Hemmings Muscle Machines December 2020

“The Camaro responded, made some good noises, lunged forward, and… the SUV went right on by.” Well, it finally happened. We’ve talked about the possibility in these very pages, but now it has actually occurred. I got blown off by an SUV. All those comments and conversations about how garden-variety late-model vehicles have the capability of accelerating pretty briskly these days were brought to the fore when I pulled away from a light in my ’67 Camaro a few days ago. Some joker in the other lane, who’d been puttering along previously, and who was snoozing when the light went green, decided I’d committed an act of aggression when I pulled away before him. I was simply setting off on my way, enjoying a leisurely cruise, not trying to get…

2021 AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE ANNOUNCES A PAIR OF MUSCLE-THEMED CLASSES With its March dates, the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance has long signaled winter’s end and the start of a new car show season, and the annual Florida extravaganza has earned a reputation for offering something for everyone to enjoy. Fans of American Muscle are no exception, and in 2021, the 26th running of Amelia Island will serve up a pair of classes that should be of particular interest to HMM readers: 1970s Muscle Cars and Chevy Thunder. As the category name implies, 1970s Muscle Cars will focus on“Detroit’s high-stakes, high-horsepower game” that began in earnest in the 1960s and reached its peak in 1970, before the era of emissions regulations and insurance restrictions. Cars from the Wellborn Musclecar Museum…

DAYTONA DECIMATER FORD’S ALL-AMERICAN SPORTS CAR CELEBRATES ITS FIRST AMERICAN WIN Wondering how to spec out your new Ford GT, and feel like that whole dominating Le Mans motif is played out? For 2021, Dearborn will offer two new choices: the Heritage Edition package, inspired by Ford’s win at the 1966 Daytona 24 Hour Continental, and the all-new ultra-limited Studio Collection. The 2021 GT Heritage Edition celebrates the GT40 Mk II’s first 24-hour endurance-racing win (and 1-2-3 finish), at Daytona, in February of 1966. Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby were codrivers of the winning car, an event dramatized in last year’s big-screen epic Ford v Ferrari. Later that year, GT40s would also sweep the podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 1966…

Send your letters, photos and opinions to tmcgean@hemmings.com GARAGE TIME Every month, Jim McGowan’s contribution to HMM is my first go-to when my subscription arrives. I guess my favorite is “Garage Time.” I have a good buddy and we so enjoy hanging out and drinking a cold beer or two, in the middle of all our garage treasures, surrounded by vintage car parts and posters from a simpler time. “No Time Like the Present,” in the October issue ( HMM #206), is excellent and got me thinking about the ’65 Buick Skylark Gran Sport that I’m restoring. It was originally sold in New Jersey and made its way to California via the humid southeast, so new stainless brake lines seem like a smart move. I did do a complete brake…

“I have subscribed to multiple car mags since I was a teenager but became bored with them as they morphed into an endless promotion to sell the products of advertisers. Then HMM got my attention with great stories like the Pure Stock Drags, a ’65 GTO restomod, the drag test of a TH400, and my favorite, a ’66 Satellite bracket beater. I bought a ’67 Nova 15 years ago to use as my daily driver. It had a mild 350, a TH350, an open diff, and street tires. I took it to the track, spun the right tire halfway down, and ran a 9.80... in the 1/8-mile (about a 15.40 in the ¼-mile). Since that first run, I installed a Ford 9-inch with a locker, CalTracs bars and Mono Leafs…

MENTION BIG-SCREEN FORD TORINOS, and the acclaimed lint Eastwood movie named for the car undoubtedly springs to mind. But less than six months after the release of Gran Torino, a 1972 Gran Torino Sport played a supporting role in 2009’s Fast & Furious, the fourth installment in the blockbuster franchise. In the flick, the car was driven by bad guy Fenix Calderon, who crashes it into protagonist Brian O’Conner’s Subaru during a chase. It wasn’t one of the more prominent cars of the film, but it left an impression on enthusiast Sean Klein. “I loved the look of the car,” he says. “The ’72 Grand Torino Sport SportsRoof was already a beautiful, underappreciated car, but it looked even better in the film, with the unique wheels and side exhaust. I…