1983-1988 Monte Carlo SS
If you were a kid in high school (or college) during the mid-late 1980s - and into fast cars - you probably have a place in your heart for the last...
Worst Things About Old Cars
There’s a new reason for buying an old car. It’s not nostalgia, it’s not a love for classic lines - though those still come along for the ride. It’s a desire...
Doomed: Chevy SSR, 2003-2006
When muscle cars were legislated off the roads, muscle trucks became a kind of end-run alternative. A way to offer the same basic gear in a form that did not have...
The Cost of a Time Machine
The good news first.
You can legally buy a brand-new car without a single air bag or any of the saaaaaaaaafety equipment mandated by the government since the late 1960s.
No back-up camera,...
Retro Review: AMC Marlin Fastback Coupe, 1965–1967
Pontiac's GTO, which appeared in 1964, had every other American automaker rushing to cash in on the emerging youth market for big-biceped intermediate muscle coupes— including AMC.
AMC, however, decided on a...
A Muscular Battery For Your Muscle Car
There are two battery-related challenges to owning an old muscle car.
First, the old beasts can be hard to start - especially if the engine is a big V-8 with high...
How Uncle Killed Pontiac
The French philosopher-economist Frederic Bastiat wrote about the unseen repercussions of government interfering with the market's natural progressions. In other words, what might have been. Perhaps the saddest four words in...
Stuff That’s Gone Away
I guess everyone gets to that point in life where they start to say, "I remember when... . " Here's some from me:
* Economy cars were rear-wheel-drive -
Today, only a handful...
GM’s Cobblepot: The 1971-1977 Chevy Vega
In the popular TV series, Gotham (it's a prequel to the Batman story) there's an episode called "Everyone Has His Cobblepot" - a reference to something embarrassing in one's past.
The Chevy...
In the rearview mirror: 1980-’81 Turbo Trans Am
Let's dial back the clock a quarter century and return to the wee hours of the Reagan Era, when Pontiac made a desperate, last-ditch effort to keep the Trans-Am from becoming...