Hemmings Muscle Machines August 2023

Muscle car fans tend to be hot rodders at heart, and an appreciation for speed and competition still burns within many of us. Several years ago, I had the idea to build a car from the muscle era to use for autocrossing and maybe some road course events. The inspiration came from growing trends that saw classic muscle being set up for those types of competitions, something that was gaining steam rapidly. Performance driving that involved turning hadn’t been a priority for American cars of the ’60s and ’70s, save perhaps for Corvettes and certain Mustangs and Camaros, but interest in improving the handling of all muscle cars was on the rise in the late ’90s. This trend picked up the term “Pro Touring” from one of its most visible…

In our drive of the EcoBoost Ford Raptor (“Production Line,” July ’22), we said, “…[w]e can’t help but wonder what the suite of goodies seen here would feel like in Ford’s Ranger — a truck that’s 1,500 pounds lighter.” We can stop wondering: The newly redesigned 2024 Ford Ranger is due in showrooms any minute and there’s a heavy-breathing Raptor version available. If you’ve been paying attention to the Bronco Raptor (“Production Line,” Nov ’22), then most of this will sound vaguely familiar as Bronco and Ranger share (or shared) plenty of bits we can’t see. And those are the bits that make the Ranger Raptor of interest: Ford’s newest desert hauler will feature a twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6, rated at 405 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque on command. That’s…

Letter of the Month: Mom’s 2+2 Don Clar, a close friend of mine, informed me that he sent a letter talking about a car that is in my family. The car is a 1966 Pontiac 2+2 that my mom purchased new in 1966. Yes, we still have this car, and we still have my mother. I would love to share its unique story through the 56 years it has been in the family. This is my mom’s jewel for sure! It was also the car that brought me home from the hospital. Not many people can say they came home in such a stylish car, let alone still own it. My father took care of the mechanics and maintenance for many years up until his health would no longer allow…

“I’VE ALWAYS loved Hugger Orange and the unadorned simplicity of the base Camaro body just looked great,” says Tom Tomlinson, who recently retired as the president and CEO of Holley. “I wanted to build a car with that look, but with a modern LS7 engine, along with good brakes, air conditioning, and the other features that would make it an excellent driver.” That summation perfectly encapsulates the growing popularity of the restomod and Pro-Touring trends, where owners are increasingly opting to have their vintage Detroit steel not only restored, but also updated with modern powertrains, suspensions, and more to balance classic, emotion-evoking style with contemporary driving dynamics. “It’s the best of both worlds,” Matt Gurjack, founder of Sled Alley, says — his shop was tasked with turning Tom’s vision into…

WHEN YOU’RE OUT RACING, you know that lightening things up is free horsepower. Less weight for the engine to strain against means better acceleration, and when there’s just 1,320 feet between your starting point and the end of the line, every pound counts. This is why so many quarter-mile race cars get gutted: no interiors, fiberglass body panels, little skinny tires up front. In the world of the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags, however, such things are frowned upon. Those racers want to show real as-stock-as-the-rules-allow muscle cars doing the thing that muscle cars were built to do: Go from stoplight to stoplight while proving their dominance over the driver sitting next to them. Choosing the right car can be crucial to your results. Meanwhile, this Pure Stock-legal 1971 Dodge…

THE AESTHETIC APPEAL of the stock-class drag-racing warriors of the 1960s is easy to understand: big cars sporting most of what Detroit had put there on the assembly line, but with more attitude, more aggression. Bulging tires in the rear, skinny rollers up front, open header collectors dangling below, clearly visible thanks to the nose-up stance that indicated forward thrust even at rest. Mike Hoyt gets it, but he wasn’t around to soak it in back when those battles first took place. In fact, not only did he miss the ’60s entirely, he also nearly missed the ’70s, too. His love of the drag cars of that golden era is a testament, then, to the powerful appeal of a relatively brief window in time — one he’d never experienced firsthand.…