Hemmings Muscle Machines December 2019

“...performance is the reason most of us were drawn to these cars in the first place...” If you were to stop by Hemmings HQ during the summer or fall, you’d be able to tour through the car museum we have as part of the facilities. That’s also where our shop is, so if you’d been by this past week, you would have seen us working on the ’69 Chevelle project we’ve been reporting on in these pages for the past year-plus. It’s been tough to find time to go downstairs and work in the shop for the past several months, despite the allure, but the first turning leaves of fall signal an urgency to finally get the car together and running so we can do some testing before another Vermont…

WITH ITS RECORD IN THE BOOKS, CHALLENGER 2 GOES UP FOR AUCTION In a few short years, Danny Thompson did what nobody else in the world has done: setting a land-speed record for a piston-powered vehicle in a mostly untested streamliner originally built decades prior. With that under his belt — and his father’s designs validated — Danny has decided to put the Challenger 2 up for auction. Danny and his father had hoped to return the car to the salt in the ’80s, but the March 1988 murder of Mickey and Trudy Thompson put a halt to those plans. Danny held on to the streamliner, and in 2011 decided that the time was right to finally attempt a wheel-driven land-speed record. Over the next several years, Danny and his…

SO QUICK IT HERTZ: HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AND HERTZ TEAM UP FOR A SUITE OF LIMITED V-8 CAMAROS When you think of renting a black-and-gold pony car from your local Hertz rental counter and hitting the road-race circuit, naturally you think of ... a Camaro? No, that doesn’t sound right. Although it might well in the future: 750 horsepower has a way of scrambling your brain and making you see things differently. To that end, Hertz and 12-time-NASCAR-champs Hendrick Motorsports have introduced a suite of custom 2020 Camaros to the Hertz rental fleet: 200 Camaro SS models, and just 24 Camaro ZL1s. All cars are signature black with golden yellow striping, special fender badges, interior stitching with driver William Byron’s signature, and a serialized plaque. The ZL1 models include a Callaway…

SPOTTED: FOUR-DOOR 4-4-2s In response to John Singleton’s letter in HMM #194 about four-door Oldsmobile 4-4-2s: Yes, they do exist. This is a fully documented example that I saw in person here in the Richmond Virginia area. John Dyke Via email SERVICE STATION MEMORIES There are many reasons why readers love this magazine, but one of mine is this: you bring back many fond memories, whether about driving cars or just being around them. Jim McGowan’s column on service stations really hit home. At the ripe age of 12, I “worked” at a small-town Pure station (one bay, two pumps) pumping gas, washing cars, and fixing bicycle flats. Sweet memories: getting fussed at by a Beetle owner because I couldn’t find the gas cap, then again for not releasing the…

“The accolades you receive for your magazine are all fully justified! Apart from the great cars, the magazine is so much about people as well, and the stories about owners and their cars are always so enjoyable. Reading the magazine is like being part of a wonderful family! I live in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, and muscle cars are quite a rarity here. Terry McGean’s April editorial about driving our cars (“Spark That Old Flame, HMM 188) really hit a home run for me. Repair skills and parts availability are a problem here, so concours cars are not a part of life. Driving our cars is! I am fortunate to have some great cars, and have attached pictures of two of them being driven. Apart from general outings, my 1969 Z/28…

HOT RODS DIDN’T USED TO HAVE back seats. Sure, there were exceptions, but the general rule from the ’30s to the ’50s was that sedans were something your parents drove — only coupes and roadsters were worthy candidates for a hopped-up teenage dream machine. If you happened to get one with a rumble seat, well, you probably tore out the seat itself and turned it into a reverse-hinged trunk. That started to change as late-model cars got more popular among the shade-tree racer set, however. The muscle car era blew apart the stereotype entirely. When supercar buyers returned from the showroom, it was almost inevitable that their 389, 396, 390, 383, etcetera, was mounted in a midsize sedan or hardtop, complete with back seat. Somebody at AMC remembered, though. While…