killing the muscle car, this all-black 1971 Pontiac Firebird Formula 455 still hides real teeth: a 335-horse HO big block, 480 lb-ft of torque, and a heavy-duty three-speed for anyone who ordered it to be driven hard. Overshadowed by its Trans Am sibling’s spoilers and stripes, the Formula was and remains the second-gen Firebird’s best-kept sleeper secret.

Chevrolet Impala 1961-1964 Third generation

by Ross Mills

The third-generation Impala arrived in 1961 looking like nothing Chevrolet had built before, and it produced two body styles that collectors now hunt specifically because almost nobody wanted them when they were new. It also produced a 409 that got its own hit song, a dashboard where the temperature gauge was replaced by a warning light, and a 1964 engine option good for 425 horsepower. Read on for what separates the good years from the great ones.

Classic gold muscle car with black vinyl roof in a showroom.

Chevrolet Impala 1968 images

by Ross Mills

Chevrolet’s factory SS 427 package turned a handful of full-size Impalas into genuine muscle cars between 1967 and 1969, with roughly 6,350 built across all three years combined (1,778 of those in 1968 alone), rated at either 385 or 425 horsepower. The sleeper pictured here takes that idea further, pairing period-correct Impala sheet metal with a fuel-injected 496-cubic-inch big-block and a modern 4L80E automatic overdrive transmission. The result looks like a family car and drives like anything but, continuing a sleeper reputation the factory only hinted at fifty years ago.

Classic muscle car driving on a road surrounded by greenery.

Chevrolet Impala 1969 Custom 396 Survivor

by Kiril

Chevrolet sold 777,000 Impalas in 1969, making it America’s best-selling car that year, and this Custom Coupe survivor carries an oddball spec: a 265-horsepower 396 that was somehow rated lower than the 350 in the same lineup, yet cost more to order. Riding on its original 1969 Texas plates with a stout 12-bolt rear end, this full-size cruiser has a stranger story than its badge suggests. Read on to find out why GM built an engine that looks like a mistake on paper.

Ford Coupe 1951 images

by Ross Mills

Ford outsold Chevrolet by 10 percent in 1951, and the optional 239 cubic inch flathead V8 under this coupes hood was part of the reason why. That same engine, simple enough for anyone to modify, became the foundation of the postwar hot rod movement and helped define an entire era of American car culture. Here is why builders still chase this engine family decades later.

Mercury Cyclone Twists Through Norwegian Backroads

by Kiril

Mercury built the Cyclone for less than a decade and only about 74,286 of them ever left a factory, which is why most casual enthusiasts have never knowingly seen one. That obscurity hides a genuine NASCAR pedigree, a 428 Cobra Jet option and an aerodynamic special built to fight the Dodge Charger Daytona. Read on for why a forgotten Mercury deserves a place alongside far more famous names.

Man showcasing a Chevy 350 small block engine top end on a video thumbnail.

ow-To Rebuild Top End Chevy 350 Small Block Engine

by Wes

Episode 67 of the Motorz rebuild series picks up the Chevy 350 build at its most consequential stage — the top end, where a single missed torque step or skipped sealant can undo three prior episodes of careful work. Viewers with decades of small block experience have weighed in throughout, flagging two specific mistakes worth avoiding and trading tricks that never make it into a written manual. Watch to see exactly where a home rebuild can go right, or wrong.

Classic Plymouth Barracuda muscle car showcased on a scenic highway.

In Torque We Trust – 1967 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S

by Wes

Bob Gough grew up idolizing European sports cars after a few childhood years in France — until a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S changed his mind. Over more than twenty-three years of ownership, he’s swapped in a 340-cubic-inch V8, a Tremec five-speed, and nitrogen shocks, building a car with enough torque to ‘leave Porsches behind’ on the straights. Watch to see why one habit still catches him out in the corners.

1967 Pontiac GTO with classic front grille and headlights.

Unleashing the Beast: 1967 Pontiac GTO Burnout & Thrilling Ride Along!

by Jack Harmon

John had never done a burnout in his nephew’s uncle’s 1967 Pontiac GTO — until a little on-camera peer pressure changed his mind. The channel’s host calls the car a flat 10 out of 10, and this ride-along captures both the hesitation and the payoff of finally letting a half-century-old muscle car do what it was built to do. Watch to see what talked him into it.

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