Hemmings Muscle Machines

winter epiphany

"…finally gaining a heated space to work can be like a sort of epiphany." As I write this, we’re just entering that point of winter that marks the beginning of what I refer to as “The Long Slog.” This isn’t actually the start of winter itself — that began a while ago here in Vermont, where it has already snowed a couple times. But those were easy — fun, even. They’re an element of that part of December that always feels like a pleasant, seasonal transition to the frosty wonderland of a Northeastern winter. The days leading up to the holidays are tinged with merriment and adventures in the first snowfall. Bundling up for brisk weather and all that is invigorating stuff. And then the hangover of New Year’s Day sets in, even…

muscleaneous

SUPPORT AMYLOIDOSIS RESEARCH AND YOU MIGHT WIN A 60TH ANNIVERSARY CUNNINGHAM CORVETTE Chip Miller was best known as an authority on all things Corvette and the cofounder of Carlisle Events. Complications from an obscure illness, Amyloidosis, cut Miller’s life short in 2004, and the Chip Miller Amyloidosis Foundation was founded to raise awareness of the disease. Given Miller’s lifelong passion for the Corvette, it’s only fitting that a 60th Anniversary Cunningham C8 Corvette will be offered in a sweepstakes to raise money for the organization. Briggs Cunningham failed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a car of his own manufacture, but a Corvette delivered a class win for his team (and an eighth-place overall finish) in the 1960 race. Driven by John Cooper Fitch and Bob Grossman, the white-with-blue-stripe…

production line

WIDEBODY TRICKLEDOWN CHALLENGER WIDEBODY KIT NOW AVAILABLE ON R/T SCAT PACK SHAKER AND T/A 392 MODELS Mopar’s aggressive-looking Widebody fender flares continue to trickle down the Challenger lineup for 2021, as both the Challenger R/T Scat Pack Shaker and T/A 392 are now available with the Widebody package. The Widebody setup allows 305-width tires to improve both cornering and traction. What’s more, Dodge is also bringing back Gold Rush, the gold-toned heritage hue first introduced on the Challenger 50th Anniversary Limited Edition; Gold Rush is available only on Challenger T/A, T/A 392, SRT Hellcat, and SRT Hellcat Redeye models, with SRT models requiring the Satin Black hand-painted hood, roof, and decklid. COME AND GET ME, COPPER HOT CAMAROS CANNOT BE SOLD IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA OR WASHINGTON FOR THE 2021 MODEL YEAR…

letter of the month: personalized chevelle project

"I’ve been a subscriber to HMM since I first discovered the publication in 2004. My love of muscle cars started when I was very young. I always wanted a Mach 1 Mustang, since Speed Racer, with his Mach 5, was my idol. But when I turned 16 in 1983, Mustangs were either rust buckets or overpriced. So, Dad found me a 1971 Chevelle coupe with a 307, TH350 auto, and manual brakes. I put 14-inch Cragars and air shocks on it and drove everywhere. When I went off to college in 1987, it was parked in my grandmom’s garage. After college, I started buying “a part a month” to restore it someday. In 1997, I came across this 1972 Malibu convertible with a 350 and TH350 auto. I sold the ’71…

backfire

RIV REDISCOVERED I just received my January 2021 issue and read about Andy Starr and his 1965 Buick Riviera GS. My father worked at Lammert’s Buick Cadillac for 25 years. On Tuesday nights you could bring your own car in to work on, which was quite a treat because you could use a shop lift to get under it. One day, I was walking around the body shop and saw a Riviera being repaired. As soon as I saw the pictures of the car and the color in this magazine, I immediately recognized it as the same car that was sitting in that body shop so many years ago. I always loved looking at the engine with its two four-barrel carbs. My father always said that you could never pass a…

stump puller

WELCOMETOOLDSMOBILE,CIRCA1972, when the new colonnade A-body was scheduled to arrive, but delays kept it at bay for a dozen months or so. In turn, the division’s stylists were in a mild quandary, forced into applying modest updates to help make a long-in-the-tooth, five-year-old body look kind of new. If that weren’t enough, the titanic market shift away from Detroit’s supercars relegated the once-venerable 442 back to option package status. In this case, it was W-29. At its core, the W-29 was a handling and appearance package that could have been added to a Cutlass Hardtop, Cutlass S Sports Coupe or hardtop, or a Cutlass Supreme convertible. It also meant that the 455 big-block wasn’t mandated; your 442 could have been powered by a two- or four-barrel 350 with single or dual…