When Pontiac started the muscle car segment with the 1964 GTO which was a mid-sized car with a large displacement high performance V8, most of the other American automakers were caught off-guard including Dodge. In fact Dodge and Plymouth were Continue reading →

By 1979, the traditional muscle car was all but gone. The W72 400 CID V8 equipped 1979 Pontiac Trans Am was as good as it got, though rated by Pontiac at 220 SAE net horsepower (320 lb-ft of torque), NHRA Continue reading →

When performance cars are mentioned in a conversation, we always hear about those fast cars that made it into production. These cars reached stardom even if it was a very brief moment and even if their total production volume was Continue reading →

The Chevelle SS was Chevrolet’s bread and butter muscle car during the golden era. It was a car that just about any high school graduate who found a full-time job could afford. A few hundred dollars down, and an easily Continue reading →

If you were a performance gearhead who came of age during the 1980s, you’ll certainly remember Chevrolet’s Cross-Fire Fuel Injection V8s. These were motors that have received their share of barbs and ridicule – unfairly I might add. A common Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: the following Pete Dunton article was originally published in November 2012 on firebirdnest.com.

The introduction of the low-volume 1969 Trans Am had an original purpose of getting the still-born Pontiac 303 CID V8 certified for the Trans-Am Continue reading →

By the 1972 model year it became apparent the muscle car era was over. This was a time when many automakers were dropping muscle car models left and right – and the ones that remained were encountering massively declining engine Continue reading →

Ford was on top of its game when it came to performance back in the 1960s. It sniffed out the 2+2 pony car market that most automakers overlooked and dominated it with the Mustang during the mid 1960s. When it Continue reading →

By the late-1970s smaller foreign 2+2 sport coupes were hitting the U.S. shores. Some of these were from Europe, and some were from Japan. Japanese cars before this surge were merely small economy cars. The new surge of 2+2 coupes Continue reading →

At the beginning of the 1981 model year, the Trans Am was entering into its thirteen year of production and its twelfth year on GM’s second generation F-body platform. The Trans Am had been successfully updated every few years during Continue reading →