Hemmings Muscle Machines January 2025

“I looked around the partially dismantled interior, and … I sighed and uttered something like, ‘Man, this poor old car…” I mentioned recently that I finally pulled my ’69 Camaro out of the back of my garage and got it running again, then cleaned it up a little and brought it over to the shop here at Hemmings. Since then, I’ve been doing smaller projects to get the car back to functional form, drawing from the parts hoard squirreled away in the Camaro’s trunk that I discussed in my September “Opening the Vault” column, putting some things back together that have been apart for too many years. Though the process of sorting out the car’s ailments is certainly a move in the right direction, I was sensing some slight feelings of negativity creeping in as I started ticking items…

ZORA! ZR1 + E-RAY MILD HYBRID SYSTEM = 1,200+HORSEPOWER, AND 8-SECOND QUARTER-MILES If you thought the 1,064-horsepower Corvette ZR1 coming later this year was something, wait until you hear about the upgrade. Nicknamed “Zora” until Chevy’s marketing folks announce its real name, the long-rumored ultimate mid-engined Corvette takes the ZR1’s twin-turbo, flat-plane crank V-8 (and all of the attendant physical and cosmetic changes necessary to make it look the part) and then adds the Corvette E-Ray’s hybrid system. Sitting on the front axle (which means there will once again be a Corvette with a motor in the front), the 1.1kW system powers the front wheels and is good for 160 horsepower in the E-Ray — though sources tell us that engineers are looking to squeeze the equivalent of 200 horses…

Letter of the Month: Realizing Mustang Dreams I just finished reading your story about not letting a car get away (“Seizing the Dream,” HMM #255). I’m a classic Mustang guy — bought my first one when I was 16, and just bought my latest one last week. I’m now 61. I live in a small town in North Carolina, and I was looking for my next project car. I’ve had ’67s, ’69s, a ’71, a ’73, and a couple of others I’d rather not mention. So, I decided I wanted to do a ’65 or ’66 fastback. After talking with a couple other Mustang friends and checking the internet daily, my perfect project car showed up one morning online in Bakersfield, California. Unfortunately, that’s way too far away for me…

AT A GLANCE, Mike Radonovich’s 1965 Mustang fastback looks like a convincing Shelby G.T. 350R tribute. It has a facsimile of the “R” front apron, along with the deleted pillar vents and even the lightweight Plexiglas rear window that had a gap at the top designed as an air extractor. It was said to be worth an additional 5 mph on straights. Upon closer inspection there are also details that aren’t so exact. The fiberglass hood, for example, is the twin-nostril type seen on 1967 Shelby models, while the car also wears the side brake scoops that were more associated with 1966 G.T. 350 models. And then there’s the Gulf Oil livery paintwork. No G.T. 350R models ever wore the distinctive Powder Blue/Marigold Orange colors. In fact, Gulf Oil…

IN THE WORLD of muscle car lore, there are stories, and then there are damn good stories. The following is one of the latter and goes something like this: Dave Smith of Spokane, Washington, was 5 years old when he went with his parents, Dave and Diane Wolfe, to pick up the new 1969 ½ Plymouth Road Runner “440-6BBL,” the A12-coded model they had ordered through Tekoa Motors. Over the next several years Dave rode all over Spokane in the daily-driven world-beater Mopar, watched his dad race it at Deer Park Raceway, and observed his dad install a beefier cam, headers, and 4.56 rear gears, monitored with the installation of a Sun tachometer. Then, in 1974, his dad sold the car. Disappointing as it was, a course was set for…

WHEN MUSCLE CAR SAVANT Chuck Fisher found out that this long dormant 1968 Firebird 400 convertible was ready to be passed on to its next owner, he had to step up, make an offer to save it, and ultimately get it back on the streets where it belonged. Oddly, it wasn’t Chuck’s first rodeo with this particular Pontiac, as the dusty ’Bird and our main character have a long history that goes way back. “I knew of this Firebird for years, so it’s not a barn find for me, per se. But it had been sitting quite a while — the better part of almost four decades. The owners had started a restoration, but sadly, it was never finished for unknown reasons. Knowing that it was a solid one-owner…