(wind roaring)
- Muscle cars are a threatened breed.
They're too big, too loud
too fast.
Too much fun for today's politically correct world of
hybrid electric and driverless cars.
So we, the drivers, the designers and the owners
need a place online to celebrate
the muscle car's power and speed.
A place to enjoy to revel in their full shock and awe.
A place that recognizes and celebrates
the whole world of muscle cars.
Where is that place?
It's right here.
Welcome motorheads to the House of Muscle.
(heavy rock music)
This is a show about you and your rides
but before we showcase your cars and stories
it's only right that you get to know
what's in my stable.
So, join me on a tour of the House of Muscle Garage.
So what you people are looking at behind me
is my 1968 Dodge Charger.
Now this car was built in Hamtramck Michigan, well in 1968.
Under the hood we have a 440 which is actually pretty mild.
906 heads with stock rockers and push rods
a big ol' 800 double pumper on top
and really mild cam.
Rear end is an eight and 3/4 with 3.55 gears
and a Gear Vendor over- and underdrive.
Now what does that do?
Makes the car so I can drive it on the highway
so it's normal, so it improves my gas mileage.
Basically just makes it drivable, which is great.
I've had this car for the better part of 15 years.
Everybody, when I first bought it said
you're out of your mind, you paid way too much money
you're crazy.
You know what they were?
They were wrong.
Because this car led to exactly what I'm doing right now
and in my opinion was the best decision I've ever made
well, aside from marrying my wife.
This is my general racing car.
I've taken it to track days
I've taken it to cross-country rallies and endurance races
and today I even took it drag racing.
So, there you go.
All-purpose race car
right here in a beautiful '68 Charger Rally.
(tires screeching)
We're up at the Wednesday night drags in Sonoma.
I can tell you that I've never really run this thing
down the quarter mile, I don't know what it's going to do.
I'm predicting somewhere in the 14.2 to 14.5 range.
We're going to launch this thing, two, three, go.
(engine revs)
I think the reaction time might have been crap.
All I know is I got it flat.
Like when people ask me what do you own?
I own this, this car will never belong to anybody else
unless I die, in which case, it goes to my nephew Jack
who's 11, so Jack, there you go.
Get ready, but I have to be dead before you get it.
The most comfortable I am is behind the wheel of this car.
If you say what makes your day better
what makes life better?
Me being behind the wheel of this car is my happy place.
It will always be my happy place, and it doesn't matter
if I'm going to the racetrack or the store
or driving across the country.
If I had to pick one experience that summed this car up
it would have to be the 2010 One Lap of America.
I'm the only '68 Dodge Charger ever won in that event.
And it tested the car, man.
It broke down every single day.
I blew a fuel pump, it caught fire.
It leaked like crazy in the rain.
It made me deaf.
It wore out not only myself, but my co-driver
a rear end and a transmission in 4000 miles.
But you know what?
It finished, and it went to nine racetracks
around the United States in eight days
still the only one ever to compete
in the toughest American road rally ever.
Oh, and I drove it to my wedding, so that's kind of cool.
Next up, the Pontiac Trans Am is a piece of Americana.
It's got T-tops, shiny black paint
and a big gold bird that breathes fire on the hood.
This turbo version is not only the last of its kind
but a prime example of what automotive styling
back in the United States used to be like.
This is my '81 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am.
It's powered by a 301-cubic-inch Pontiac-built motor
with a draw-through turbo system that sits on top.
Makes about seven pounds of boost.
The transmission is a Turbo 350 three-speed.
The gears in the back, well it's a 10-bolt
and has 3.08 rear gears so you can cruise
at 75-80 miles an hour on the highway.
(upbeat disco music)
So the reason I bought this car
is because it really is like a childhood hero to me.
This is the car that was featured in
I don't know how many movies
aside from Smokey and the Bandit
and when I was a kid there were so many of these cars
and you were only really cool
obviously if you had a black one.
If you were to ask me what I love about this car
it's the looks.
It's gaudy, it's filled with bravado
it's filled with just
tackiness and wonderfulness and just
things like the turned gold dash
and the turbo charge lights on the hood
and the chickens everywhere
and it's just, it's a rolling disco ball.
That I find hilariously fun and even though
this car has right now 34,767 original miles on it
it's going to get more.
It's going to be driven because if you don't drive 'em
there's really no point in owning them
and the cool part about having this is that
even if you don't plan to write a story about this car
the drives are what dictate it, right
the drives make the stories happen.
A lot of people have asked me
what are you going to do to this car, are you going to mod it
because listen, I have a bunch of cars that are modified.
If I were to do it, I would do an LS conversion in here
but it is a Turbo Trans Am
so I'd probably do an LS with a single Turbo
4L65 Overdrive, a 12-bolt, some nice highway gears
and really just make it into a 100-mile-an-hour
all day long cruiser that I could drive
anywhere at every time and really just
really just enjoy the way that the car was meant to.
So every time somebody sees this and they're like
you know, what's it going to take for me to buy that car?
And I'll be honest, would I sell it?
Yeah, I would.
It's not like a lot of my other cars where I haven't had
that super attachment to yet
and the reason is because I haven't
crafted a story with it yet meaning
it hasn't touched me here
aside from the visual aspects of it
and what the car means to me
kind of from my childhood point of view.
However, if somebody came up to me right now
before I do any modifications to it
and said I want to buy that car
I'd probably consider selling it
but it would have to be the right number
and it's really not going to be cheap
'cause the fact the more I drive this car
I really, I just like it.
(upbeat disco music)
This is the Ron Burgundy of automobiles.
From the massive projectile hood to that smooth vinyl top
to the short decked rear end with the massive chrome bumper.
