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Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman set out to answer one of engineering’s stranger questions: can square wheels actually deliver a smooth ride? The catch is what they had to build to make it work — a custom road shaped by a very specific mathematical curve. The result reveals a surprising truth about the relationship between wheels, roads, and ride quality that applies to more than just square tires. Watch to see the geometry in action.
An ’08 Smart Car running a boosted Toyota Paseo engine lined up against a Shelby Mustang on a Colorado test-and-tune night, and the first run nearly ended in a wheelstand before the car even left the line. By the second pass, the tiny hatchback had cut its time to 12.53 at 107 mph and put the Mustang on the trailer. Drag racing regulars in the comments call it one of the purest sleeper builds they have seen. Watch to see exactly how a car this small pulls it off.
This 1970 Pontiac Firebird now runs a 632-cubic-inch big block making 853 horsepower on pump gas, built by Bulletmotorsports with no expense spared and featured on a magazine cover. But according to commenters with apparent firsthand knowledge, the car originally ran a smaller Butler Pontiac engine already making 850 horsepower and running 9-second quarter miles, sparking a real debate about whether the swap was an upgrade or a mistake. Watch to see the build and decide for yourself.
The 1965 Buick Riviera Gran Sport was the first year Buick attached that badge to its personal luxury coupe, and the package hid a genuinely serious performance setup under all that plush trim. Dual four-barrel carburetors, a stiffened chassis and a limited-slip rear turned a two-and-a-half-ton cruiser into something that could embarrass much lighter cars. This particular build adds a custom interior, aftermarket wheels and a lowered stance without losing what made the car special. Read on for what the Gran Sport package really included.
A 1968 Mustang fastback is already one of the most recognizable shapes Ford ever built, so what does a pro-touring build actually change? Almost everything you cannot see. Modern stroker small-blocks, independent front suspension, four-piston brakes, and a chassis stiff enough to use real tires turn a fifty-year-old body into something that runs with contemporary performance cars. Here is what separates a serious build from a repaint with wheels.
This 1929 Ford Model A pickup keeps its century-old shape but swaps everything underneath for modern Ford hardware: a 351 Windsor crate V8, a C6 automatic, and a Ford nine-bolt rear end, all tied together with four-wheel disc brakes. The all-Ford drivetrain is a deliberate choice in a restomod world where builders often mix brands freely. 1929 also marked the year Ford introduced the closed-cab pickup, quickly overtaking the open roadster body this truck wears. The result is a genuinely drivable classic built around one brand’s parts bin.
Enzo Ferrari reportedly called it the most beautiful car ever made, and the Museum of Modern Art keeps one in its permanent collection, which is not something most sports cars can claim. The Series I E-Type ran from 1961 to 1968 on a 3.8 liter twin-cam six with triple SU carburetors, and the earliest cars have identifying details worth serious money. Read on for what separates a flat-floor car from everything that followed.
This 1969 Ford Ranchero GT hides a 335-horsepower 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air V8 under its Brittany Blue hood, wrapped in white GT stripes and chrome wheels courtesy of The Brothers Collection. One former owner of a nearly identical example says he used to beat 454-powered Chevelles with it. Watch to see what made this coupe utility a genuine muscle car in disguise.
The Vanderhall Venice is neither motorcycle nor car, and that ambiguity is exactly the point. Built around a turbocharged four-cylinder and a lightweight composite body on an aluminum chassis, this American-made three-wheeler trades a fourth wheel for a driving experience most sports cars cannot match. Read on to find out what actually separates it from the trikes of decades past.
Dodge and the Fast and Furious franchise have been tied together since Dominic Toretto first tore the wheels off his father’s 1970 Charger. By The Fate of the Furious, that relationship had grown into a full co-branded campaign called Muscle Heaven, built around a fleet of silver-and-black Challenger SRT Demons. The timing was not accidental. Read on to find out what Dodge was actually proving with it.
American Motors had no performance reputation, no factory racing program, and no money. So in 1969 it handed a compact Rambler to George Hurst, dropped in a 390, and sold the result for under three thousand dollars. Only 1,512 were built, every single one with a four-speed, and the thing ran quarter miles that embarrassed cars costing twice as much. The SC/Rambler remains the strangest bargain Detroit ever produced.
Buick spent most of the 1980s making comfortable sedans and then, in its final year, built a turbocharged six-cylinder that ran a 13.2-second quarter and beat V8s that cost far more. The 1987 Grand National and the 547 GNX units that followed it were the last of the line, assembled in part by an outside performance house, and factory rated at a number almost nobody believed. Read on for what separated a WE4 from a GNX, and what a $35 option got you.
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.
The 1969 Camaro SS’s official order sheet topped out at a 375-horsepower 396, but a separate, little-known path let buyers get a factory 427 anyway — through Chevrolet’s COPO ordering system or through tuner dealers like Yenko and Baldwin-Motion. The rarest of those, the aluminum-block COPO ZL1, was built in tiny numbers and now ranks among the most valuable Camaros in existence. It’s proof the fastest ’69 SS wasn’t always the one on the brochure.
Ben calls his 1976 Ford Cortina “overkill,” and it’s hard to argue: a twin-turbo, supercharged Ford Cleveland V8 stuffed into a compact Australian sedan, built specifically to chase his own personal best burnout time at Summernats. A mechanical issue cut the record attempt short, but not before the car vaporized its tires and earned genuine respect from a crowd that expected a lot less from a Cortina.