Hemmings Muscle Machines February 2019

ALBUQUERQUE LOWRIDERS CONVINCE CITY TO SCRAP ITS ANTI-CRUISING ORDINANCE Where Route 66 passes through downtown Albuquerque, the neon signs create almost the perfect glow for a windows-down cruise, one now enjoyed by drivers of more classics, hot rods, and lowriders than any time in recent memory thanks to the repeal of the city’s anti-cruising ordinance. Over the last 12 years, such a turnout would have been nearly impossible. Under the city’s Cruising on Public Streets Ordinance, enacted in May 2005 after reports of street racing, fights, and clogged streets, the Albuquerque Police Department set up checkpoints to ensure that cars didn’t repeatedly pass through the city’s downtown area in a given amount of time. Then, starting last year as a response to reports of engine revving, burnouts, and stunt shows…

Back in the October 2018 issue, we launched a “refresh” of HMM that included both graphic elements and editorial components. This was a big deal for us, the culmination of many months of effort from the design and editorial teams, with input from other key personnel here at Hemmings, all to craft something that was a bit bolder and more contemporary while at the same time, true to its roots. Naturally, after refining the new design, we wanted to launch the updated version of HMM aggressively, and chose a psychedelic-schemed drag-launching Duster with period race history for the debut. We followed that up with a “Day Two” ’68 Camaro sporting Motion Performance cues. Then came our December issue, with a special section devoted to the SEMA convention in Las Vegas,…

PLASTIC-SURGERY DISASTERS: EMERGENCY RHINOPLASTY FOR CAMARO SS IN 2020? Last spring, photos of the 2019 Camaro SS facelift turned up in our inboxes, and the collective enthusiasts of America scratched their heads wondering what Chevy had done to the face of the sixth-generation pony car. (Even the press photos, featuring a ’19 SS in dark colors with moody lighting as seen here, seem to acknowledge that there’s something amiss.) And sales have tanked: down 28 percent this year, with Camaro trailing Ford Mustang and even Dodge Challenger in the sales race. Part of that sales dip may be down to GM failing to push lower-level Camaro models, and concentrating on burnishing the nameplate’s high-performance image. (Cool for us gearheads, but less so for those who may cross-shop a four-cylinder Camaro…

WHAT GIVES? My sweet wife of 48 years went out to pick up the mail, and when she returned to the house, she handed me a magazine and said, “Your copy of Hot Rod magazine came today.” What? I don’t have a Hot Rod subscription. What was she talking about? Well, surprise! There on the cover of the December issue of my oh-so cherished HMM was some form of a highly modified gen-one Camaro, that while an eye-catcher, certainly looked a lot different than the usual magazine covers that I’ve been used to since day one with HMM. I understand now why my wife thought that it was a Hot Rod and not the usual magazine, judging by the cover. So, what gives? In my humble opinion, this is the…

“Southern California in the late ’60s was a muscle car mecca. My friends were all buying their first vehicles, mostly Chevelles, Camaros, GTOs, a few Mustangs, and the like. I was heavily Mopar, as there were two older guys a half-block away who both had Plymouth Belvederes. As I remember, one was a ’65 Hemi and the other a ’66 Hemi, and these guys lived across the street from one another. These cars set my compass. So when it was me buying my first car, I was going to be different, and Plymouth was my brand. So there I was in the fall of 1967 and Plymouth introduces the Road Runner. I was not intending to buy a new car, but there were no lightly used Road Runners available. With…

FORD’STOTALPERFORMANCEINITIATIVE in the 1960s meant that not only did Ford compete at the top level in nearly every motorsport discipline the world over, it also did the same in the showroom. From the GT40 to Mustang GT to Falcon Sprint to the 427 Galaxie, Ford had lots of go-fast options for fans of the Blue Oval. By 1966, Ford finally jumped on the muscle car bandwagon with the Fairlane GT. In the past (HMM #60, September 2008, 1966-’67 Ford Fairlane GT/GTA Buyer’s Guide), we’ve compared the Fairlane GT and GT/A models to the contemporary Chevelle 396, the Chevrolet counterpart that combined big cubes and high compression with a relatively lightweight midsize chassis. In price, power, and displacement, it matched up smartly with the Chevelle, which might have been a skosh…