The appeal of the car itself is obvious in its styling. The car is a beast, a large, hulking expression of American ferocity in muscle cars. The engine, a 426 Hemi, is probably the most sought after model in the history of the American muscle car. Most consider this to be one of the best engines ever made for drag racing, and it is still a popular choice for the top competitors in that field. The Hemi 426 has become a benchmark for power and strength in engine design. The engine itself in most of its incarnations is appreciated and sought after by car collectors. The engine as included as part of the package in a 71 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible is a dream few will ever be able to attain.

The car’s rarity was due in part to the convertible’s declining popularity of the period. The car, however, was designed as a power machine, with nothing to slow it down, not even a roof.

The 71 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible has in the last few decades become one of the most sought after collector cars on the market. The few times that they have moved at auction in recent years they have fetched outrageous prices, with one topping four million. Experts predict that this is one of those car’s whose value is only going to continue to appreciate over time, and the outlook is that the next time one of them moves the sale price will be much higher than the last one that sold. The cars are a status symbol to the muscle car collector. They represent owning the absolute finest. The car was brought back into the non-car collector’s eyes by a replica being used in the Don Johnson drama Nash Bridges. Originally, Johnson saw the car and said that was the car he wanted used in the show, before realizing the sky high asking prices on one of the vehicles. Due the originals being cost prohibitive, several replicas were built for use on the show.

There are many muscle cars with a reputation for rareness, power, and collectability. The 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda convertible brings together all three to create a true gem.

The design of the Superbird was honestly not them most popular at the time. The car marked a departure from the standard look of the most popular cars amongst muscle enthusiasts of the period and was received with mixed reviews. It had two extremely prominent features that make it easy to pick out of a crowd of cars at a car show. It has a nineteen inch nosecone added to the front for aerodynamic purposes which really does give it a birdlike appearance. Even more distinctive however, is the gigantic fin on the rear of the car, a spoiler mounted high in the air, higher than anything else of the period. Ostensibly, the reason for the height of the wing was to allow trunk clearance, but there were other, aerodynamic reasons for placing it at that height as well. It also featured retractable headlights and a smoother and sleeker body than previous Plymouth cars.

These aerodynamic innovations in the Superbirds design were not by chance. The car was designed to be a racing car, and to be a challenger to other preeminent racers of the time. Due to the goals that were in mind when the car was being designed, it was among the very first automobiles to be designed using a wind tunnel to gather data on the aerodynamic effect the shape of the cars body was having upon its performance. That testing is what is responsible for those distinctive nose cones and rear wings that make the Superbird so easy to identify.

1970 was the Superbird’s only production year. Due to NASCAR regulations at the time, and car that was to be raced had to have a predetermined amount produced for sale to the general public. Plymouth produced the absolute bare minimum of Superbirds possible, only doing so for the privilege of putting their engineering work to the test on the track. In fact, due at least in part to the Superbirds unpopular styling as well as its exclusively race oriented engineering, the car remained quite unpopular in its own time. So unpopular in fact, that several of the cars were never moved off the lots, and were only ever owned by the dealers who originally took delivery of them from Plymouth.

Despite the car being unappreciated in its own time by the public, it is a collectible car today both for its rarity and its uniqueness of design.

The 455 ci. V-8 engine beneath the hood of the 442/W-30 was rated very conservatively at 370 horsepower. It was common practice at the time of this car’s production to have an “insurance” number to rate horsepower at. Most estimate the actual horse power production of the 455 in the 442/W-30 to be at least 30 – 40 more than rated by Oldsmobile at the time of its release. The car was fronted by a lightweight fiberglass hood that had two fully functioning air scoops. The car was defiantly a power horse, with a performance calibrated carburetor and a high overlap cam. The W-30 also had a few other special features over the regular 442, including an aluminum intake manifold and a performance curved distributor.

Not only did the 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 perform though, from a visual standpoint this was a car that anyone would be proud to own. From the great lines to the dual hood scoops, everything about the car visually spoke of power and speed. These were the factors that the muscle car buyers were looking for at the time, a car that looked great, felt great, and went faster than anybody else’s.

