Hemmings Muscle Machines January 2023

tmcgean@hemmings.com • Instagram @tmcgean The one thing that seems to remain constant is our devotion to these cars. Shifting Standards It’s interesting how our standards change over time. What was acceptable years ago might not be okay now; conversely, things we rejected in the past may now be valued. The second arrangement certainly applies to vintage vehicles, and when it comes to cars of the original muscle era, most of us likely have recollections of particular cars we may have cast off way back when that we’d really like to have now. Discussion of such things came up recently in a conversation about Dodge’s 1968-’70 Charger — a model that has been experiencing significant value escalation in recent years. As a result, anything resembling a ’68-’70 Charger seems to be…

2023 CHRYSLER 300C: SUDDENLY IT’S 2012 485 HORSEPOWER, $55,000, LIMITED PRODUCTION Remember the halcyon days of 2012, the burly broad-shouldered Chrysler 300 SRT8, and its monstrous 470-horsepower, 6.4-liter pushrod V-8 throwing you back in that comfy leather seat at the tip of the throttle? Miss it? Us too. Good news: for 2023, that kind of power will once again be available in a Mopar sedan that’s not a Charger. After half a decade of Fiat-Chrysler and Stellantis leaving the Charger’s twin, the Chrysler 300, to wither and die on the vine, it’s going out with a bang. Behold: the return of the vaunted 300C nameplate, which took a brief hiatus earlier this decade. It will be powered by the latest version of the 6.4-liter Hemi V-8 that was in the…

Letter of the Month: Alternative Era Terry McGean’s column in the November ’22 issue (“Nostalgia Trip, Take Two,” HMM #231), along with the feature about the low-mileage “late-model” Mustangs really hit home with me. I’ve been fortunate to own the same ’68 GTO for 30 years now. I picked it up in the early ’90s as my first car when, I guess you could say, they were still attainable. You graciously featured that story in the June 2018 issue’s Muscle Car Scrapbook feature (“Generational GTO,” HMM #178). As a gangly 20-year-old college student, I paid a visit to my local Pontiac dealer in 1995 and somehow cajoled the salesman into letting me test drive a red six-speed Firehawk convertible. That car was so far out my league at the time,…

IT TAKES A BELLY FULL OF STAINLESS-STEEL GUTS to do something like 17-year-old Robert Entwistle did 45-odd years ago, when he decided to forgo furthering his education in order to pursue his interest in cars. “Just like that, I just dropped out [of tech school]. I followed my heart. My parents were horrified. The thought that I would toss away a full scholarship to electronics school to be a ‘grease monkey’ at a local shop was too much to bear. Yes, I signed it all away. I just wanted to work on cars.” While his parents may not have been pleased with him for choosing his own path at that time in his life as a young, bright teenager, Robert is immeasurably happy with the final outcome. “I didn’t want…

EVER LOCK EYES ON SOMEONE and, though you’ve never met, you’re sure that you know them from somewhere? Celebrities have stories like this all the time — particularly when they’re mistaken for another celebrity. But it happens to us plebes in the weeds as well. Unsurprisingly, it happens with cars, too. And sometimes it all works out for the best. Sadly, little is currently known about this ’69 Camaro SS/RS convertible’s former life or owner(s); the only information that’s come to light is that it was built in the Norwood, Ohio, plant in December of ’68, was delivered in or near Memphis, Tennessee, and was owned by a schoolteacher. “Paperwork was lacking,” its restorer, Shaun Price, of Shaun Price Restorations in Gilbert, Arizona, tells us. This may well have been…

AFTER A COUPLE STABS AT THE GAS PEDAL and a twist of the key, the Hemi came to life and trumpeted its presence. Even though the ambient temperature was already in the 80s, the impatient pachyderm required deft manipulation of the throttle as the moving bits all greeted one another and waited on the engine’s temperature to build a bit. It wasn’t long, though, before the clamor settled into a raucous, raspy, racket and the engine announced it was ready. With the newly invigorated mechanical mastodon filling the engine bay of his ’69 Plymouth GTX, Al Galdi had hauled it to Bowling Green, Kentucky from New Jersey to send it down the legendary Beech Bend track, hoping his efforts would be rewarded with a solid time slip… and maybe a…