Hemmings Muscle Machines May 2017

“The tool lust has been with me for a long time—even before I could drive”. I snuck off to the basement again last night. It’s been a favored refuge of mine lately, but not as a means of escaping the happenings upstairs. The basement is where the tools are. They’ve been down there for a long time, but for the past several years, it’s all been largely neglected, the aftereffects of making a couple moves and having a couple kids. Only having the time to get everything from one place to another has left the onetime organization of my evolving tool set a shambles, drawers strewn randomly with items that may or may not belong there, and many more bits and pieces in boxes and bags in the garage. It’s…

$40 GRAND AND 485 HORSEPOWER: THE BEST PERFORMANCE-SEDAN BUY IN AMERICA? Last year, the cost of an average new car in America was just north of $34,000. You can get relatively well-equipped Camrys, Accords, Malibus, Impalas and Fusions for that kind of money — some even approach $40 grand once they’re leathered up, Bluetoothed, Ziebarted and Scotchgarded to the service department’s liking. But they won’t pay for someone to wake you up when the payment book is empty. And so, to the Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack. As you see it here, with TorRed paint and 20-inch wheels and cloth bucket seats and satellite radio and 485 naturally-aspirated horses from 6.4 liters of Hemi under that NACA-ducted hood, it stickers for $39,990. Forty grand out the door. For a near-two-and-a-half-ton…

OREGON’S $1,000 IMPACT TAX ON VEHICLES THAT ARE 20+ SPIKED AFTER INTRODUCTION Days after a bill that would levy a $1,000 impact tax on any vehicle older than 20 years was introduced, Oregon state legislators said they would not allow it to become law. Presented by the state’s House Committee on Revenue on February 9, H.B. 2877 rationalized that older vehicles cause disproportionate wear on Oregon roads, and would have imposed the tax every five years on vehicles registered in the state that are two decades old or older. The only exemption the bill made was for those registered as antiques. Revenue from the impact tax would have gone toward repairing and maintaining the state’s roads and bridges, reportedly a priority for the Oregon legislature. Under Oregon law, only vehicles…

HISTORIC NASCAR DIE-CAST REPLICAS University of Racing • www.hmn.com/racing • 800-227-4373, ext 79550 $84.99-$124.99 We’ve been familiar with the die-cast models of NASCAR stock cars created by Charlotte-based University of Racing for quite a while. You may have seen a few of them reviewed in this space. These are 1/24th-scale replicas of specific cars from NASCAR’s past, with gorgeous, fully accurate livery and an impressive attention to detail in the design and assembly process. If you’re into NASCAR’s yesterdays, these models have a place on your shelf. Now, for the first time, Hemmings has reached a cooperative agreement with University of Racing, and its entire line will be available for purchase through our catalog and online. University of Racing chooses landmark race cars and releases them in a variety…

Raise your hand if you’re still driving the car you took your driver’s license test with. We’d imagine were we in the same room with all of you that we’d be lucky to see just a few hands shoot up. But if Zach Merrill were in that hypothetical room, you can bet he would have his hand held high. The owner of this gorgeously clean, and oh-so-stock-looking 1965 Mustang fastback, Zach has been driving it since even before he got his license in 1972, clandestinely doing laps in his father’s 25-acre salvage yard. But his desire for this Ivy Green classic goes back to 1965, when his sister ordered it new. Zach’s father had always been in the motor vehicle business one way or another in the family’s home state…

It’s sentimental for sure, but I always thought it was a pretty car. I grew up staring at first-generation Mustangs, and I was convinced that there was a certain purity and classiness to the first ones, and I thought that the fastback was a pretty car. I thought my sister did a good job of choosing colors and options and such. A lot of cars came and went, but the Mustang was always sort of sacred. I just left it. It was never for sale. It was never molested. I just thought it couldn’t be any better than that one car for me. It’s the best combination of the car I loved and the history with the car. You can’t duplicate that. I am never going to get rid of…