The 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 was also featured as the pace car at the 1970 Indianapolis 500. This was a great thing for Oldsmobile. Racing was so popular at the time that many companies were vying for as much publicity as they could get, in any way possible through the NASCAR circuit. Car sales were driven to a large degree by cars popularity in the racing circuits.

The car is also relatively rare in the world of collector cars. Although there are certainly makes and models out there with less available, the 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 is still quite hard to find when you take into consideration that only 3100 of the cars were ever built. Of that 3100 cars, only 2574 were of the hardtop variety.

The 1970 Oldsmobile 442/W-30 hardtop is a true American muscle car. It boasts one of the great V-8 engines of the time as well as a styling as mean and powerful looking as any that can be shown by the other major players in the muscle car field. It is also a rare car, and so would make an excellent addition or foundation to any collection of American muscle cars of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS-454/LS-6 convertible was a beautiful looking car. This is part of the lasting appeal of all the cars of this period is their extreme aesthetics combined with immense amounts of power. The 1970 Chevelle SS had a cowl induction hood, five spoke Rallye wheels, and one of the pointed vee front ends, with the angled grille. This vee design was popular because it gave the car the visual impression of speed as well as increasing the car’s aerodynamic flow. Then of course there was the simple SS logo, the Super-Sport which was so sought after.

At the time, there were many sporty looking and powerful muscle cars. The thing that truly set the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS-454/LS-6 apart from the rest of the pack was its truly unique engine, the largest to yet come into a muscle car. The car had a 454 engine, and it is this engine that is the cars true legacy. The LS6’s 454 roared in with a monstrous 450 horse power, and blew the doors off most of its competition. Due to insurance surcharges that made the car so expensive, the LS6 engine line was dropped the next year, again increasing the value and collector’s interest in the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS-454/LS-6 convertible.

One of the things that add extra appeal to this car is the convertible factor. Convertibles were a hard sell for many reasons, and the people that truly wanted them were car enthusiasts, not an everyday purchaser of an automobile. Convertibles were for the purists, who wanted the wind in their eyes and the bugs in their teeth as they slammed the pedal to the floor to drag out in one of these legendary cars.

The 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS-454/LS-6 convertible is a collector’s showpiece, because of its style, rarity, and its power. The engine is a historical footnote in the evolution of the muscle car, and is still one of the most sought after that you can buy. The 1970 Chevelle SS in general, was widely admired for its sleek look and design. The rarity, combined with those other two factors makes this a dream car for most collectors. The SS-454/LS-6 was a rare car to begin with, but to find one in a convertible would probably make it the centerpiece of anyone’s muscle car garage.

This was a clever bit of marketing on Pontiac’s part, as the use of name with ties to pop culture gave them advertising possibilities and tie ins that far surpassed that of many of the other performance cars of the time.

The car was marketed at a slightly different audience than some of the other cars of the period. While it certainly boasted another of the famous V-8 engines with power aplenty, it was also supposed to be fun and accessible, and was sold in bright colors, with optional decal kits available. This sort of mentality behind the inception of the Judge model was created to build a competitor for Plymouth’s Road Runner. The Ram III engine was typical of the time in that for a variety of reasons Pontiac had a policy to underrate the horse power on the engine. The publicized horsepower on the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge was 366 horsepower, although it was probably considerably higher than that in actuality.

The convertible model of the judge was produced in low numbers, and that rareness adds to the value and desirability of the car. The problem at the time was that people that were interested in owning a performance car didn’t want the added weight of the convertible roof. Then the people who might enjoy a convertible didn’t need a car with as much power as the Ram III engine that came in the Judge provided.

The 1969 GTO Judge convertible came with a few other features that make it stand out. The unique T handled shifter with a three speed manual transmission is one that many readily recognize. It also came with a spoiler which both added visual appeal as well as providing some down force to weight down the car at high speeds. The Judge also came with a blackout grille.

