Hemmings Muscle Machines December 2021

"…the realm of the muscle car devotee has become more varied..." Someone was asking me recently about the engine in the ’69 Camaro I’ve owned since I was a teenager. My Camaro was born with a 350, but not the 350-hp version it has now — the original was a two-barrel, and that block was lost to the scrapper back in the ’80s, thanks to the previous owner. When the person inquiring heard that the original engine was gone, he expressed that it was a shame, and seemed to feel that the car’s worth was diminished by its absence. I’ll admit that I’ve long wished I’d gotten that block with the car, but really, that’s just my sentimentality. I don’t truly think a numbers-matching 350 two-barrel would move the needle much on…

Like big power? Like big, 20-inch (or even 21-inch) rear wheels doing all of the work on your 400-horsepower performance car? Need to carry more in the back of your vehicle than a Mustang will allow? Have we got news for you. For 2022, Ford is offering its Explorer ST (an SUV that’s been around since the model’s 2020 redesign) with a standard rear-wheel-drive driveline. Four-wheel-drive is available, but it’s tougher to hang the tail out around turns when all four tires are clawing for traction. And they will be clawing for traction (at least, if you disable the traction control): the Explorer ST is packing a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6, putting out 400 hp and 415 lb-ft of torque through its mandatory 10-speed automatic transmission (with paddle-shifted SelectShift capability, which can…

"As a long-time subscriber to all four (now three) Hemmings publications, I want to thank you for the many hours of enjoyable reading. Issue #218 of HMM was of major interest to me. Terry McGean’s editorial about road tripping hit the nail on the head. The two road trip articles were great. Like Al Young (“V-8 Passport: An American Abroad”), I built my ’57 Chevy to drive far and fast. I bought this car as a basket case 20 years ago, and when I did the underbody, I coated it in Rhino Lining, installed a coilover suspension, big brakes, anti-sway bars, an overdrive transmission, and… a nitrous/alcohol supercharged small-block that delivers 671 rear-wheel horsepower. I have driven this car over 85,000 miles from my southwest Florida home on nine Hot Rod Power…

POLARIZING PROJECT Tell Jeff Koch I said thanks for the heads-up warning about the sacrilege that took place before our very eyes (“The Book of Revvin’Lation,” HMM #217). While the end result is very impressive, it did not justify the “ends to the means.” Sadly, the world forever lost a beautiful Mach 1 to a tribute, restomodded, wanna-be Boss ’9. Oh, I have a friend that did the same thing on a ’70, and it is truly eye candy like this one. However, in the end it will never be a real Boss 429 (though I do like the ghosted ’69 Boss 302 C-stripe) and it will never be a Mach 1 again. All of that fantastic effort could have been done to a Dynacorn body with the exact same result…

BREATHE EASY. Paul Choukourian didn’t carve up an original 1968 Shelby G.T. 500KR to build his supercharged, Coyote-powered restomod, but he sweated the details to make sure the car was as authentic-looking as possible. Paul is the former owner of a dealer-optioned, Paxton-supercharged ’68 G.T. 350, so he understands the reverence for original Shelbys — as well as the existential crisis that comes with cars with such intrinsic value: To drive or not to drive. And when we say “drive,” we mean drive, not just the occasional run to cars-and-coffee or the Mustang meet. “I wanted a real driver,” Paul says. “A car that I could jump in and drive around all day with the air conditioning on and not worry about it like a real Shelby.” And if that vintage car could…

I bought this Mustang in my senior year of high school, but it was rough. The seats were torn, the top was torn, the body looked like it was painted with a brush and there were missing parts. Every year I would fix more and more on it, and a friend even repainted it Candy Apple Red in his garage. It was a nice driver, and even after I’d purchased other cars over the years, I couldn’t let this Mustang go. It was around 2018 that I started on the Shelby makeover. The ’68 G.T. 500KR was the car for me. Nothing looks better, so building a car with the same looks, but with modern performance, is absolutely the best of both worlds.…