 |
The Cougar Eliminator replaced the Cougar GT on April 1, 1969, and just 302 of the 2,250 built left the factory with a 428 Cobra Jet under the scoop. Jay Leno spends an afternoon with one of the survivors — a big-block pony car with a genuine Trans-Am pedigree and a 335-horsepower rating almost nobody believes.
Every 1970 Shelby GT350 was actually a leftover 1969 car re-tagged with a new VIN after Carroll Shelby’s Ford partnership had already ended. Only 57 of those cars were convertibles, and this bright orange survivor is one of them. Here is the strange true story behind the final Shelby Mustang model year.
This heavily customized 1970 Nova trades its factory drivetrain for a modern LS engine, carbon fiber accents, and molded bodywork throughout. The stock Nova SS it started life as could already be ordered with a 396-badged big block making up to 375 horsepower for just 475 dollars over list price. Only about 19,000 of the 274,344 Novas built in 1970 left the factory with that SS package, making 1970 the last year a Nova buyer could check the big-block box.
Only about 41 genuine 426 Hemi convertibles were ever built across the Cuda and Challenger nameplates combined, and no more than 9 had ever been seen together in one place. Then 27 of them showed up at the same 2015 show in Chicago. Here is why that gathering was essentially a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Pontiac built exactly 697 Trans Ams for the 1969 model year, and only eight of them left the factory as convertibles — making this one of the rarest body styles in muscle car history. Every surviving example reportedly came equipped with the Ram Air III engine, so there’s no such thing as a mild 1969 Trans Am convertible. Whether this particular car was truly first off the line is harder to pin down, but its place among just eight survivors isn’t in question.
A Swedish filmmaker named Albert pointed a GoPro Hero 5 at a muscle car meet in the middle of Stockholm, four thousand miles from Detroit, and turned it into something that plays more like a short film than a car show recap. The low, sweeping shots and a Cranneg remix soundtrack pulled praise from viewers across Europe and the Americas alike. Watch to see how far the American muscle car hobby actually travels.
A wrecked Yenko/SC Camaro gave up its 1,150-horsepower supercharged V8, and it landed in a third-gen Camaro that cost less than a decent set of tires. ScrapLifeLee’s salvage build has pulled 2.6 million views by asking the question auction catalogs never do: how much of a Yenko is the badge, and how much is the engine underneath it?
NASCAR’s homologation rules forced Dodge and Plymouth to build two of the wildest street cars Detroit ever sold, the winged Daytona and Superbird. This lineup puts a real Daytona next to two Superbirds, Hemi and 440 alike, side by side. Here is what actually separates Dodge’s original from Plymouth’s answer a year later.
A 1964 Pontiac LeMans got its final bodywork and a coat of Firemist Aquamarine — a color Cadillac kept to itself — inside a pole barn with no booth and no crew. Body shop veterans with 25 and 30 years in the trade turned up in the comments to say the DIY result was genuinely good enough. Here is the part of a restoration nobody films, and the one step that decides how the whole car ends up looking.
Chevrolet’s L78 396 turned an ordinary 1969 Nova into a 375-horsepower street car that ran 13.87 at 105 mph, for roughly over the price of the small-block. Only about 5,200 buyers ever ordered it, and a resurfaced Dream Car Garage segment shows exactly why the survivors are guarded so fiercely today.
Plymouth’s A51 Twister package put the Duster 340’s grille, stripes and even its hood scoops on cars powered by a 145-horsepower slant six, and Dodge did the same thing with the Demon Sizzler. Half a century later, buyers are still confusing them with the genuine article. Here is exactly what separated the look from the muscle.
A professional car buyer put the 2026 Mustang GT and the 2026 Charger SIXPACK Scat Pack back to back and called the result “Not Even Close.” The Dodge has more power, all-wheel drive, and a legendary badge on the fender — and it still lost on the criteria buyers actually care about. That badge turns out to be part of the problem.
Plymouth built the 1971 ‘Cuda with a look it never repeated: quad headlights, fender gills, and billboard graphics found on no other year. UFC president Dana White picked exactly this rare-bodied ‘Cuda for a full restomod, swapping in a 425-horsepower 440 and a Curry 9-inch rear end. The result became one of MuscleCar’s most-watched builds ever.
A George Barris-customized 1968 Dodge Dart GTS convertible spent years chasing criminals on TV’s Mannix before disappearing into obscurity and eventually turning up dilapidated in a field. Automotive reporter Dave Kunz tracked it down, confirmed it by its hidden Barris touches, and restored it to its on-screen British Racing Green with the original 340 V8 still under the hood. Jay Leno takes it for a drive to find out why this compact GTS could out-hustle flashier detective-show muscle cars of its era.