In the streets of Southern California, specifically Orange County around Costa Mesa and the planned community of Irvine, there's a daily-driven prowling cat that knows just where it's at in the American pony and muscle car landscape. The uninformed think it's a funny looking, if not upscale customization of a first-generation Mustang. True gearheads shake their heads at such an outlandishly incorrect assumption. For goodness sakes, the new for 1967 Mercury Cougar was appointed Car of the Year by the automotive scribes at Motor Trend (an automotive car mag of considerable repute back in the swingin' muscle car '60's - in the February 1967 issue).

Few automobiles occupy a more fascinating corner of Corvette history than the five original 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sports.

They weren't production Corvettes with bigger engines. They weren't ordinary Sting Rays converted into race cars. And despite their familiar C2 silhouette, they shared surprisingly little with the Corvette sitting on a Chevrolet showroom floor in 1963.

Founder of the Ford Motor Company and inventor of the assembly line at the start of the Industrial Revolution, Henry Ford is famous for saying the following, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black". Now Mr. Ford, mind you, was saying that to save money and time, as the Ford Model T's matriculated down the assembly line from approximately 1914 to 1926. As you lay your eyes on this ink well deep, three dimensional jet-black 1997 GMC Yukon GT 4WD, you're probably wondering what in the heck does a bunch of black tin lizzies training down Henry's production line have to do with this commanding beauty?

Few cars invite closer inspection than a 1963-1967 Chevrolet Corvette. At any show, auction, or cars-and-coffee, someone will eventually lean over the passenger-side fender looking for numbers. There's a good reason: the difference between an ordinary small-block Sting Ray and a documented, original-drivetrain big-block car can be six figures or more.

This guide shows you how to read those numbers, what each one can prove, and where each one stops.

For Corvette C1 enthusiasts, a string of letters and numbers can reveal the beginning of a car's story.

Is that Corvette really a 1957? Where was it assembled? What does the VIN say about that 1955 Corvette's original engine?

Every August, the Monterey Peninsula becomes the center of the collector-car universe.

For a few glorious days, seemingly every road connecting Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca become an impromptu rolling car show. Ferraris mingle with Porsches. Prewar classics cruise alongside modern hypercars. Vintage racers thunder through the hills, and automobiles carrying seven- and eight-figure valuations suddenly seem almost commonplace.

If you work with your brain and your hands this could be your creation and your good fun. Civil engineering student and JBA Speed Shop builder Ethan has created a 1967 Ford Mustang fastback that pretty much every gearhead on the planet would want to drive and enjoy.

Some classic cars are bought because they’re valuable. Others are chosen because they’re fast, rare, or simply the car someone has dreamed about owning since childhood. Then there are cars whose value can’t really be measured in dollars at all.

Charles J. Williams’ 1968 Chevrolet Camaro falls squarely into that last category.

Just imagine the great luck that accompanies stumbling onto/discovering the 1968 Ford Mustang GT390 Bullitt movie stunt car that the King of Cool, actor Steve McQueen drove as San Francisco Police Department Detective Frank Bullitt. There's also a mountain of work that ensues once such a figurative pot of gold is found at the end of the rainbow, in terms of renovating a historically and painstakingly accurate, 100-point ground up restoration. 

Some classic trucks are restored because they're rare. Others are restored because they're part of the family.

This beautifully restored 1973 Chevrolet C-30 Cheyenne Super Camper Special dually falls into the latter category. Its story began more than five decades ago, long before its current owner took possession. It is a story of family, unforgettable road trips, and a promise fulfilled.