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The 426 Hemi was not just Plymouth’s biggest engine option in 1970. It was a race-bred monster that won Daytona in its first outing and was promptly banned until Chrysler agreed to sell it to the public. Only 666 ‘Cuda buyers checked that option box in 1970, and just 14 of those cars left the factory as convertibles. Beneath the shaking hood scoop sat 425 rated horsepower and one of the most recognizable exhaust notes ever produced. Read on to find out why it disappeared after only two years.
When one of the first 2019 Chevrolet ZR1s in the country landed at a Kentucky Chevy dealership, salesman Mike Davenport was there to see it delivered. The car reopened a debate that had nearly killed one of the ZR1’s most talked-about options entirely: should you actually buy the manual? Watch to see the car that nearly didn’t get a stick shift at all.
The 1969-and-a-half Plymouth Road Runner A12 was Plymouth’s answer for buyers who wanted Hemi-level violence without the Hemi-sized invoice: a 440 wearing three two-barrel carburetors, a lift-off fiberglass hood, black steel wheels with no hubcaps, and an advertised 390 horsepower. Built for only part of one model year, it remains one of the rarest and most purposeful factory big-block packages of the muscle car era. Read on to find out how Plymouth built a strip car on a budget.
Chevy built the 1972 Nova during the leanest years of the muscle car era, when the hottest factory SS you could get made a modest 200 horsepower. This one ignores that history entirely, packing a 408 cubic inch small-block under a stunning orange metallic shell, more than double the output of anything Chevrolet offered in a ’72 Nova. It’s a textbook Pro Touring build: vintage Nova looks with a powertrain the factory never dreamed of. Read on to find out why 408 inches and a ’72 body make such a perfect pairing.
At the Goodguys West Coast Nationals, a fully functional miniature blown V8 — 6.3 cubic inches, 16 horsepower, built by Ken Hurst and Dwight Giles of the Bay Area Engine Modelers — draws a crowd as dedicated as any full-size muscle car. Every system of a real supercharged engine is here, just scaled down. Watch to see it come to life.
Only about three percent of 1965 Ford Mustangs were ordered with a front bench seat, and this Texas Hill Country convertible is one of them. With a 289 two-barrel V8 and a Cruise-O-Matic automatic, it was built for easy cruising rather than stoplight battles, and its rare interior makes it more interesting than most early Mustangs with far more horsepower. Read on to find out what made buyers skip the option almost everyone else wanted.
Filmed at a car meet in Kotka, Finland, this video captures a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T and its 440-cubic-inch V8 doing nothing more than idling and revving for a crowd, yet it has racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Uploader Jamboolio lets the exhaust note do the talking, and international commenters from Germany to Australia all agree on what they are hearing. Watch to find out why this specific Charger has become a small internet sensation an ocean away from Detroit.
This 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS traveled from Georgia to Florida to an Indianapolis museum before landing on Vanguard Motor Sales’ lot with its original factory build sheet still intact. Under the hood, the numbers-matching 396 has barely turned over since a 1999 restoration. It’s the kind of paper trail that usually gets lost decades before a car like this survives to tell its own story. Watch to see what else has stayed frozen in time.
A 1971 Ford Torino sitting on Gateway Classic Cars’ lot might not wear a Cobra Jet badge, but its 302 V8 and Cruise-O-Matic transmission tell a different kind of muscle car story — one about the last year before emissions rules and insurance premiums reshaped Detroit’s mid-size performance cars for good. With only 31,641 GT-trim Torinos built for 1971, and just over 3,000 Cobra hardtops among them, even the “everyday” Torino V8s are becoming harder to find in this kind of condition.
The 1970 Chevelle LS6 made a factory-claimed 450 horsepower, with some reports suggesting the real number was closer to 500. By 1972, GM’s own base wagon was outselling every SS performance package in the lineup. Insurance rules, lower-octane fuel, and a new net-horsepower rating system all played a part. Read on to find out exactly how much power the Chevelle lost in just two model years, and why.
An Estonian builder captures the exact moment a freshly assembled, supercharged 440 big-block fires for the first time, destined for a 1973 Dodge Charger R/T. It’s the moment that either validates months of build work or reveals a costly problem, and the aggressive idle that follows makes clear which one this was. Hear what a genuinely blown Mopar big-block sounds like before it’s even been tuned.
This Tahoe Turquoise 1966 Ford Mustang convertible carries the 76B Pony interior package, a 225-horsepower 289 four-barrel, factory wire hubcaps, and a power top — nearly every option a 1966 convertible buyer could check. Ford sold over 72,000 Mustang convertibles that year, more than double its nearest rival. Read on to find out exactly what made the Pony interior worth the extra money.
1976 was the last year Pontiac dared to build a real big-block muscle car, and this Trans Am is a rare survivor of that final stand. Backed by the numbers-matching 455 V8 and a genuine four-speed manual, it’s the kind of drivetrain combination most buyers skipped in favor of the easier automatic. Add in an untouched original interior and you’ve got a driver-quality time capsule from the twilight of an era.
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.
Pontiac never built a 428-cubic-inch Firebird, which makes this 1967 convertible’s engine bay a genuine puzzle until you realize the builder stayed entirely within Pontiac’s own performance parts family. Backed by a four-speed manual and topped with Edelbrock aluminum heads, this is a big-inch build with a cleaner pedigree than most cross-brand engine swaps. Read on to find out where that 428 actually came from.