This is the story of John Jackson, a self taught photographer who travels the country in his 1964 Corvair van taking pictures of awesome cars built by little shops that we may have never otherwise heard of. Jackson has put 170,000 miles on the van in the four years since his wife bought it for him for his birthday.
Hot Rod Magazine does a showdown between the Camaro ZL1 and Mark Stielow’s 1969 Red Devil Camaro. This is interesting on levels beyond simply old vs. new. The ZL1 is Chevrolet’s ultimate expression of the current Camaro with the LSA supercharged engine, third generation magnetorheological shocks and a high tech computer controlled driver’s aid package. On the other hand, the Red Devil is widely regarded as the ultimate expression of the first generation Camaro with a 750 hp Corvette ZR-1 drive train and Detroit Speed suspension system. Going even deeper than the specs, both cars are essentially built by the same man. Mark Stielow works as a suspension engineer at GM and helped develop the ZL1. Watch the video to see which of his children set the faster lap time around Gingerman Raceway in Michigan.
For the finale of their first season, Big Muscle featured a pretty awesome 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle. Chances are it doesn’t look like what you picture in your mind’s eye at the mention of “Awesome Chevelle,” but that’s what makes it cool. My philosophy is that when you buy a project car/bike/machine, it needs to speak to the essence of who you are as a person. Something about the way it’s designed, assembled and performs gives it a soul that’s compatible with yours. As with all things in life, your projects will only make you unhappy if their motivation is the impressing of other people. That’s one of the cool perks of being a gearhead. It’s your own creative expression in the form of a mechanical device. The car featured in this video is a great example of the owner picking a car that wasn’t popular and turning it into what he wanted it to be. In this case it was built to be the perfect bank robbery get away car and a tribute to his great grandfather. I especially like the fact that he upgraded the tires ans suspension first and then did mild upgrades to complement the overall balance of the car. Not your typical muscle car and it’s way better for it.
Here is yet another comparison between the top representatives of the modern muscle car era, the Ford Shelby GT500 and the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Normally I would wait a little longer to post this after the Motor Trend comparison, but I thought Chris Harris offered some fresh insights into these cars. He’s from the UK and spends most of his time driving cars in Europe, so he hasn’t had as much exposure to American muscle cars. Between the two comparisons, you get a really complete picture of what the two cars are like. Harris spends time in both cars driving them around Manhattan at slow speeds and then takes them the track at Monticello to see how they perform at high speeds.
Motor Trend is maintaining a very high level of excellence with their YouTube shows. Editor in Chief Angus Mackenzie and professional driver Randy Pobst weigh in here on this battle to see who has made the best modern muscle car, Ford or Chevrolet. You could even go as far as to say that these two cars represent the state of the muscle car genre. They no longer settle for only going in a straight line well. In fact, they test the Laguna Seca lap time before the drag race for this video and Motor Trend loves to do drag races. Besides the testing, Mackenzie and Pobst do a phenomenal job describing the details and nuances of each car so you can understand their natures even if you never get to drive one in real life.