Hemmings Muscle Machines August 2024

"Right out of the gate, I was a bit surprised at how hard the Mustang was pulling..." I’ll admit I was a touch nervous as I rolled up to the burnout box. I hadn’t made any passes down a dragstrip since some time in the mid 20-teens, and that was during a testing session. But on this day, back in mid-April, I was at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania for our new Musclepalooza event (check out our coverage on page 50) and I was running with everyone else. Gotta pay attention and keep the steps straight so you don’t mess up and have to go back around and wait in the lanes to try again. I was driving the Hemmings ’91 Mustang 5.0, the very one we’ve covered in several stories in recent issues (four of them,…

PRODUCTION LINE The Mustang celebrated its 60th anniversary back in April — not that you’d have known for the scant notice it received in both the mainstream and enthusiast press — but Ford rarely passes up the opportunity to tout the anniversary of its long-lived pony car, even if it usually involves little more than special paint and badging. Ford’s announcement of the imminent Mustang 60th Anniversary Package, then, will come as little surprise. The 60th Anniversary Package is available in three colors: Wimbledon White, Race Red, or Vapor Blue (which looks awfully grey in person, but what do we know?). The rocker stripes, said to have their stylistic roots in an available ’65 stripe option, but spelling out “60 Years” in lieu of “Mustang” or “GT” or something equally…

Letter of the Month: Is This the Silver Age? Thank you for the great article about modern horsepower leaders (“Modern Love,” HMM #250). I truly believe that we are living at the end of the second age (the silver age maybe?) of muscle cars. More horsepower, better quality, and economy, and of course, warranties. The first era had many selections across the Big Four, but recently our choices have been much narrower. However, with 50 years of technological improvements, we’ve seen 250+ hp turbocharged four-cylinders and naturally-aspirated six-cylinders with over 300 hp. The 1970s version of me wouldn’t have believed it possible! Will the advent of electric cars herald the third stage? Stay tuned, right? I’ve driven and owned a very long list of American muscle during both the Golden…

SPOTLIGHT: Engine Power THERE’S NEVER ENOUGH TIME when you’re playing catch-up and that was the unfortunate position Ford and GM found themselves in after Chrysler dropped the blockbusting 426 Hemi on them at the 1964 Daytona 500. It’s impossible to understate the significance of Richard Petty’s dominating win at the race. In fact, four of the top-five finishers were Hemi-powered and the shockwaves from the Hemi’s runaway performance would reverberate for years. Ford countered with overhead cams and tunnel ports at first and, later, the semi-hemi Boss 429, while General Motors’ divisions, which maintained separate and independent engineering departments, launched their own experimental engine programs. Chevy flirted with overhead-cam designs that never moved beyond the engine lab, while Pontiac was already deep into Ram Air cylinder head development—including cribbing Ford’s…

STOCK THERE’S LITTLE DOUBT that the 1968-’70 Dodge Charger and the 1970-’74 Plymouth Barracuda are among the high-water models of the entire muscle car era. Each offered unparalleled styling and performance which, if not entirely recognized in the moment, has been proven in the decades that followed. As you’ll soon understand, the pair featured here are pinnacles of those pinnacles, and little short of amazing in their similarities. To be certain, nobody is likely to mistake a ’70 Charger for a ’71 ’Cuda, so when we speak of the similarity between our two feature cars, it’s in the colors and drivetrain options of these corporate cousins. Of course, the Charger was based on the B-body Mopar, which included Belvedere/Satellite/Road Runner, Coronet/Super Bee, and others. While technically being an intermediate-sized model,…

FORD’s advertising campaign to push the newly minted Maverick model keyed in on the car’s economy and family workhorse capabilities once the compact hit the dealership floors back in the summer of ’69. It was a timely plan, as Ford needed a replacement for the aging Falcon, but it also needed something to combat the influx of gas-sipping imports that were pouring into the country from all points abroad, many of which were quite inexpensive. Dearborn’s plan paid off in spades. In the early ’70s, the ability to offer a new car for under $2,000 was a challenging goal for American automakers at a time when the VW Beetle had a base price of $1,799. The Maverick, though small and fairly Spartan in its initial form, seemed like a more…