Hemmings Muscle Machines May 2020

“... through it all, the classic muscle car seems to hold some sort of universal appeal among our kind and beyond.” An old friend and I were catching up recently, and he was showing me pictures of the car he’d just bought. After extolling its virtues with the enthusiasm of a teenager, he pointed out, “This is your fault!” He was referring to a time years ago, when we were both college students. Like a lot of young people who come together when they go off to school, the two of us initially became acquainted simply because the housing committee had randomly put us in adjacent dorm rooms. We hit it off and now, over 30 years on, we’re still in regular contact. But, having met purely as a result…

JAY LENO INDUCTED INTO AUTOMOTIVE HALL OF FAME Every car person’s favorite denim-decked comedian has a new accomplishment to add to his CV: On February 6, Jay Leno was named as a 2020 inductee into the Automotive Hall of Fame, located in Dearborn, Michigan. Jay’s lifelong passion for automobiles runs deep and wide, and among his most recent acquisitions is a restored 1968 Ford Bronco with a little something extra between the front fenders: a supercharged 5.2-liter Ford V-8, rated at 760 horsepower. The “Tonight Blue” rig was unveiled at SEMA and written up on Hemmings.com. It joins a stable of vehicles that range from Duesenbergs to exotics to custom one-offs. A frequent sight at concours d’elegance events from coast to coast, Jay is an advocate for automotive vocational education,…

FORD GT FRESHENED FOR 2020 Shown to the public for the first time in 2016, to mark the 50th anniversary of Ford’s victory over Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966, the Ford GT supercar debuted as a 2018 model. A think-outside-the-box halo car, the GT is powered not by a hybrid drivetrain or high-revving V-8, but instead by a 3.5-liter Eco-Boost V-6. For 2020, Ford has reworked the GT, adding more power, a new special edition, and updates to the Gulf Racing Heritage models. At launch, the GT’s 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 was rated at 647 horsepower and 550 lb-ft of torque. For 2020, the GT’s engine receives a bump in output to 660 hp, courtesy of revised engine calibration, new pistons with cooling galleries, higher-energy ignition coils, larger intercoolers, and…

’VETTE RESCUE I really enjoyed the Corvette Special Section in the January issue ( HMM #197). In 1972, I bought a ’66 Corvette from a guy in Reno for $900. It was only six years old, but thoroughly abused. The last owner had started to make it into a dragster, but never finished anything. It was a 300-hp 327 that he had gotten as far as fitting with a 750 Holley, headers, and transmission scatter-shield. He’d also stripped out unnecessary wiring. The rattle-can hot rod gray primer paint job gave kind of a high-performance vibe. Being on a typical 20-something’s tight budget, I did a low-buck restoration. The hardtop had somehow caught fire and there was a 12-inch hole in it. I patched it with a Pep Boys kit and…

The car gene that Terry McGean’s column in HMM #199 talks about is real, and is now into the fourth generation in my family. My oldest son, Jacob, is 15 and has his permit to drive in Michigan. He’s been in love with cars since birth. My wife and I joke that he was two weeks early because he heard all the muscle cars out on Woodward while we were cruising. Back then I had a Mustang LX notchback, and it caused him to want one once he became of age. Notchbacks aren’t cheap anymore, so we settled on a ’96 Mystic Cobra that was a “driveway find.” It had not run in four years and had four flats and a busted windshield. The owner practically gave us the car.…

COULD THERE BE A MORE PERFECT TIME for a car to imprint itself on a young man’s psyche than when he’s in high school? It almost doesn’t matter what that car is — it could be a hand-me-down from a relative, it could be a junker purchased with pocket change scraped out of the seat cushions. The idea that it’s yours is what’s most important. A car becomes so many things at once — a means to escape, a means of entertainment for you and the select friends of your choice, and a party trick that makes gasoline vanish in a puff of smoke, all rolled into one. It signals the disappearance of youthful indiscretion and the oncoming onslaught of adulthood, with all of the responsibilities implied therein. Jim Boyd…