The 1969 GTO Judge convertible is a desirable car for many reasons. The car has the great GTO engineering and power that would be admired by any muscle car lover. It has a pleasing body, and features that make it stand out from the crowd of the other GTO models, which while still great cars, just aren’t quite the Judge

754 of these cars were ever built, and again, only to allow the car to be allowed to enter the world of NASCAR. Ford was seeking a serious competitor in the field and felt that the Talladega would be their best chance. In 1969-1970, engineering was taking a trend towards the Aerodynamic. Although engine design was still a factor, all the major competitors were certainly capable of making extremely powerful motors, so their engineers quickly raced to find the edge in the aerodynamic design of their race cars instead. To this end, the 1969 Ford Torino-Talladega had several body modifications to enable air to flow with less resistance around it. They extended the front end and angled the nose slightly downwards, and included a flush mounted grill to enable better airflow over the front end of the car. Another special feature of these modified Talladega Torino’s was that they were equipped with rerolled rocker panels, an innovation that would allow the race team to have a car nearly an inch closer to the ground than the non modified version would sit. This was hugely helpful to the team, because the car would still sit within NASCARS regulations, but have a lower centre of gravity for increased handling, and would also improve that airflow which was such a concern at the time.

The interiors of these cars were extremely plain, clearly it was stripped down and ready for business. Drab upholstery, no tach or clock, and an AM radio were about the only trappings of note inside the car. Things like this are why the extra models of many cars that were produced only to allow their company to race them in NASCAR were not huge on the domestic market, the car simply wasn’t designed with the consumer in mind.

Now however, the car is most assuredly in the consumers mind. The 1969 Ford Torino-Talladega hardtop is one of those racing cars that are a part of NASCAR and Ford’s history and so are very sought after by interested parties in either one of those great companies. The car’s rarity is especially interesting as so few of the cars were ever produced, and indeed, they only rolled off the line for a year so are all the more rare for that.

Part of the the 1969 Dodge Charge R/T -440 hardtop’s enduring popularity has to do with the fact that the 1969 Dodge Charger was immortalized as one of the great cars of all time by featuring as the "General Lee" in the 1980’s TV show, "The Dukes of Hazzard". The cars used in the television show were not exclusively the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T -440 hardtop, however several of them were used. The show also employed 1968 chargers modified to look like the ‘69, as well as various editions of the 69 charger.

The differences should be pointed out between the 1969 Charger and the 1968. The major modifications to the dodge charger came in 1968 as Dodge revamped the car into the shape and engineering that has become so classic and collectible. The changes to the 1969 model were minimum, but there were a few. The easiest way to identify the difference between the two years is the 1969 models have a split front grille, as opposed to a continuous one like the 68’s. The headlights were also given a new treatment, they were adjusted to a horizontal plane to give it a slightly more sporty appearance.

The 1969 Dodge Charger R/T -440 hardtop was a monster in terms of speed. The R/T (road and track) edition of the car came equipped with some additional features that made the care even more suitable for racing and power exhibitions. The engine in this model could provide 425 HP and the car had a very high top speed. The 1969 Dodge Charger R/T -440 hardtop also came with heavy duty suspension and special handling outfitting for those road and track applications. The car’s were not readily identifiable as being different from the regular charger model except for a small R/T emblem, and a stripe which was an option you could delete if you so chose.

The 1969 Dodge Charger R/T-440 hardtop is one of America’s most popular muscle cars for several reasons. The style of the car, while not appreciated as much at the time, is now recognized as the identifying mark of the American muscle car. It performs well, looms large in the public eye due to its television fame, and is a much sought after car by collectors.

The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28/SS coupe was developed partly in response the severe popularity of the Ford Mustang. The Mustang had been one of the hottest selling cars of the era and Chevy realized that its Nova was not going to be sufficient competition. In fact, in the development of the first generation Camaro, much was borrowed from the design of the Nova, but with a mind to make the car sportier and more of a must-have to compete with Ford’s Mustang. The 1969 would mark the end of that first generation of Camaros which began in 1967, and perhaps that is the reason the cars so iconic.

There were changes to the 1969 models of the car, but they mostly involved the physical appearance rather than the engine, although other engine options were available. The grille was adapted to a V-shape that came to an aggressive point, which is the most distinctive visual indicator of a 69 Camaro. The fenders, rear quarter panels and taillights were also adapted in an effort to give the care an even more aggressive appearance. They wanted the car to appear as low and wide as possible, to give, along with that pointed nose, the visual impression of speed, aggressiveness, and power. In 1970 the Camaro moved to the second generation of production, and so the visual appearance of the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28/SS coupe is truly unique, because cars that looked like this were only produced for a single year.

