Hemmings Muscle Machines January 2020

“I felt like I’d been denied the triumph of a full-bodied roar out of the headers...” We’ve been bringing you coverage of our ’69 Chevelle project for some time now, with reports on the steps involved in upgrading from its stock 396/TH400 to a new 427/4L85E combination. Though we haven’t written about it yet (spoiler alert), we did recently fire the new engine for the first time. We’ve been recording the entire project for an upcoming video series, but for the big first start, I was persuaded to do a live video on Facebook — it’s up there if you’d like to take a look. Second spoiler alert: It didn’t spring to life quite like I’d hoped. That’s pretty normal for engine projects like ours — details are revealed with…

APEX: THE SECRET RACE ACROSS AMERICA DOCUMENTARY Perhaps most famous as the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash and the Cannonball Run movie inspired by the real thing, the New York to Los Angeles trek essentially went underground after the 1983 U.S. Express, and that year’s record held up for 23 years. Apex: The Secret Race Across America is the definitive history of coast-to-coast racing, including Alex Roy’s 2006 record-breaking run. Oh, and did we mention it’s narrated by Ice T? The full documentary, which first aired on NBC Sports, is available on iTunes. — Mike Austin TOM JOBE, LAST OF THE SURFERS DRAG TEAM, DIES If you’re not a hardcore drag racing fan, you may not have heard of Tom Jobe, the last of the Surfers drag team. You…

2020 CAMARO 2SS: THE BEST ALL-AROUND CAMARO EVER. BUT IS IT ENOUGH? The Camaro is in trouble. Again. You’ll recall that the fifth-gen Chevy Camaro regularly spanked Ford’s Mustang in the sales race, and Dodge Challenger was a distant third. Things have changed: Since its 2016 redesign, Camaro has been losing ground not only to Mustang (which is also losing sales), but to a strong-selling Challenger. For 2019, Camaro is on track to sell less than 50,000 units for the first time since it re-entered our lives in 2010, while Challenger is going to top 60,000 units for the fourth year running. Challenger outsold Camaro in 2018, and for the third quarter of 2019 its sales are ahead of GM’s pony car by a shocking 50 percent. Why? We’ll try…

HALF-CENTURY CAR SPOTTING I got my November issue of HMM the other day. I quickly glanced through it and eventually got around to start reading the articles. The ’70 GSX (“By the Numbers,” HMM #195) got my attention, because I can distinctly remember seeing one at a Buick dealer way back in 1970. The car caught my eye as I was driving on Route 130 in Burlington, New Jersey. It was out front of the dealership and I remember seeing it on more than one occasion. I was traveling to a job assignment and didn’t have time to stop to get a closer look. This was the first time I ever saw a GSX and I thought it looked great in white with that distinctive stripe. Fast forward 49 years…

“My brother Scott bought this 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible when he was 16 years old. Wherever his path took him, this car followed, from Indiana to in between, eventually landing inside his garage in Plano, Texas. As this car sat parked, and was used more as a “catchall” with anything and everything piling upon it, Scott’s intention was to restore it to its full glory. Well, the years passed and the rust got worse, but then I was fortunate to purchase the Delta 88. After a wild adventure of four long years, the journey of the car’s restoration was finally complete, and it has exceeded my expectations and is beyond my  visions. The Delta 88, “Sheena,” is doing very well at car shows. The one question that I am…

MERCURY DIDN’T GET A PERSONAL LUXURY CAR in the Thunderbird vein for a long time, until the Cougar bowed for the 1967 model year. The Cougar was based on the newly revised Ford Mustang, which was now wide enough to accept the FE-series big-block engines, but rather than cheap-and-cheerful transportation, quarter-mile brawler, or SCCA contender, the new Cougars were intentionally plusher, more luxurious vehicles. “America’s foremost luxury sports car,” the brochures contended. That luxury was especially evident inside, where period ads boasted that buyers would “swear” it was “hand-tooled in Europe.” Similar promises were made regarding the exterior styling, where extra wheelbase, an elongated nose, hidden headlamps, and an “electric-shaver” grille helped disguise the Mustang connection and echoed contemporary Thunderbird styling, but without the bulk. Mercury, careful not to provoke…