Hemmings Muscle Machines October 2017

“ Mike may have appreciated the signs of the gearhead gene flickering in us, because he was surprisingly willing to help out a couple of kids ”. Someone asked me, again, how I got into cars, and again, I didn’t have an answer. There were no cool cars in our driveway when I was growing up, no drag-racing uncles or cousins, no speed shop at the end of the block. Nothing to have set that course that I can point to. But I was hooked, nonetheless, and feeding that need was a challenge back when I was a kid of around seven or eight. It was the mid-’70s, and even at my young age I could sense that I’d just missed a time when gearhead manna had been everywhere. At…

FORCE 1: VIPER LIVES ON (BRIEFLY) IN VLF’S SNAZZY CARBON-FIBER DUDS The Dodge Viper’s long goodbye played out on August 31, its quarter-century of life snuffed out by new rollover regulations that kicked in on September 1. That said, the Viper’s bones will live on for a time — even if only for the privileged few. The VLF Force 1 is now delivering the first of its 50-car run to well-heeled customers. What’s the Force 1? Launched at the Detroit Auto Show in 2016, the Force 1 features the Viper’s 8.4-liter V-10 engine, rated at 745 horsepower — a cool 100 hp more than a stock Viper — and 638 lb-ft of torque. (The chassis is all Viper as well.) Force 1’s bespoke carbon-fiber body allows the sporty two-seater to…

HEMMINGS-FEATURED CAMARO Z28 EXCEEDS HIGHEST POINT TOTAL AT 2017 CAMARO NATS Frank Arone’s 1970 1/2 Z28 was featured as a Restoration Profile in the August 2017 issue of HMM, and the Camaro also earned Best of Show honors at Musclepalooza XXV last May. Starting with a 36,500-mile, Forest Green, original-paint example, Arone restored the Chevrolet to a concours standard with his crew at Arone Restorations in Homer City, Pennsylvania, carefully documenting all markings and other aspects of the car’s assembly for careful replication during the restoration. In its first Camaro Nationals appearance in 2016, the F-body scored 4,988 of 5,000 points, making it the highest-scoring second-gen Camaro to go through the program at the time. Impressive, but not good enough for Arone, who vowed to make improvements, then return to…

CHEVROLET MUSCLE CARS Mike Mueller • www.quartoknows.com • 800-458-0454 • $40 Few automotive nameplates are as iconic and coveted as Chevrolet’s “Super Sport,” and Chevrolet’s inexorable link with performance dates to the birth of the small-block V-8 in the mid-Fifties. Noted automotive photojournalist Mike Mueller has created an exciting tribute to Chevy’s contributions to the muscle car era, starting with the 348- and 409-inch V-8-powered full-sized models, and continuing through the compact Nova, mid-sized Chevelle, El Camino, and Monte Carlo, and wrapping up with the Camaro and Z28. This 176-page hardcover, officially The Complete Book of Classic Chevrolet Muscle Cars, 1955-1974, is generously illustrated with well over 200 color and black-and-white images, these representing a nice blend of GM Media Archives photos, and examples from the author’s own portfolio.…

Though we are in the midst of a second golden age of muscle cars, there are those who prefer to maximize the factory offerings from the ’60s and ’70s. With a strict rulebook on what can be modified, and the full appearance of a stock muscle car, these racers approach or surpass the performance of the most celebrated current factory offerings. Yank the front wheels? We’ve got that. Nine-second time slips? We’ve got that too. Hit 140 mph in the quarter mile? Come on. Oh, and we are doing it on bias-ply tires. The 2016 F.A.S.T. season was a huge success, wrapping up with Dave Dudek’s Hemi Road Runner running 9.90 at 140.31 mph, and Scott Tiemann’s Ram Air II Firebird running a 9.99 at 136.80 at the famed Maryland…

“Cyclone is strictly for fun,” ran the 1969 brochure, “365 days a year.” That’s still true almost a half century later, though modern drivers are a lot less likely to go out in “sun, snow, wind, and rain” as suggested by Mercury. But while the car on these pages may strictly be a fair-weather driver these days, it does showcase the variety of seasons for which the Cyclone was intended when new. What a long way from its roots the Mercury Cyclone GT had come in just nine years. The Comet compact was originally envisioned as an Edsel companion, but was orphaned at the outset in 1960. In its initial form, Comet was a stretched, duded-up Ford Falcon with a 144-cu.in. six-cylinder. For 1962, Comet became the Mercury Comet, and…