Hemmings Muscle Machines October 2024

“I’m free to roll up the door, twist a key, and drive one of those vintage cars wherever I want.” We were hanging out in my friend’s shop one night after work last week while he worked on his ’67 Chevy truck. On that evening, the soundtrack of choice was ’80s rock, which soon tickled our nostalgic senses, triggering a volley of stories from that period when we were both in our teens messing around with then already well-worn ’60s and early ’70s cars. It struck me that the classic tunes were flowing from an online streaming source through Bluetoothlinked speakers, and that the platform was able to tailor the mix of tracks based on what it perceived about my friend’s preferences. And it was doing a good job of…

It’s more than just the performance figures — 5.3-second 0-60s, 14-flat quarter miles, and 1960s-levels of cornering on those tall tires. The engine, the same port-and-direct-injected twin-turbo DOHC 24-valve 3.0-liter V-6 that appears in the Bronco Raptor, makes “just” 405 horsepower in the Ranger Raptor, thanks to a more restrictive exhaust. That said, Ranger Raptor is about 10 percent lighter (clocking in at around 5,300-ish pounds), so the on-road performance should come out in the wash. It also makes a stellar 2.25 horsepower per cubic inch — or about 13.2 pounds per horsepower, a better ratio than the F-150 Raptor enjoys. Forward motion is smooth and linear, not peaky like you might expect with a couple of turbos under hood; it doesn’t help that you’re sitting high enough that it…

Letter of the Month: Never Too Old I read Jim McGowan’s column, “Is It All Worth It?” in the September 2023 issue of HMM (#252) and have kept it in the back of my mind. I just finished reading “Growing Up with a Gearhead,” by Jim’s daughter Jennifer McGowan, so thought I would relay my latest endeavor. At the ripe old age of 80 in 2020, living in Montana and looking for something to do in long, cold winters, I started looking at cars to play with and found AMC Marlins. I have always liked offbeat vehicles (I built a supercharged ’84 Goldwing café bike in 1992), and so I made a deal for a 1967 Marlin and had it delivered to my home that February. I found that it…

BUILD PROFILESPOTLIGHT: Muscle Mustangs SOMETIMES NEW PROJECTS don’t go exactly as planned, and stories that begin this way often go on to reveal tragic tales of dreams that were dashed as expectations were not met, visions became blurred, goals were missed, and so on. But occasionally, these stories involve unforeseen turns that lead to outcomes far better than anticipated. You could say that was what happened with Mike Hoyt when he bought a ’66 Ford Mustang coupe to use as a drag car. The coupe was a roller when Mike acquired it, with no engine or transmission, but it was already set up for the track, with a cage, a minitubbed rear section to clear big slicks, and a nice 9-inch axle mounted with a ladder-bar setup. The Mustang even…

STOCK IF AUTOMOTIVE PUBLISHING EVER suffered a “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, it happened in the spring of ’73. “The 1973 GTO … is better than the original Tiger in every conceivable way,” crowed the pulpy pages of Hi-Performance Cars magazine in its April 1973 issue — the one that named the non-existent Super-Duty-455-powered version of the revamped GTO its Performance Car of the Year. Print lead times being what they are (about a month to six weeks between submitting films and receiving a printed magazine, with any intermittent change costing such sums as to be inadvisable), we can only wonder, what happened in the time between? The machine in question was a new, full-framed, Colonnade-bodied Le Mans GTO coupe that had been given Pontiac’s extraordinary new Super Duty 455 engine…

MODIFIEDSPOTLIGHT: Muscle Mustangs LET’S BE CLEAR RIGHT UP FRONT: This 1969 Mustang is not the most powerful car we’ve ever featured, although it’s no slouch with its Paxton blower. It’s also not a max-g Pro Touring corner carver, even with its targeted suspension and steering upgrades. It may not be the best or most of anything, but it’s been owner Terry Godzina’s faithful driver for some 45 years. In fact, the supercharger has been rebuilt twice over the last 25 years and has been cramming pressurized air into an relatively modest 302 engine. “I don’t have a trailer and I drive it everywhere,” says Terry. “During the summer months, I drive it every week.” The nearly half-century experience with the Candy Apple Red pony car is quite a relationship, considering…