ROYAL PONTIAC’S LIGHTWEIGHT GTO.

Posted on March 7, 2023March 9, 2023 by MartynL

Back in the day, Motown’s Van Seymour, a GM employee, was a “sleeper” driver of ROYAL PONTIAC’S LIGHTWEIGHT GTO. Few people even knew that Pontiac built lightweight GTOs for racers across the country. It’s a missing link in Pontiac history. Ace Wilson’s Royal Pontiac was one of the brand’s “connected” dealers and sponsored under-the-radar “sleeper” drivers to promote the dealership and brand on the street and at drag strips. Van Seymour raced his GTO in B/Stock in 1965 and B/MP from 1967 throug...

FLINT FLYERS: BUICK’S SECRET GS SKYLARKS

Posted on January 14, 2022January 14, 2022 by MartynL

Inspired by Chevy’s ’65 Chevelle Z16 Malibu SS-396, Buick engineers developed the FLINT FLYERS: BUICK’S SECRET GS SKYLARKS. Ken Kayser owns a rare survivor that’s prominently featured in his new Buick performance history book. Every Musclecar enthusiast knows something about the Chevelle SS-396, Pontiac GTO and Olds 4-4-2, and Chevy Malibu (RPO L37) SS-396 aficionados know all about the highly-prized 200 Z16 Malibu SS 396/375 Police Specials. However, virtually no one knows about Buick’...

COMPACT MUSCLE COMPARO: ‘69 CHRYSLER VS. GM.

Posted on November 7, 2021November 7, 2021 by MartynL

Musclecar guru, Diego Rosenberg, shows that GM and Mopar high-performance specialty compacts are similar on paper only in COMPACT MUSCLE COMPARO: ‘69 CHRYSLER VS. GM. “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” You’ve probably heard this folksy proverb before, and it holds weight in the automotive world. During the high-performance sweepstakes of the 1960s, manufacturers developed their own approaches to go from Point A to Point B—often 1320 feet at a time. With 375 horsepower, the ...

1970 GM-455: MAGNUM FORCE FROM MOTOWN

Posted on July 17, 2021July 17, 2021 by MartynL

The new year ushered in bigger, more powerful engines, new specialty Supercars and a plethora of Ponycars. Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile muscle machines, powered by similar but different 455-inch engines, led the displacement race: 1970 GM-455: MAGNUM FORCE FROM MOTOWN. In many ways, 1970 was the storm before the calm. The war in Southeast Asia continued casting a pall over a much-divided country and thinning the ranks of young enthusiasts. Carmakers’ racing budgets were being drasticall...

POPULAR V-8 MOTORS: DISPLACEMENT DISCREPANCIES.

Posted on March 14, 2021March 14, 2021 by MartynL

Diego Rosenburg, Musclecar maven and walking encyclopedia of 1960s-1970s high-performance engine codes and options, decodes the displacement dilemma of 5 popular V-8s whose numbers are questionable. It may only be an inch or two, but truth matters: POPULAR V-8 MOTORS: DISPLACEMENT DISCREPANCIES. 1967 Ford R-Code dual-quad 427. We know that the 1960s were full of horsepower hijinks, but did you know that manufacturers sometimes fibbed about the size of their engines? Indeed, that burbling V-8...

1970: MUSCLECARS AT AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS

Posted on January 23, 2021January 23, 2021 by MartynL

In 1970, Motown’s Maximum Muscle - 1970: MUSCLECARS AT AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS - showcased the biggest and baddest engines, head-turning wings, sound & fury, an endless list of performance options, and limited-production models. A special class of 1970 Musclecars, including a Buick Stage 1 Skylark GSX, will celebrate the pinnacle of Detroit’s fast and loud Musclecar era at the 26th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on May 23, 2021. The first wave of Baby Boomers was graduating...

GNX: MAXIMUM MUSCLE FROM BUICK!

Posted on October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 by MartynL

The 1980s were lean years for musclecar enthusiasts. There were some bright spots: Corvette, 5.0 Mustang, IROC Camaro, Firebird Trans-Am and turbocharged-intercooled Buick Grand National/GNX. Arguably, the rare, high-boost GNX was the car to beat on the street and strip. If heavy metal music were a car, it would be a GNX: MAXIMUM MUSCLE FROM BUICK! “The GNX is an ax-wielding barbarian laying waste to everything in its path. It rockets to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and squirts through the qua...

TOP TEN: DEALER-BUILT MUSCLECARS

Posted on October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 by MartynL

Scott Oldham, who grew up with a ’69 Baldwin-Motion 427 Camaro in the family garage, blogs about the TOP TEN: DEALER-BUILT MUSCLECARS in the 1960s-1970s. 1967 Royal Pontiac Bobcat GTO During the horsepower wars of the original muscle car era, it wasn’t just the car companies duking it out for supremacy on the street and strip: Many dealers also got into the ring, adding cubic inches and horsepower over and above what the factory was offering. They were building some of the quickest muscl...

1970s: MAXIMUM MUSCLE

Posted on August 17, 2020 by MartynL

Scott Oldham blogs about the 10 coolest domestic and imported performance cars of the 1970s: MAXIMUM MUSCLE 1970 SS454 Chevelle LS6 Gas lines. Smog motors. Big ugly chrome bumpers. Gas guzzling dinosaurs that can’t get out of their own way. That’s what most people think of when they think of cars of the 1970s. And they’re mostly correct. For much of the decade, performance was a four-letter word and the malaise era was in full swing as the car companies struggled to figure out new safety and...

1960s: TEN GREATEST PERFORMANCE CARS

Posted on June 16, 2020June 16, 2020 by MartynL

You can call them Musclecars, Supercars, Ponycars or Sports Cars, but Scott Oldham simply calls ‘em as he sees them: 1960s: TEN GREATEST PERFORMANCE CARS. 1965 Pontiac GTO Everyone was a car nut in the 1960s. Everyone. Even the peace loving, pot-loving, free-loving hippies. Heck, even the people at the car companies. Men like Enzo, John Z., Carroll, Zora, Butzi, and Sir William. These men built the cars they wanted, not what market research told them. And they built powerful art forms through...