Hemmings Muscle Machines August 2017

 Here in the Northeast, the change in seasons always seems to put me in mind of swap meets. Fall brings Hershey and one of the main Carlisle events, plus one of the Englishtown swaps; the other Carlisle and E-town meets come in spring. These events were once near mythical gatherings to me and my gearhead buddies when we were teens who’d yet to venture out to one. Other guys we knew with dads or older brothers into cars had been already, and they’d come back to tell us tales of $10 Holley carbs, $20 aluminum intakes, and all manner of other wish-list items for bargain prices. The lure was powerful stuff. “ We’d walk every row, scan every pile, and rummage box after box, and sometimes a treasure or two…

CHEVROLET SS: THE LAST OF THE LINE? With government subsidies drying up and intense competition from lots of imports on one of the most open markets in the world, Australia is getting out of the car-making business. Ford closed up shop there last year, Toyota will stop in October, and GM’s Holden subsidiary will shutter its doors that same month, the last car off the line likely a Commodore V8. So, why are you reading about Toyotas and Australian government subsidies in this magazine? Well, the day we write this, reports are coming in that the final Chevrolet SS, equipped with an LS3 all-aluminum V-8 and a six-speed manual, rolled off the company’s Elizabeth, South Australia, assembly line. The related, but stripped-down Caprice PPV police vehicle has also met its…

NATIONAL CORVETTE MUSEUM RESTORES 1984 CORVETTE FOR FAMILY OF FALLEN POLICE OFFICER Burke Rhoads, an officer with the Nicholasville, Kentucky, police department, loved Corvettes, but in 2015, in the middle of the home restoration of his 1984, he died in a duty-related traffic accident. When his widow later sought advice on where to get the car painted from the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the staff took on a project that would ultimately see the Corvette restored, at no charge, for officer Rhoads’s family. Lacking a budget for such an endeavor, the museum sought donations from suppliers like PPG Automotive Refinish, Corvette Central, Auto Zone, and Midas, while a local shop, Final Finish, supplied the labor to repaint the car. Mechanical work was carried out by the museum’s…

CASLER CHEATER SLICKS California Car Cover www.calcarcover.com • 800-423-5525 $19.99-$21.99 Whether you were a drag racer or a hot rodder, any high-performance enthusiast in the 1960s knew and respected “cheater” slicks. This vintage-inspired Gildan-brand T-shirt (item 0065N) recalls the days when Los Angeles native Bill Casler established a winning reputation enjoyed by his famous Casler Racing Tires on the strip and street. This Ontario, California-based business made those slicks by shaving off the tread of bias-ply tires, then topping the carcasses with fresh rubber extrusions, and hot mold-forming the iconic flat tread and square shoulders that were so famous in the period. The Cheater Slicks shirt sports a durable, screen-printed image, and is pre-shrunk 100-percent cotton for true comfort. It’s available in sizes Medium-3XL. 1969 DODGE CHARGER American Muscle…

In the big, full-color brochure that Dodge had printed for the 1968 Dart line, the company declared, “More people come back for ‘seconds’ than any other car in its class. Does this tell you something about the Dart?” Well, we might argue it tells us something about those people, too. Take Gary O’Brien, for instance. The retired Agawam, Massachusetts, police officer first owned a 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 340 in 1988. A veteran of other Mopars, including some hot B-body examples, Gary regretted selling that Dart and set about looking for another one. His love affair with the Dart goes all the way back to his youth. “When I was a kid, like in ’68, my family owned them,” he says. “My aunt had one that she bought brand new.…

If you were of a certain age when the muscle car movement was hot and heavy, you’ll never forget your first time going for a ride. “I was in the Air Force, crewing C-124 Globemasters out of Travis AFB in California,” says Jim Zievel, now living in Glendale, Arizona. “I came home to Northbrook, Illinois, on leave in 1964, and a close friend from high school had purchased a new ’64 GTO hardtop. Some rides... you just don’t forget.” Details are scant, but we all know the feeling: that wave of euphoric revelation that washes over us when we realize that we’ve been exposed to something new, exciting, and potentially life-changing — something that instantly alters your thoughts and judgments about everything that’s come before. And that day, somewhere in…