Hemmings Muscle Machines November 2022

"… I’d just missed something. Like the good stuff had just been taken away." While we were preparing this issue, I had the opportunity to visit with Mustang collector Dave W. (he’d prefer we didn’t list his full name), where I got the tour of his gathering of Fox and other later-model Mustangs. As you’ll learn in that story, Dave was inspired to focus his collecting on the Mustangs of the Fox era, rather than earlier models, because those are the ones to which he feels the strongest connection — they were new when he was young. It turned out that Dave and I were born during the same year, so I was fully able to appreciate his perspective on the performance cars of the ’80s. Not everyone feels the…

PRODUCTION LINE Ford’s new 2022 Bronco Raptor is a goat. Get your head out of the ’60s: it’s clearly not a Pontiac GTO, though it could probably spank most factory-stock muscle cars in the quarter-mile. And despite its prodigious capabilities, we’re not going to declare it the GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time. Rather, the new Bronco Raptor is a four-wheeled capra hircus, an uncompromising, unflinching creature that’s perfectly happy to be wherever it’s put, no matter how unhospitable the terrain. As long as there’s sustenance nearby. Consider: Goats are known for their agility and ability to climb — and are famous for escaping whatever enclosure they’re put in. So should the Bronco Raptor: its 37-inch tires are placed at the very edges of the length of the vehicle…

Letter of the Month: A Word from the Drivers Love the magazine. Every issue is both enjoyable and informative. Being 67 years old and a born gearhead, I can remember when most of these cars were new. I would like to take exception to one statement in the September 2022 issue (#229). In the article, “Last of the Breed” about his stunning purple ’71 GTX, the owner stated, “Guys say ‘I’m gonna drive the wheels off it!’ Nobody does that. It’s vinyl seats and a big motor; it’s got no air conditioning. Driving it more than an hour at a stretch is a bit of a workout. You get someplace and your T-shirt is wet.” While some of this statement is true, there are those of us who DO drive…

SPECIAL FEATURESPOTLIGHT: ’80s / ’90s Muscle WE HUMANS HAVE AN ODD TENDENCY to collect things: coins, stamps, shot glasses… When we find some object that appeals to us, we seem to want to multiply the joy it brings by finding more of that thing, and in whatever variations may exist. Chasing down those variations often becomes the continuing challenge that makes the collecting exciting — the thrill of the hunt and the conquest of capture. Following that logic, if desirable items that bring joy and that come in many variations are the basis for a fulfilling collection, cars are a natural focus, and car collecting has been going on since the time the earliest automobiles were deemed “classics,” once they’d become old enough to be somewhat scarce. Traditionally, that has…

MODIFIED YEARS AGO, WE WERE VISITING A RESTORATION shop when they discovered that the “numbers matching” Superbird a customer had just dropped off had been pieced together from at least three cars. It was a gut-punch moment for the car’s owner, but the same one countless other enthusiasts have experienced with deceptively presented collector vehicles and project cars. Mopar B-body fan Jason Harrington had his gut-punch moment after his recently purchased 1970 Dodge Charger returned from the media blaster literally a fraction of its former self. “There was basically nothing left,” Jason says. “I was in shock and immediately thought I should just scrap what was left — and it wasn’t much!” The project started when Jason found the car in a storage unit north of Saginaw, Michigan. It had…

BUYER’S GUIDESPOTLIGHT: ’80s / ’90s Muscle ENGINE The base engine in these years, the LT1, is a great unit, making 300 hp and shared, in whole or in part, with numerous other GM vehicles. The LT4 is the hot-rod version of that engine, found only in six-speed-equipped cars in 1996. Those ’Vettes bring a premium, but if you’re willing to educate yourself and visit the aftermarket vendors, an LT1 can easily exceed the LT4’s 330-hp rating. Watch out for the original Optispark ignition units in 1992-’93 cars. If they haven’t been replaced with a later part, they’re vulnerable to moisture. TRANSMISSION Automatic-equipped cars came either with the tried-and-tested TH-700-R4 four-speed (1992-’93) or its 4L60E descendant. Maintenance and repair are both easy thanks to commonality with many other General Motors vehicles…