Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

This car was built in eight months and my wife Karen would drive it 365 days a year if she could. In fact, in the summer months, she pretty much drives it every day to work. It’s quick and powerful, but also uncompromisingly comfortable and easy to drive. That was the prime directive for the build and I’m proud that’s what we achieved with it. You can always have more horsepower, but this Camaro hits the sweet spot for performance and drivability. We couldn’t ask for anything more with it.…

JOHN HOFMANN WAS JUST 14 YEARS old when the magnificently redesigned Charger was set loose for 1968, and he was convinced even then that someday he’d own an exquisite example of the breed. “I was in junior high school, and I thought it was the prettiest car I’d ever seen,” he remembers. “Then Bullitt was released and that sealed the deal for me. My friends liked the Mustang, but I was the Charger guy. I own that movie and still watch it once a year.” John’s perceptions are representative of many who venerate Steve McQueen’s classic cop drama, which features one of the greatest car chases ever filmed, and has elevated the 1968 Charger to a pop-culture icon. The Dodge’s allure isn’t limited to its cinematic appearance, however, as its…

Before you begin shuffling stuff around in your garage, you might want to first lay things out on your computer. There are plenty of websites available to help you electronically imagine your shop, so you can determine what fits and what won’t, as well as adding efficiency to the workflow by effectively placing work spaces where they’ll do the most good. We used an online source to replicate the work area inside our shop, and after evaluating it, we determined we could make a few changes to free up more space and reduce the number of steps needed to get from one work area to the next. Give it a shot.You might be surprised at the results.…

IT WAS A WEIRD SPRING IN Scottsdale for auction goers. With the bulk of the events pushing back from their traditional January sale dates into the springtime, suddenly Mecum — celebrating its third-annual March event in nearby Glendale, at State Farm Stadium — went from “Two months after everyone else? Are there any cars left?” to being the first of the multiday auctions in the region. It’s a lot like Arizona refusing to bend to the will of Daylight Savings time: By being the only entity not to change, it completely changes the landscape. Suddenly, the last event of the season had become the first. It seemed to work. Over three days, Mecum took in $42.3 million overall. That’s 14 percent better than its debut Glendale auction, in 2019, and…

An essential element of owning collector cars is owning the space they live in when they’re not being used. Your garage says as much about you as the classics you own – after all, they’ll spend most of their lives in it. From the tools you use, to the lighting you install and every wall poster and shop stool in between, your home garage should be as functional as it is enjoyable. Just like your cars. Covercraft has been helping collectors design their own personal Garage-Mahals for nearly six decades, by starting with the ultimate indoor car cover. We’re enthusiasts, too, so we’ve developed the materials, fitment, styles, protective coatings and accessories that you’d design into a cover if you had our jobs. With so many choices to make when…

I’m a fairly private guy, so I don’t take my ’69 Super Bee, ’68 Dart GTS, or ’69 Dart GT Sport to shows too often. I prefer to go into the garage and tinker with them, clean them, and then drive them. They are my hobby and my passion. It’s a disease, but at least it’s a good one to have. I’m so glad I was able to buy this Charger when I had the opportunity, and now after all these years, Super Car Restoration has brought it back to its original glory. To me, muscle cars are mobile art, and I just enjoy owning them.…

It’s amazing what creativity can be asserted when finances don’t top of the list of considerations. Few of us enjoy such a lack of limitations, but NASCAR mogul Rick Hendrick has earned that privilege and chose to exercise it when he constructed his personal version of the ultimate hobby garage.The Hendrick Heritage Museum is part of the Hendrick Motorsports complex in Concord, North Carolina. The NASCAR Hall of Famer’s personal automotive emporium contains an amazing array of collectible cars, artifacts, a replica of his City Chevrolet dealership showroom, a drive-in theater, and even a downsized model of the town he grew up in. Honored to be allowed access to the normally closed-to-the-public, 58,000-square-foot facility, we offer only a brief glimpse here.…

GOODING ONLINE RESULTS Another edition of Gooding’s Geared Online auctions took place early in May, with more than $16.2 million in total sales, a 97-percent sell-through, and 84 cars going to new owners. There was a sprinkling of American muscle to come up for sale during the online event, including this 1970 Pontiac GTO convertible. It wore an older restoration and had been owned by a noted Pontiac collector. Factory documentation noted the car’s original color as Polar White, though it sported a Starlight Black exterior at the time of the sale. Since its purchase in 2010, the GTO has accumulated less than 2,700 miles. It was accompanied by PHS records and a convertible top boot, and it showed just a few minor cosmetic flaws. Its power-plant was a 400-cu.in.…

This is the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E. Finally, a sport-utility with an emphasis on sport. Shoot from 0 to 60 mph in under 5 seconds with all four 19-inch tires pulling you to speed with deceptive ease, despite a curb weight approaching 5,000 pounds. And that’s the mid-line version! Passing in traffic is instantaneous. It’s noticeably lower than a new Explorer, but not sports car low; the flowing body lines and tapered roof — more hatchback than tailgate — make it instantly identifiable in a parking lot full of SUV rooflines. It’s sporty in a way that most SUVs just aren’t. So, despite the power, comfort is the order of the day. There’s fine visibility from ample glass area. There are comfortable seats for multiple body types. There’s a quality…

BE HONEST: HOW MANY MILES a year do you put on your vintage car? A few hundred? A couple of thousand? Or maybe it’s more like a hundred or less. Everybody does their car thing their own way, but a few miles here and there to cruises and car shows wasn’t going to cut it for Tony and Karen Rousos. They wanted a driver. A muscle car with jump-in, hit-the-key, compromise-free performance that would turn heads at the cruises, but click off long-haul miles like a Kenworth. They found it in a ’71 Camaro that Tony built for Karen. To date, they’ve racked up more than 30,000 miles on the car in only about four years. It’s practically the couple’s daily driver in the Michigan months that don’t involve road…

AS FAR AS 1968 PLYMOUTH Road Runners go, this one was very nondescript: a base model, 383-cu.in., four-barrel, bench seat, column-shift automatic — in Avocado Green, no less. Probably the sexiest thing about it was the factory-installed redline tires. But those subtle charms were just enough for Raymond Mohr of Racine, Wisconsin, who purchased the Road Runner in 1969 and fastidiously documented his nearly four-decade relationship with the car that — even after his death — still bears an aura of devoted stewardship. “I really wasn’t looking for a Road Runner when I bought this one,” wrote Mohr on the first page of the red spiral notebook that would go on to act as half service record, half diary of his time with his prized Plymouth. “Feb. 3, 1969, I…

HEMMINGS AUCTIONS IS OUR LIVE, ONLINE AUCTION site staffed by customer service professionals ready to help bidders and sellers with any questions. A wide variety of classic and specialty vehicles from all eras are up for bid. Auctions run for two weeks, and qualified bidders place their bids electronically. Once a vehicle is accepted into the auction, the seller pays only a $99.95 listing fee. The winning bidder is responsible for a 5-percent fee on all completed auctions. The following are examples of auctions that transpired during the month leading up to press time. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, email Director of Auction Operations Terry Shea: terryshea@hemmings.com 1971 DODGE CHALLENGER SE RESERVE: $38,000 SELLING PRICE: $76,125 RECENT MARKET RANGE: $37,150-$56,510 Not every big-displacement V-8 two-door hailing from the…