The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28/SS coupe is widely thought to be the most sought after Z-28 ever made. The reasons for this are plenty, including but not limited to the unique styling mentioned above. There were also differences in the brakes, induction and exhaust that made the car appealing. The model is also identifiable by having an option of putting an induction cowl in the hood as well as the bumblebee stripes running over the front end. The brake option was a new thing, as disc brakes on all four wheels were offered. The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28/SS coupe was also a power house. It was rated at 290 horsepower, but this was a severely underestimated figure. Chevrolet made a conscious decision to underrate the power for several reasons. There various laws and regulations at the time that were attempting to limit the amount of horse power that certain classes of cars could have, so for those reasons as well as insurance purposes the rating was much lower than what the car could actually produce.

The 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28/SS coupe is an extremely sought after car for both its engineering and styling.

Low production numbers of cars of this period frequently boost their value in the eyes of collectors today. But only when a car has hit that perfect combination of rarity along with the elements that made it popular at the time does its value soar into the stratosphere like the Shelby GT-500-KR convertible has.

The car had a 428 Cobra Jet V-8 engine under the hood. This is one of those legendary benchmark engines against which plenty of cars that come afterwards will be measured. Ford was conservative, (as most manufacturer’s were wont to do at the time) in rating the car’s horsepower and posted it at a safe 335 hp, however tests of the cars power later have revealed that it could reach over 400 hp in several of the models that were produced.

The KR in the car’s name stands for King of the Road, and Caroll Shelby certainly ensured that it looked the part. The regular mustang look was redressed by Shelby, with a new fiberglass front end, working hood scoops, decorative intakes on the side panels, and new taillights. All of these factored together to give the GT-500-KR the unique and distinctive appearance for which Shelby cars were gaining such a reputation. The interior was upgraded from that of the everyday mustang as well, with improved gauges and some wood paneling applied to give the car more of that sophisticated, British roadster feel for which Shelby had built his reputation in America upon.

Although there were other cars produced, especially those of the hemi powered muscle cars that could outperform this Shelby; the style alone earns it a place in the history books of great and collectible cars. For many people, anything designed by Carroll Shelby is a collectible, because of their amazing combination of that British styling with all the engineering that had gone into Ford’s high power engines. Amongst those collectible Shelby edition cars, the 1968 Shelby GT-500-KR convertible is defiantly a standout. This is due to its styling, but also influence hugely by its rareness. 517 cars of a specific model was low even for a limited edition car, and so collectors everywhere flock to auction when one of these fine pieces of American and British automotive history come up for bid.

The 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster was of course one of the Shelby’s designed by Caroll Shelby. The bare bones of the car can be simplified to one sentence. It has British elegance and design on the outside, and American muscle on the inside. The interior had all the class and elegance of any British roadster, but underneath the hood their lie a 427 engine that Shelby along with Ford placed in the cars. The power provided by that engine combined with the extremely light weight of the car made it one of the most powerful cars in existence. Even today the list of cars that can outperform a 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 roadster is a very short list. The corollary to its power combined with its lightness however is that the car is notoriously hard to handle for the average driver. There are several stories about well known or well to do people who have purchased cobras of this make and been unable to handle the car.

Carrol Shelby himself was a name to be reckoned with. A man with an impressive career, his car designs clearly stem from the fact that the first large portion of his life he made his living as a race car driver. From the point he retired from racing onward, he was designing cars. These cars were meant to drive like the race cars he once made his living driving, and so were not for the casual user. Among all the cars that Caroll Shelby designed though, the most famous, and the most valuable are the Shelby Cobra 427 roadsters.

The most rare and sought after of these cars were dubbed the mark III, which had more advanced rack and pinion steering. There was under a thousand of them produced, and are all worth extremely large amounts of money at auction.

The cobra is a unique combination for most car enthusiast. It appeals to collectors of the sleek, beautiful British roadsters, your Jaguar or AC enthusiasts. But then, it also has magnificent value to people who covet the great American race cars of that generation as it brings together the best of two worlds into something extremely rare and special. Shelby wanted a high end race car, that could be lighter, and more powerful than the already legendary Chevrolet corvette. With the 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 roadster he achieved his mark perfectly, with a car that looms high in both American and British collectors consciousness.