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Patrick McCarthy

Recent Posts by Patrick McCarthy:

Video: Track-Prepped 550hp '63 Ford Falcon

The Ford Falcon was a practical and affordable compact car, and certainly remains a timeless classic to this day. But for Serge Anderson, it's more than that. Anderson saw potential for a fast and agile track weapon, so he began modifying this '63 Falcon to unlock that potential. The result is a very cool build with some subtle but significant changes, including a 550hp V8 under the hood.

Retro Restomod: Old Anvil's 1966 Corvette from SEMA 2025

Custom car culture is always changing and evolving, so it's cool to see modern restomod builds that take us back to a snapshot of a different era. This 1966 Corvette was built by Old Anvil Speed Shop as a homage to the style of modifications that was popular in the early 1970s. It has Grand-Sport-inspired flared fenders, side pipes, flake-heavy green paint, a restored set of 15-inch American Racing wheels, and a good old 454ci big block V8. The car was unveiled at the 2025 SEMA Show in the Coker Tire display.

Video: Jay Leno Drives the 1969 Cougar Eliminator 428

"You just don't see these, they're just not around," remarked Jay Leno as he looked at this restored 1969 Mercury Cougar. This particular Cougar is an Eliminator with the largest engine available, the potent 428 Cobra Jet V8. Of the 2,250 Cougar Eliminators produced that year, only 302 were optioned with the (heavily underrated) 335-horsepower 428, so there aren't many survivors still around today. Leno spoke to the owner, Emmett Abner, and took the car out for a spin to truly enjoy it.

Video: 800hp "Rhodium" 1968 Camaro by East Bay Muscle Cars

Rhodium is a very rare, bright silver metal known for its hardness, resistance to corrosion, and high reflectivity. As a result of its scarcity, it's also one of the most valuable precious metals, far exceeding the value of of gold or platinum. Given these characteristics, Rhodium seems like a very fitting name for this exquisite '68 Camaro crafted by East Bay Muscle Cars. It features lots of custom metalwork, one-of-a-kind 3D-printed components, an 800hp ProCharged LT4 V8, and an interior that looks like it could've come out of a brand new supercar.

1970 Road Runner "Haraka" Unveiled at SEMA Show

Every November, the SEMA Show in Las Vegas serves as a mecca for all things automotive. Restoration shops and aftermarket parts manufacturers use the SEMA Show as an opportunity to unveil their latest projects, often in the form of a custom car parked in their booth. Suspension manufacturer Heidts teamed up with Steve Strope of Pure Vision Design to create this incredible 1970 Road Runner. The project was dubbed Haraka, which means "speed" in Swahili.

1970 Nova SS Sells for Record-Breaking $275k at Mecum Auction

For many decades, the Chevy Nova SS has been seen as an affordable, blue-collar muscle car. It was less expensive than its sibling the Chevelle SS, and certainly more attainable for the everyman than GM's flagship Corvette. However, recent auction results indicate the value of a clean Nova SS is rising fast. At Mecum's 2025 Dallas Fort Worth auction, this numbers-matching 1970 Nova SS L78 with extremely low miles sold for a whopping $275,000, making it reportedly the most expensive original-style restored Nova of all time.

Video: '71 Corvette Restomod with a 640hp Small Block V8

The COVID pandemic was unpleasant in many ways, but at least one good thing came out of it — it gave a lot of car guys the time we needed to complete our restoration projects. Tom Evans, the owner of this '71 C3 Corvette, says his wife calls it the "COVID Corvette" for that reason. But regardless of the circumstances it was completed under, this is a cool build that has a decidedly old-school restomod approach. In a recent video from AutotopiaLA, Tom showed off the key elements of this project, including a 640hp naturally-aspirated Chevy small block.

Video: Jay Leno Drives the "Street Wedge" 1964 Polara

"This would be the equivalent of a Hellcat today — a big comfortable car that goes when you put your foot in it... There's just so much torque, it pulls so hard!" Jay Leno considers his 1964 Dodge Polara to be "quite the performance car from the dawn of the muscle car age," and we certainly agree. These days, it may not be as well-known as the Charger, Challenger, and other muscle cars of the late '60s, but the 426ci Wedge powered Polara was one of the cars that started it all. In a video on Jay Leno's Garage, he walks us through what made this car truly special.

Video: 800hp Ford F100 Prerunner - The Ultimate Off-Road F-Series?

If you had a blank check to build a classic truck into the ultimate off-road machine, what would you create? For Andrew Knudsen, the answer was this Ford F100. By his own admission, there's not much left unmodified, but the timeless style and character of the classic F-Series is still clearly visible. Beneath that, it has a custom tube chassis, long-travel suspension, 40-inch tires, an 830-horsepower V8, and a surprisingly luxurious (yet highly functional) interior.

The Rise and Fall of Stepside Trucks

Classic trucks have curves, and that's one of the many reasons we love them. One of the main sources of this curvy appearance is their use of Stepside bed designs. Stepside trucks feature a narrow rectangular bed flanked by external fenders over the rear wheels, plus convenient step platforms behind the cab. Today, we think of this as an optional feature that fell out of favor, but in reality, the Stepside design was simply the default way trucks were made until the mid-1950s. A recent video from Rare Cars summarized the history of Stepside (a.k.a. Flareside or Utiline) truck beds and why they were eventually replaced by the Fleetside beds all modern trucks have today.