It seems that everyone with a talent for building something is finding a career in television these days. Channels that were once dedicated to the preservation of rainforests and historic perspective have turned their attention to various forms of reality shows centered on street rods, choppers and wicked creations that defy description.
Every winter, the custom car world storms into the Motor City for one of the most legendary indoor shows in hot rodding history—Detroit Autorama. Inside the sprawling halls of Huntington Place, the temperature might still read winter outside, but on the show floor the atmosphere is pure horsepower, chrome, and adrenaline. Thousands of enthusiasts flood the aisles to see the machines that define the cutting edge of hot rods and muscle cars craftsmanship.
“Carroll Shelby has pulled the trick of the year. He’s combined Ford’s new drag champion 428 Cobra Jet engine with his complete road car, the Cobra G.T.500. Result? Cobra G.T.500KR…King of the Road.” Those words accompanied the full-page advertisements for the mid-year introduction of the ’68 Shelby Cobra G.T.500KR. The new model replaced the early ’68 G.T.500 and its more docile 428 V-8 engine.
In 1962, General Motors’ performance car sales, namely those of Chevrolet and Pontiac, were steadily pulling away from the competition. On the dragstrip, the 409’s horsepower and torque were getting the job done, and so was that all-important driveline. The Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed transmission shifted perfectly, and the overall suspension, even slightly modified, allowed the car to launch without wheel-hop woes.
During the muscle-car wars of the ’60s and early ’70s, few companies produced motors that were surrounded by the kind of aura that ebbed and oozed like a fog around Mopar. Engines like the 426 Hemi, 426 Max Wedge and 440 Six Pack were among the most coveted and feared of the era. It says something of a car company’s commitment to power and performance when a multi-carbed 440 big block is not the most wanted engine in a manufacturer’s lineup. So it was with Mopar, because for many, the 440 was the engine you got if you couldn’t afford or couldn’t find the car you wanted with a Hemi.
