PONTIAC TRANS AM’S SCREAMING CHICKEN

PONTIAC TRANS AM’S SCREAMING CHICKEN
Scott Oldham blogs about how the PONTIAC TRANS AM’S SCREAMING CHICKEN got its wings! A beloved symbol of 1970s car culture. An icon of disco-era design. A redneck’s red-letter regalia. It’s gaudy. Garish. Tacky. Even vulgar. And we love it. This is the story of Pontiac’s Screaming Chicken, the largest and most recognizable decal in automotive history. Lost to time is the name of the man who first referred to the graphic as a “Screaming Chicken.” The nickname came quickly. By the late...
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PONTIAC GTO: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL MUSCLE CAR

PONTIAC GTO: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL MUSCLE CAR
Musclecar Maven and Hagerty contributor Scott Oldham blogs about 15 facts you might not know about PONTIAC GTO: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL MUSCLE CAR. In the early spring of 1963, during a “what if” session at GM’s Milford, Michigan, Proving Grounds, a small team of Pontiac engineers led by John Z. DeLorean realized the 389-cubic-inch V-8 from the full-size Bonneville would fit easily in the new midsize Tempest. A week later, they were doing burnouts in the first prototype, and the car widely acc...
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’69 CAMARO: 10 COOLEST EVER!

’69 CAMARO: 10 COOLEST EVER!
Arguably the most popular Camaro – with the longest list of engine options from mini-powerhouse small-block 302 to the maximum muscle big-block 396-427 – is the first-Gen ’69. Adding to its cred are the big-block tire-fryers from Baldwin-Motion, below, right, Yenko and others, showcased here by Scott Oldham in ’69 CAMARO: 10 COOLEST EVER! Launched in 1967, Chevy’s Camaro had a very strong first year. The Bowtie brand finally had a rival for the Ford Mustang, and Chevy sold nearly 221,00...
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ULTIMATE CARGUY: CARROLL SHELBY!

ULTIMATE CARGUY: CARROLL SHELBY!
High-performance automotive historian Scott Oldham blogs about the horsepower and heritage of Shelby American and America’s ULTIMATE CARGUY: CARROLL SHELBY! Photo: Mike Matune @ Laguna Seca With the possible exceptions of Henry Ford and Mario Andretti, Carroll Shelby is America’s most famous automotive personality. That was probably true before the movie Ford v Ferrari hit it big last year, and it’s certainly the case in its wake. He’s been called America’s Enzo Ferrari. It was meant as ...
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TOP TEN: DEALER-BUILT MUSCLECARS

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...
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1970s: MAXIMUM MUSCLE

1970s: MAXIMUM MUSCLE
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...
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’73 BUICK: STAGE 1 455 GRAN SPORT

’73 BUICK: STAGE 1 455 GRAN SPORT
Scott Oldham does a deep dive on Phil Roitman’s rare - and extremely well done – ’73 BUICK: STAGE 1 455 GRAN SPORT, one of the quickest, fastest and most forgotten Musclecars of the 1970s! Buick’s public relations department was asleep at the wheel in 1973. Although the brand’s Gran Sport Stage 1 was among the stoutest of the remaining midsize muscle cars offered that year, it was largely ignored by most of the major contemporary car magazines. Car and Driver, Road & Track, Hot Rod,...
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1960s: TEN GREATEST PERFORMANCE CARS

1960s: TEN GREATEST PERFORMANCE CARS
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...
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CHEVY: GUIDE TO Z-CODE MUSCLE

CHEVY: GUIDE TO Z-CODE MUSCLE
Muscle maven Scott Oldham sets the record straight on Chevy’s RPO options, CHEVY: GUIDE TO Z-CODE MUSCLE, starting with the light-heavyweight ’63 Impala SS Z11. Of course, Datsun and Nissan have dibs on the Z-Car moniker - we’re not arguing that. But Chevy was actually there first. The original Datsun 240Z didn’t arrive until 1970, while Chevy’s first Z-Cars, the Z11 427-powered Impalas and Z06 Corvette had become legends seven years earlier. Truth is, by the time Mr. K finally got his sport...
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’87 GNX REDUX: DRIVING BUICK GNX #002!

’87 GNX REDUX: DRIVING BUICK GNX #002!
Scott Oldham recalls his GNX driving experience and being the first to be involved in a GNX fender bender. That’s something he’ll never forget. Neither will I. In 1987 I handled media relations for Buick on the east coast, wrote the BUICK GNX book that went with each of the 547 GNXs and had #002 in my New York City press fleet. The first media loan went to Joe Oldham at Popular Mechanics magazine, and son Scott, later to become a respected member of the automotive media community, borrowed it t...
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