’70 BUICK STAGE I GS-455 – FIRST ADULT SUPERCAR

’70 BUICK STAGE I GS-455 – FIRST ADULT SUPERCAR
Certainly not in keeping with Buick’s traditional image, the ’70 BUICK STAGE I GS-455 – FIRST ADULT SUPERCAR catapulted the Flint automaker into the heat of the battle for Supercar supremacy. The Skylark GS-455, in 360 horsepower Stage I trim, was the industry’s first “adult” Supercar. It was a powerful, high-quality, well-balanced midsize coupe (or convertible) with superb ride and handling qualities. Yet it was almost invisible compared with competitive offerings like the SS Chevelle,...
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ONE-OF-ONE: MERCEDES-BENZ UHLENHAUT COUPÉ

Alex Iervolino, Roue watch designer and consummate carguy, blogs about the original,ONE-OF-ONE: MERCEDES-BENZ UHLENHAUT COUPÉ  and Rudolf Uhlenhaut. The 300 SLR was originally conceived for racing. Mercedes-Benz designed it for the 1956 season, but before it was even completed the company ended up deciding to withdraw from racing at the end of 1955. Even though it was never given a chance to compete, Rudolf Uhlenhaut – the head of the Test Department – managed to appropriate one of the prototyp...
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GNX: MAXIMUM MUSCLE FROM BUICK!

GNX: MAXIMUM MUSCLE FROM BUICK!
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...
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JOEL ROSEN: BALDWIN-MOTION SUPERCARS

JOEL ROSEN: BALDWIN-MOTION SUPERCARS
Hagerty’s Reggie Horning blogs about the man from Motion who earned his cred the old fashion way - a quarter-mile at a time – and the Supercars he built between 1967 and 1974! If you lived in Brooklyn in the early-1960s and drag raced a fuel-injected Corvette or a Chevy powered by a Rochester-injected small-block, you would’ve known Joel Rosen, right w/"Astoria Chas" Snyder, tuning Chas' Corvette. He owned Motion Performance, a local speed shop known for his dynamometer tuning of record-sett...
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RAM AIR V GTO – THE MYTH & THE MAGIC!

RAM AIR V GTO - THE MYTH & THE MAGIC!
Like Chevrolet’s ZL1 Corvette and Buick’s Stage II Gran Sports, Pontiac’s Tunnel Port Ram Air V has been the subject of urban legends for decades. It’s all about myth & magic. According to Tom Nell, a Special Projects Engineer at Pontiac in 1971, “Pontiac’s Ram Air V or Mark V was the first Pontiac engine since the 1963 Super-Duty 421 to be developed around the concept of performance and durability, outside the realm of normal usage.” Many of the same high-performance engineers responsib...
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427 CAMARO: THE THOMAS /NICKEY AFFAIR!

427 CAMARO: THE THOMAS /NICKEY AFFAIR!
Within months after Chevrolet’s September 1966 introduction of its all-new ’67 Camaro, Nickey and Nickey/Thomas SS427 Camaros were on the road. Bill Thomas Race Cars, Anaheim, CA built 427 Camaros for California customers, while Nickey Chevrolet, Chicago, IL covered the rest of the country. Built on a Bolero Red SS350 donor, I drove Bill Thomas’ first SS427 Camaro around Orange County in early 1967. It retained its original 350 emblems and 1966 Illinois dealer tags. My reason for visiting Bi...
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’66 PLYMOUTH STREET HEMI: BONNEVILLE TO SUBURBIA!

’66 PLYMOUTH STREET HEMI: BONNEVILLE TO SUBURBIA!
After setting the B/Production Flying Mile record of 156.35 mph at the Salt Flats, I daily-drove and drag raced the 426 Street Hemi in around New York City. Bob Summers’, left, pre-production ’66 Plymouth 426 Street Hemi registered a top speed of 160.82 mph and set a USAC-FIA two-way Flying Mile record of 156.35 mph. It also set the two-way Flying Kilometer record of 155.30 mph. The B/Production records had been “owned” for years by factory Pontiacs prepared and driven by Mickey Thompson. I had...
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4WD VETTE: YEAH, IT’S GOT A HEMI!

Go anywhere and everywhere Corvette is powered by an old-school, dual-quad 392-inch Chrysler Hemi. It’s truly unstoppable.  When you live close to the New Jersey shore, like Dewey Powell does, it’s not uncommon to see 4WD and AWD vehicles with surf fishing racks on the front bumper. Most are trucks but some are one-off cars that feature conversion from Crossovers and SUVs. Dewey Powell’s Corvette is more than likely the only fully-functioning on and off-road Corvette powered by an engine th...
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MUSCLECARS 101: BACK IN THE DAY!

Musclecar was barely part of enthusiast vernacular when iconic GTOs, Hemis and Camaros and Mustangs were new and prowled the streets. Today, it’s the only word used to define those ground-pounding Supercars and Ponycars. When Pontiac built the GTO in 1964 they jump-started Detroit’s performance car revolution; the Supercar was born. That same year, Ford gave us the Mustang. It became the quintessential Ponycar. It was Supercars and Ponycars, period. Musclecar was the catchall descriptor used ...
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