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Ford did not build a new engine to make the 1965 Mustang quick. It reached into a completely different car’s parts bin, pulled out an engine that had already been proving itself elsewhere for two years, and charged a serious premium for the privilege. Only a tiny fraction of buyers ever checked the box, and the horsepower figure attached to this car deserves a closer look than it usually gets.
Chevrolet let Ford sell more than a million Mustangs before it put a rival on a showroom floor, which meant the 1967 Camaro had to arrive with an answer for every buyer Ford had already taken. It did, moving nearly 221,000 cars in its debut year. But the SS badge did not mean what most people assume, and the package almost nobody ordered in 1967 is the one collectors chase hardest today. Here is how the debut lineup actually broke down.
Ask first-generation Camaro fans which model year got it right and a large share will point straight at 1969. It wore the final and most aggressive sheetmetal Chevrolet put on the original F-body, it ran the longest model year of the three, and it hid genuinely extreme engines behind dealer order codes most buyers never saw. Here is what separated an ordinary ’69 from an SS 396, a Z/28, and the COPO cars that outran all of them.
Jon Mello’s 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 isn’t just an early example of Chevrolet’s Trans-Am homologation special — it’s documented as the very first one built. Filmed at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, the Gold Z/28 wears its correct 302-cubic-inch small-block after a decade-long, period-correct restoration meant to undo years of hard use. Only around 602 Z/28s were built for 1967, and this one sits at the very start of that list. Watch to hear the story — and the engine — for yourself.
Mopar’s Crate HEMI Engine Kits let owners of any 1975-or-earlier Mopar bolt in genuine modern HEMI power — 383 horsepower from the 5.7-liter kit or 485 horsepower from the 6.4-liter version — without chasing down custom wiring or tuning. Each kit ships with an unlocked, pre-calibrated PCM that sidesteps the usual factory security headaches of a late-model engine swap. Debuted on two complete builds at the 2016 SEMA Show, the kits have owners of everything from Dusters to Aspens asking if their own project qualifies. Watch the full rundown of what’s included.
Ralph Carungi calls his 1958 Gaylord Gladiator “The Batmobile in the Tuxedo,” a line Lou Costabile first heard at an invitation-only concours limited to 90 cars, and couldn’t forget. This is believed to be the first video ever made of the car, which Ralph considers a true one-of-one. But one commenter, who worked for designer Brooks Stevens, insists a second example was built and stolen off a European dock decades ago. So which story is true?
This numbers-matching 1968 Shelby GT500KR convertible pairs its original 428 Cobra Jet V8 with a four-speed manual, original interior, and – remarkably – its original factory exhaust after more than forty years. Its own video description claims 517 convertibles were built that year, and documented Shelby production figures back that up almost exactly at 518 – though a couple of commenters, including one with a documented twin, try to argue the real number is closer to 318. Filmed at Fast Lane Classic Cars in Missouri, it’s a rare survivor wrapped in its own small mystery. Watch to see the full walkaround.
Ford’s own sales team projected 100,000 first-year Mustang sales in 1964 and watched the company blow past that in a matter of months, built on nothing more exotic than a reskinned Ford Falcon platform. That runaway success created the entire ‘pony car’ category and gave the Mustang a silhouette so recognizable it still survives even in the strangest joke mashup builds. Read on to find out why this shape refuses to disappear no matter what gets welded onto it.
The Ice Cream Cruise’s annual burnout contest never plays it safe, and this entry proves it — a truck catches fire mid-pass while the on-site fire crew scrambles to keep the show going. Between tire chunks flying into the crowd and a Dodge that can’t settle on a gear, this clip has Australian and American burnout fans arguing in the comments about whose scene is wilder. Watch to see how close things got to going seriously wrong.
This photo shows one of the rarest engine configurations in the entire first-generation Thunderbird lineup — but figuring out which of the three model years it belongs to takes more than a glance at the fins. This piece breaks down the production numbers and the supercharged engine option built for barely 1,500 cars.
Jeff Lutz has built three 1957 Chevy race cars, and this one is the culmination of everything the first two taught him plus what he learned campaigning a Pro Mod 1969 Camaro. The new car returns to steel roof and quarter panels, satisfying both class rules and the standards set on Street Outlaws. Lutz was the first Drag Week competitor to average in the six-second range. Read on for what makes the third attempt different.
A single unlabeled photo hides a specific answer: this is a 1966 Chevrolet Nova, the first year of a total redesign that gave the car its sharp-edged, semi-fastback look. Under the hood, a rare L79 350-horsepower option turned an affordable compact into a genuine NHRA threat — one built in far smaller numbers than most SS badges suggest. See what else made this year’s Nova stand apart.
This guess the year, make and model post hides its answer in the details, the car pictured is a Dodge Charger 440, one of the most feared muscle car engines of its era rated at 375 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque. The real challenge is nailing down which model year is pictured, since Dodge tweaked the Charger’s stripe and scoop details across several seasons of R/T production.