Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

AS LONG AS THERE HAVE BEEN car shows there have been trailer queens—the spotless, meticulously detailed rides that have neither bug bites nor stone chips. They’re the cars with cubic potential under the hood, but not a speck of rubber on their hind quarters. It’s easy to dismiss those cars and even deride the owners as enthusiasts who’d rather wipe down a fender than bang gears. Dennis Stiffler used to think like that, but then he found himself on the other side of the velvet rope. His freshly built 1969 Camaro Pro Tourer was immaculate; that’s when the trailer-queen thing washed over him. “I never thought I’d be that guy, but there I was — reluctant to drive my car,” Dennis says. “It cost more to build than I anticipated…

FORD WENT and Thunderbird-ed a Mustang, and Mercury (plus that pool of fortunate first owners) reaped the rewards. Built to give Mercury a contender as the market reached peak pony car potential (with a redesigned Barracuda plus the new Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird all launching more or less simultaneously), the new-for-’67 Cougar’s mission was all over the place. It was meant to split the difference between the popular, populist Mustang and the personal-luxury Thunderbird in terms of image and comfort — a sports car the whole family could enjoy while transmitting a vibe of European opulence in a reliable all-American package. It worked: Mercury built more than 150,000 Cougars for 1967, easily recouping its meager budget and representing a whopping 42 percent of the division’s sales for the season.…

THERE ARE TWO BIG EVENTS on the annual vintage vehicle calendar that stir enthusiasts from far and wide. The first are the near-simultaneous January sales (Kissimmee, Florida and Scottsdale, Arizona). The other is Monterey Car Week in August, a.k.a. Pebble Beach Week, during which time California’s picturesque peninsula is transformed into a cornucopia of Full Classics, world-renowned exotics, sports cars, and an array of more commonplace cruisers. In this realm you’re guaranteed to find whatever sort of collector vehicle you desire. There are dozens of events throughout the week, but for enthusiasts who are in town to buy or sell, the first opportunity to do so comes at Bonhams’ “The Quail Auction.” As has become tradition, the event is held at the Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel and…

$54,425. What does that money get you these days on a new-car lot? At a Dodge store, that’s most of the way toward a leftover wide-body Scat Pack Charger, or maybe a nicely equipped Durango R/T. Or it will get you this: a 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T Plus Track Pack and Blacktop eAWD. (That’s what it’s called on the sticker, anyway; the hatch lid only allows that it’s a Hornet R/T, and the Dodge name does not appear anywhere on the body.) We gotta be honest: Small crossovers aren’t Production Line’s usual quarry. The Hornet R/T has a 1.3-liter four, it relies on hybrid technology, and despite the all-American badge and the squinty Charger-esque face, it’s built in Italy. (It shares its bones with something called the Alfa Romeo Tonale,…

THE ’60 WERE ONE WILD, ECLECTIC, and anything-but-subtle decade. Headline news, culture, design, and pure national attitude collided in a nuclear blast, merging the fundamental sciences into one cohesive ball of reform and reinvention. The auto industry was aware of what was happening at home and abroad and strived to keep up with the stylistic trends emerging in the marketplace. As the younger generation turned its eyes to the flash and power of the muscle car movement, the American automakers shifted gears and ramped up to keep up with the young consumers asking for faster and more vibrant offerings. Ford, Chrysler, GM, and AMC all beckoned the new “youth market” with the development of pony cars and an ever-growing assortment of high-powered intermediate models. But getting young buyers into brand-new cars…

TECH SPOTLIGHT: Restomods THROWING SPEED PARTS at stock engines is about as pure as hot rodding gets. From stacking carburetors on utilitarian flathead Ford engines to bolting a big blower on a world-weary small-block, the recipe is the same: add more power, until something breaks. The Hemmings crew followed suit on our 6.0-liter LS build, adding high-flowing Air Flow Research (AFR) heads, a bigger camshaft, and a high-flow intake manifold to a take-out 6.0-liter LS. It was an easy road to power but unfortunately the main bearings on our mileage’d up core engine weren’t up for the task, rotating themselves 360 degrees in their saddles at our first dyno session. Oops. Fortunately, quitting isn’t in our DNA, so from the ashes was born a 408-cu.in. stroker that packed more displacement,…

HEMMINGS MUSCLE MACHINES 2025 CALENDAR HEMMINGS • 800-227-4373 X 79550 • HEMMINGS.COM/STORE • $14.95 As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time to look back at this year’s accomplishments and look forward to what next year will bring. One important thing to help us stay organized and informed is a 2025 wall calendar, and naturally, you’ll want the one that celebrates the awesome stock and modified performance cars from this very magazine: the Hemmings Muscle Machines 2025 Calendar (item CM25). Generously sized at 12 x 12 inches, it contains frame-worthy color photos of some of the finest vintage AMCs, Buicks, Chevrolets, Dodges, Fords, Mercurys, Oldsmobiles, Plymouths, and Pontiacs around. Its calendar pages list the dates of noteworthy car shows and auctions as well as important automotive historical events, and there’s…

TECHSPOTLIGHT: Restomods AFTER YEARS OF FEATURING OVERDRIVE-transmission swaps, we don’t need to waste words extolling the highway-cruising virtues of an upgraded gearbox, but when it comes to adapting the popular Tremec five- and six-speed transmissions, there have been compromises. For five-speeds, the TKO-500 and TKO-600 work well with old-school small-blocks, but aren’t well-suited for the higher-revving capabilities of LS and LT engines. When it comes to six-speeds, there are basically two choices: The production-based T-56 and aftermarket-intended and T-56-based Magnum. Used T-56 units are getting scarce, and for most vintage Chevys, the shifter location typically requires modifying the transmission tunnel. The relatively bulky Magnum also requires alterations to the tunnel to create room for the Magnum’s wide case. Honestly, it takes more than just a little trimming to fit a…

MECUM MONTEREY $4.9 MILLION DUO A wide selection of 1964-’72 muscle cars crossed the block at Mecum’s Monterey auction, bringing in over $8.75 million in total sales with a 63-percent sell through. These numbers exclude a 1969 Ford GT40 Lightweight and a factory Hemipowered 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona that sold for $7.86 million and $3.36 million, respectively. Among the nearly 40 cars that found new homes was a 1970 Hemi ’Cuda convertible, presented as one of just 14 made for the 1970 model year; it was also built for the Canadian market, adding to its rarity. The documented ’Cuda underwent a thorough rotisserie restoration with everything stripped down before its paint, interior, drivetrain, and other components all were returned to OEM spec and appearance. The maple-leaf Mopar changed hands for…

HEMMINGS AUCTIONS IS OUR LIVE, ONLINE AUCTION site staffed by customer service professionals ready to help bidders and sellers with any questions. A wide variety of classic and specialty vehicles from all eras are up for bid. Auctions run for one or two weeks, and qualified bidders place their bids electronically. Once a vehicle is accepted into the auction, the seller pays only a $99.95 listing fee. The winning bidder is responsible for a 5-percent fee on all completed auctions. The following are examples of auctions that transpired during the months leading up to press time. If you have question s, comments or suggestions, email the Hemmings Auctions team directly: auctions@hemmings.com. 1969 CHEVROLET NOVA RESERVE: $120,000SELLING PRICE: $110,250*RECENT MARKET RANGE: $60,000-$120,000 Sometimes a builder answers the question, “What if?” In the…