Hemmings Muscle Machines April 2023

“The scrapping element was part of what made these places great for car enthusiasts.” I just got back from a week out in Southern California — my first trip out there in nearly a decade. The brief trip was enough for me to say I remain a fan, even after spending more than eight years battling the traffic and high cost of living while I was a resident. It’s still a great place for anyone who enjoys old cars. In fact, one of the things on my personal must-do list for the little bit of down time I had was to hit one of the many auto salvage yards in the region. When I lived out there in the late ’90s/early 2000s, it was regular practice for me and many…

PRODUCTION LINE It’s the announcement Mustang lovers have been waiting for: Ford just released the horsepower and torque figures for the 2024 lineup — and the news is good. Output continues to increase and blue oval enthusiasts have a lot to be excited about with the the seventh-generation 2024 Mustang, dubbed S650. “Mustang has always pushed the envelope. From Mustang GT to Dark Horse, this is our best 5.0-liter V-8 yet. It’s naturally aspirated awesomeness,” Ed Krenz, Mustang chief engineer, says. “And Mustang EcoBoost fans are also getting a boost in power to make every Mustang more fun and visceral to drive.” New to the Mustang party is the 2024 Dark Horse, a pony Ford announced a few months ago designed to push the limits of handling and on-track performance.…

I had just come in from helping a neighbor change a tensioner pulley, and my wife of 33 years dropped the mail in front of me. Hemmings Muscle Machines — nice! Nice scoop on the Torino on the cover. In 1969 I was working in a Ford parts department and had one of those scoops bolted to the hood of my ’56 Chevy. Then I glanced down to see green print: “BIG-BLOCK BIZ.” I love big-blocks. Next line, “’68” — my heart rate jumps. “427” — I start to mumble strange noises. “BISCAYNE” — I placed both feet carefully under me and settled into my chair. I flipped the magazine open and there it is! I love those big-inch big cars! And not just reading and dreaming about them —…

MODIFIEDSPOTLIGHT: Corvettes TOM PETERS VIVIDLY RECALLS THE FIRST TIME he went for a ride in the iconic American sports car. “It was a 1968 coupe,” he says. “I caught a ride home in one on the way home from work one day, when I was a teenager.” Tom was caddying at a Minnetonka, Minnesota, country club and says that, while brief, the encounter left a lasting impression. “It was only about a mile or so in that car,” he says. “But the way I sat down in that interior, looking out over the long nose and arching front fenders — it all just burned into my brain. It was inspiring.” More than just that first-year C3 burned into Tom’s young mind. The whole car culture of the Sixties and the…

STOCK MERCURY WAS THE GOLDILOCKS OF CAR BRANDS in the mid-Sixties, dedicated to searching for that just right balance of its lineup. The Comet in particular was one of those cars that didn’t quite fit. It was originally conceived as an Edsel model, but when Ford pulled the plug on its expensive marketing misfire, the Comet’s development was already well underway — and with the Falcon already headed for production, Dearborn’s brass made the Comet a Lincoln-Mercury product. It had an identity problem from the get-go, unfortunately, as the inaugural model was technically a standalone car, wearing neither Lincoln nor Mercury branding in 1960 or ’61. There were also echoes of the Edsel in its design, as the long, thin taillamps looked an awful lot like the 1960 Edsel’s, but…

ON LOCATION GREAT BILLOWING CLOUDS OF ACRID SMOKE hung in the air as the two vehicles hurtled with abandon towards the big sweeper, locked in door-handle-to-door-handle combat. The pungent smell of molten rubber assaulted our olfactory receptors while the screaming tires were matched in protest by the wailing engines bumping their rev limiters. As the drivers careened through the drifting course, fastidiously applying the hand brakes, furiously locking the front wheels left and right, and controlling the vehicles’ trajectory with the throttle, we could hear the crowd’s cheers rise above the on-track cacophony, and we turned to see the packed masses standing in unison and bellowing their approval of the spectacle before them. At that precise moment we became keenly aware that this was no ordinary, sit-in-the-shade-and-talk-about-the old-times kind of…