Modern Muscle Doesn’t Have an Identity Problem. You Do.
The new Dodge Charger runs on a six-cylinder turbo and somehow the internet is still mad about it. I’ve been thinking about why that is, and I don’t think it’s really about the engine.
The new Dodge Charger runs on a six-cylinder turbo and somehow the internet is still mad about it. I’ve been thinking about why that is, and I don’t think it’s really about the engine.
The Hellcat and the Redeye post numbers that should end arguments. They don’t. There’s a specific kind of disappointment that only shows up after the noise dies down, and it has nothing to do with what the dyno measured.
Somewhere out there is a numbers-matching 1970 Chevelle SS with 400 miles on it, sitting under a climate-controlled cover, waiting for a day that is never coming. I genuinely cannot decide if that’s preservation or punishment.
I can describe the 1970 LS6 Chevelle with precision that would embarrass most car guys. I can also tell you, without pretending otherwise, that I have absolutely no idea what any of it actually feels like. That gap is more interesting than it sounds.
Plymouth didn’t engineer the 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda to be reasonable. They engineered it to make anyone within earshot understand exactly where they stood in the hierarchy.
In 1969, Chicago Chevrolet dealer Fred Gibb used GM’s internal fleet ordering system to build 427 cubic inch Camaros that corporate policy explicitly prohibited. Frank draws a parallel between Gibb’s approach and navigating systems as a neurodivergent person, arguing that understanding what rules actually protect, rather than simply following them, is the difference between compliance and genuine reading comprehension.
There’s a moment that happens to almost everyone who spends serious time around these cars. You’re standing in a parking lot, or a show field, or maybe just a driveway, and someone fires up a big-block. Not a modern LS…
There’s a certain kind of legend that doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t growl at you from a showroom floor or dare you to look away. It earns its place quietly, through purpose and precision, through doing exactly what it was…
There are cars that arrived at exactly the right moment, and cars that arrived one moment too late. The 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi sits squarely in that second category, and somehow that makes it more compelling, not less. It…
There’s a version of the Camaro story that gets told a lot, and it usually involves drag strips, big blocks, and the kind of horsepower numbers that make insurance actuaries reach for the antacids. That story is true. We’ve already…