Hemmings Muscle Machines April 2017

“ Not only did this whole situation likely make for today’s fantasy street scenes, but it put late-model muscle cars well within reach of the average guy ”. One of the things I’ve long wished I could’ve been around for during the original muscle era was a time when these cars weren’t quite so “special.” Yes, I know—they were special from the day they rolled off the line: cooler, faster, better looking than the run-of-the-mill coupes and sedans, and so on and so forth. I’m talking about when they weren’t a bit too precious, as they tend to be today. From what I’ve read and heard from those who were there, once the era really got rolling, probably around ’67 or so, there were late-model performance cars everywhere. While rows…

DEMON: WHEN A HELLCAT JUST ISN’T ENOUGH About the time you read this, Dodge will have eclipsed its Hellcat Challenger with something new: Demon. Yes, the name has been seen before (if not for four and a half decades), but put all memory of a spunky A-body Mopar fastback out of your mind, and prepare for something that will be looking to rip your face off. The Demon (known under the codename ADR: American Drag Racer) will be a standard-issue Challenger with a few changes, the largest of which is hidden from view: a secondary A/C cooler. In the 8.4-inch U-Connect in-dash screen, there will be a button for Drag Mode. This shuts down the main air conditioning compressor, opens a solenoid, and runs A/C refrigerant through a secondary cooler…

THE PETERSEN CELEBRATES GURNEY’S EAGLES Dan Gurney’s All American Racers has a more than 50-year track record of taking on the world and winning, and in recognition of this, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles will be displaying 13 of the iconic racers in The Eagles Have Landed: Dan Gurney’s All American Racers, an exhibit that runs through January 17, 2018. Among the cars displayed will be the pair of Eagle Indy cars that saw Bobby Unser and Dan Gurney finish one-two in the 1968 Indianapolis 500, a 1970 Plymouth AAR ’Cuda Trans-Am car, the “McLeagle” Can-Am car campaigned by Gurney during the 1968 season, and the number 99 AAR Eagle Mk III GTP car, which won 8 of 11 IMSA GT Championship races during the 1993 season. One…

TRANS-AM ERA—THE GOLDEN YEARS IN PHOTOGRAPHS: 1966-1972 Daniel Lipetz • David Bull Publishing www.bullpublishing.com • 800-831-1758 • $69.95 It’s a safe bet the SCCA’s Trans-American series was largely responsible for distracting legions of muscle-car fans from their laser focus on quarter-mile competition long enough to take a look at road racing. And much has been written about the Trans-Am series of the period from its start in 1966 until the ’72 season, but regardless of what you’ve read and viewed on the subject, this recently released book is worth a look. Trans-Am Era—The Golden Years in Photographs: 1966-1972 is a big, hardcover volume of over 200 pages that could give the impression of being yet another rehash of the same stories and images many of us have seen repeatedly,…

Like thousands of other service- men of his time, young Harry Gutowski Jr. returned home from military service in 1969 and hustled down to the nearest dealership to buy a new set of wheels. Harry was a Mopar man, and nothing exemplified freedom at the time quite like a muscle car, so he didn’t hold back checking off the options while sitting at Grand Haven Chrysler-Plymouth, in western Michigan. He started with a new-for-1970 ’Cuda in Rallye Red, and had the factory shove the 440 Six-Barrel engine into it, along with the Pistol Grip-shifted four-speed transmission, console, Rallye instrumentation, Track Pack with a 3.54 axle ratio, body-color Elastomeric bumpers, fresh-air “Shaker” hood, hood pins and more. With 1,784 built—1,755 coupes and 29 convertibles—the 1970 ’Cuda was by far the highest-production…

SPECIFICATIONS PRICE Base price . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,164 Price as profiled . . . . . . . . $4,450 (approx.) Features and options on car profiled (with option codes): Four-speed manual transmission (D21), 440-6 engine (E87), center console (C16), power brakes (B51), Rallye instrument cluster (A62), Track Pack with 3.54 ratio (A33), elastomeric color-coded bumpers (A22), black vinyl roof (V1X), belt moldings (M31), wide sill moldings (M25), roof drip moldings (M21), hood tie-down pins (J45), dual racing mirrors (G36), bucket seats (C55), fresh-air hood (N96), chrome exhaust tips (N42), dual exhaust (N41), decklid moldings (M88) and AM radio (R11) ENGINE Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .…