Muscle cars and trucks. View the entire archive.
There is an interesting species of near muscle car that came into being and briefly existed for a handful of years, beginning in the early 1970s – just as the high tide of the real muscle car was receding. These were cars that did not come with high-powered V-8s from the factory. But which...
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People who argue that it wasn’t GM – well, Pontiac – that created the first muscle car (the 1964 GTO) arguably have history on their side. Because there were muscular cars well before 1964 – including Rocket 88 Oldsmobiles and the letter series Chryslers of the mid-late 1950s. And one thing’s for sure: Chrysler...
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Say Pantera – and many people think ’70s. Maybe ’80s. Not 1993. But that was in fact the final year you could buy a brand-new Pantera (the very limited-run Pantera SI; of which only about 40 examples ever saw the light of day). The car conceived by Argentinian race car driver turned exotic car...
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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 unique twist. Instead of me-tooing the Big Three’s muscle cars, it went with the personal luxury coupe concept – anticipating cars like...
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A new V-6 Mustang or Camaro gives you about 100 more hp than the V-8 in my Trans-Am put out when it left the Norwood, Ohio line back in the spring of ’76. Either of these new cars could walk away from my old car in a heads-up drag race. The V-6 Mustang, especially....
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Time passes, things change. Have you noticed that while most new cars are much harder to get into without a key, once you’re in – the glovebox is easy to access? Because there’s no lock for that. Just pop the catch. Locked gloveboxes seem to have disappeared about the same time that having two...
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Since it’s almost Halloween, it seemed like a good time to talk about something a lot of people find very scary – working on the Rochester Quadrajet. This GM four barrel carburetor was used on literally millions of vehicles built from the late 1960s (1967 was the first year in production) all the way...
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Muscle cars – the original-era muscle cars from the ’60s and ’70s – don’t seem to be as popular now as they were when I was in high school and college back in the ’80s. Sure, they’re still highly-desirable collectibles. But they’re mostly desired and collected by middle-aged and older guys. I have a...
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The other day, someone reminded me about T-tops. If you’re younger than 30 or so, you probably don’t remember T-tops. But if you’re older, no doubt you do. For about 10 years – beginning in the mid-’70s and through the mid’-80s – T-tops (or T-roofs) were very popular. Camaros and Firebirds, Mustang IIs and...
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Antique cars are special cars – and need special insurance coverage. If you don’t take the time to get a policy issued by a company that deals specifically with insuring antique and collectible cars, you’ll probably pay more – and get less coverage. Here’s why: If you buy a conventional insurance policy for an...
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