Hemmings Muscle Machines July 2020

“ They put the car together to enjoy it, and that’s just what they did. ” Hopefully, by the time you read this, we’ll all be getting back to some semblance of normal, and maybe reducing a bit of the distance between us as the pandemic curve flattens out. But what will we all do once we can finally move about and interact somewhat freely again? Being stuck at home seems to have many people thinking about road trips, and it’s certainly having that effect on me. The desire to get out and roam would seem a natural counterreaction to this prolonged period of isolation, and watching news reports with mounting death tolls has certainly driven home the idea that there’s no time like the present to do the things…

COVID-19 CLAIMS MOPAR LEGEND LARRY RATHGEB On March 24, 1970, Larry Rathgeb (right, in photo) brought a cadre of engineers, a hired shoe, and the hottest car on the planet to Talladega. His goal: get driver Buddy Baker to push the Dodge Charger Daytona engineering mule past 200 mph to set a world record. Indeed, Rathgeb and his crew did what nobody else in the world had ever done that day. Rathgeb, however, wasn’t able to celebrate the anniversary of the event; he died Sunday, March 22, age 90, reportedly after contracting COVID-19. Rathgeb started his career as an engineer with Chrysler, and by the mid-Sixties rose to become the lead engineer for racing development in the country. In that role, he not only worked with the teams running Chrysler…

HELLCAT RAM! 700-PLUS-HP REBEL TRX TO TAKE ON FORD’S RAPTOR If you’ve been wondering how Ford has gotten away with building a big-dollar, high-performance off-road pickup like the Raptor, without anyone busting in on its turf, wonder no more. For 2021, Ram (formerly Dodge’s truck division, split off from Dodge back in 2011) is launching the Hellcat-powered Rebel TRX. More than 700 horsepower will be sent to all four wheels via Chrysler’s eight-speed automatic transmission and beefed-up four-wheel-drive components. In the Rebel TRX, this engine will lose its Hellcat designation and badging, even though it’s the same engine that is put in Chargers and Challengers. It will be known simply as “6.2L Supercharged.” Crew-cab and quad-cab versions are on the boil. The body kit, we hear, will be very close…

"I’ve been reading your magazine since the beginning and like many of your readers, I too was hit by the car bug in the early 1970s. I bought a 1965 Corvette 327/365 in 1976, when I was 19, and paid it off by working in a casino (though I was going to college at the same time). I never sold the car and to this day it is still driven 30-40 times per year. I can’t remember the exact date when I caught the “bug,” but vividly remember when one of my future third graders did. It was in 2004, when Pierre was a kindergartner, and as I was leaving school one day in my Vette, he just stood there staring at my car with “the look” we’ve all experienced.…

OF ALL THE MUSCLE CARS DETROIT didn’t build, it seems like a convertible version of the Buick GSX would have been a no-brainer. Hardly a stripped-down quarter-mile weapon, the 1970 GSX was a fully dressed near-luxury coupe that also happened to pack a 455-cubic-inch punch. Its approximately $4,500 base price was about a third more than, say, a ’70 Road Runner — and that was before the Stage 1 engine option was selected. For the customers who were already paying up for luxo-muscle, another couple of hundred bucks for a folding top would have probably gone over well, but Buick only pressed out 678 versions of the coupe as it was. That didn’t stop countless enthusiasts over the years from creating “phantom” versions of the never-was GSX drop-top, with many…

We’ve had this car together with all the upgrades for five years now, and couldn’t ask for anything more when it comes to driving enjoyment and the attention it gets. Without the worry of keeping it concours-spotless 100-percent factory correct, it’s perfect to just jump in for a drive to the cars-and-coffee. In that regard, it’s everything I’ve always wanted in a vintage muscle car. It looks the part, draws great attention, but drives like a more modern car — and after all these years, it still picked up something like four or five show awards last summer. I don’t think there’s anything more I could want or ask of it.…