Hemmings Muscle Machines November 2019

“The online productivity gurus tell me I need to program some sort of elaborate matrix of to-do lists into my smart phone...” I started watching some videos online the other night about increasing personal productivity. I’m not sure why they started coming up in my feed, in between the muscle car engine swap sagas and road trip failure journals I tend to get sucked into watching when I should be sleeping. Maybe somebody’s trying to tell me something. Most of us could use a little improvement in productivity in our lives, and naturally I couldn’t help trying to apply some of the tips and tricks to my “car time.” As I’ve lamented too often in this column, for me, getting into the garage to work on and/or drive the old…

K&K CHARGER DAYTONA TAKES AUTOMOTIVE HERITAGE AWARD How fast could a Dodge Charger Daytona go without interference from NASCAR? One championship-winning team set out to discover its top speed nearly 50 years ago and accumulated dozens of speed records for its effort. Now, the K&K Insurance 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona has racked up one more honor, the Historic Vehicle Association’s National Automotive Heritage Award. Nord Krauskopf’s K&K Insurance team won the overall NASCAR championship in 1970 with 11 outright wins, 13 poles, and 38 top-10 finishes. Bobby Isaac drove Krauskopf’s Harry Hyde-prepared Daytona to that championship and won the National Motorsport Press Association’s Driver of the Year award in doing so. In the process, Isaac drove the Daytona to a record qualifying speed — 199.658 mph at Talladega — and,…

UNBRIDLED: 2020 SHELBY GT350R MORE AGILE FOR DRESSAGE EVENTS Performance fans always dreaming of a car with street sense may well have found it in the charismatic 2020 Shelby GT350R: a slew of affirmed chassis improvements make the Mustang more enchanting than ever. A number of elements have been cribbed from the upcoming GT500. These include new front-end geometry with a redesigned high-trail steering knuckle, a new steering rack, and recalibrated electric power steering control, decidedly improved to better assault the street. Exhaust resonators also have been removed for weight savings, so your GT350 will no longer be all that quiet. The GT350R can also be dressed in new colors Grabber Lime, Twister Orange, Iconic Silver, or Red Hot Metallic. $59,995 TO START, IF YOU WANT A NO-OPTION BASE 2020…

GASSER FLASHBACKS When I got back in town recently and saw April’s cover, there was my ’64 Nova street/ strip Gasser, but with graphics! Mine is a copy of a Nova from the late ’60s, when straight axles were on everything in the Midwest. Love the new magazine format! Gary Wozniak Braselton, Georgia BARN FIND REJECT When I saw the article about the ’53 Corvette cutaway (Muscleaneous, HMM #192), a flood of memories came pouring out. In 1971, I was a sophomore in high school, had just gotten my driver’s license, and had saved up $1,200 for a car. I wanted something cool, like a Camaro maybe. But a buddy of mine told me about a Corvette sitting in a barn that I could buy for $1,200. We drove from…

“I’m a subscriber since 2005, and I thoroughly enjoy the work you and your staff put forth each month. However, in all the years, I can’t remember an article about a 1962 Chevy Bel Air “Bubbletop” 409. My 409 draws a crowd at every car show I attend, and people ask about its history. “My-409” (that’s the license plate) spent over a decade racing at Epping Dragway in New Hampshire and Lebanon Valley Dragway in New York as a class winner. Year after year, I would ask the owner if the car was for sale and the answer always was “NO.” Over the years, we became friends and my offer was more enjoyment than serious until one day, in August of 2005, when he called me from the track and…

EVERY CAR HAS A STORY, IT’S TRUE.  Sadly, some of those stories are lost more or less forever, once the car in question finds a new owner. Not only does a full provenance add to the economic value of an old car, but it greatly increases the historical value. Even better is when a known history is attached to one of the most coveted models of its era. While it would be great to have the complete story on even the most modest 318-powered Satellite, something like Plymouth’s legendary budget-brawler Road Runner muscle car typically makes for even more compelling reading. Add in one of the vaunted 426-cu.in. Street Hemi engines and you have the kind of story everyone is eager to hear. Eric Clark, of Hillsdale, New York, has…