The first gen Monte Carlo
was the business man with the sketchy past
or the defense attorney that went to law school
while in prison.
It's the bad boy of business coupes
and as a classic daily driver
this baby is as rock solid as they come.
This is a 1972 Monte Carlo, it's my daily driver.
From a technical perspective, you have basically
a bone-stock Chevrolet 350 under the hood that makes
when new, about 270 horsepower.
Out back you have a 12-bolt rear end
with like a 253 rear gear, I mean a total highway gear
and the tranny is a Turbo 350.
This car was bought with the sole intention
of being my daily driver, and by daily driver I mean
I drive it every single day.
I take it to the supermarket, I take it to the gas station
I take it to Home Depot, I take it
anywhere you go with your car, I go with my car.
Anybody who looks at you and goes
well, you shouldn't drive an old car everyday
I'm going to tell you right now that's complete horse whatever.
This car has been fantastic I plan to drive this car
for a long time, a long time.
One of the things I love about this car
my grandfather had a Monte Carlo.
I was carted around when I was a little kid
in a brown Monte Carlo with buckets and a floor shifter
and a 401 in it, I believe it was.
And I have a lot of great memories in a Monte Carlo
and it just so happened that I found one
that reminded me of my grandfather and so, love that fact.
The best part about this car
is how good it's been as a daily, it's been great.
People look at it, they make comments at it.
It's a Monte Carlo, so it's not extremely expensive.
It's also a big-body-on-frame car
so the ride quality is amazing.
And it's comfortable, it's just a nice old sled that
you know you cruise around with and enjoy, it's great.
Best car ever.
And to find an old car like this is tough
they're not a lot of them out there that run this good
and perform this good so if I were to sell it
I'm going to tell you right now
it would be a lot more than what I paid for it
because this car is better
this car is better than a lot of big money cars I've driven
I'm going to tell you that right now.
Will it do a burnout, that's the question.
I'm going to load it up a little bit
and we'll see what happens.
Okay, so will it do a burnout?
No, it won't, it won't do a burnout.
(engine revs)
This is my 2013 Ford Mustang GT.
It was built by CorteX Racing in Sonoma California
to be a giant killer on the racetrack.
The engine and transmission are bone stock.
However the suspension, wheels, tires and brakes
well, that's another story entirely.
(engine revs)
So this right here is my 2013 Mustang GT track car.
Now I used to track, believe it or not
with my '68 Charger and my '69 Daytona
but those hurt if you throw them into a wall.
This car was specially built by CorteX Racing in Sonoma
so to give you a quick rundown, SLA front end
Watts Link Torque Arm in the back,
315's all around and StopTech Brakes.
One of the greatest parts about this car is that
when you think about it, it's really a race car that's
been built on a $22,000 rental car chassis from Ford, right?
But the fact that it was so competent
and that there were companies that had the after-market
support to actually build it into something
that can go out and dance with 911's
and you know, GT4's and GT3's is amazing
and you do it for you know a quarter of the budget that
those cars cost new.
Platform-wise, I couldn't be happier with it.
And now for the bad boy of the garage.
This is my 1969 Dodge Daytona clone.
Now I say clone because we built it
out of a 1969 Dodge Charger SE.
It is exact to a Daytona in every single way
aside from the VIN number.
The nose cone, the rear window plug, the glass, the wing.
Well just about everything is a Daytona.
(engine revving) (tires squealing)
I built this car with my buddy Todd.
And the reason we built it is simple.
Well we kind of wanted one.
We already had a '68 Charger and that car I had had forever
but we said well what could we do what could we build
to actually top that car?
This was it.
The cool part about it is that we built it for a reason.
And the reason was to drive long and hard.
We went so far as to have an extra 35 gallon fuel cell
so we can run this thing about 600 miles between stops.
Under the hood there's a 471 Stroker
makes about 550 horsepower, somewhere in the neighborhood of
about 555 pound-feet of torque or so.
The tranny is a TKO-600, it's a five-speed.
The rear end gear is a 355 but with the overdrive
it's basically 1:1, I think it's a .68 if I'm not mistaken.
So believe it or not, 3000 rpm's in this thing
is 106 miles an hour, so loping it along on the highway
at 80, 90 even 100 is really not that big of a deal.
What is this big thing on the dash?
This is for the Holley EFI Fuel Injection.
You know I was always a fan of carbs
and I was always that guy that was like
if you have a big block in your car
you should have a carburetor on it.
And then I put this on the car.
And now I'm like, I need to put it on every car
because it just changed the driveability
it made my gas mileage just about doubled
I went from 10 miles to the gallon to 16
so I can't say enough happy things
about the Holley EFI that I have on this car.
Now, the wheels are custom one-offs.
Basically what we did was we took a Bassett Nascar wheel
and tried to replicate that
and this is kind of what we came up with.
Now you got to remember that now
custom wheels you can go on you can do 'em right now
it's a piece of cake.
10 years ago, that wasn't the case.
So to have a one-off set was pretty unique.
I think I'm running 18 by nine and 1/2's on the front
18 by 10 1/2's on the back
with a 265/40 on the front and a 285 on the back.
So you've got some meat up front and out back.
Now, would I love to put a 315 on there?
In the rear, yeah, I would
and that might be possible in the not so distant future.
I love the way that this car makes me feel.
I mean I've never driven a car where
it doesn't matter what venue you go to
or who you present the car to
it makes you as an owner feel like
you've achieved something.
(engine revving) (tires squealing)
So that's my story, and thank you for checking out
my humble collection of cars.
But now it's time to hear your stories
right here on the House of Muscle.
So I mean if this type of car, if, wait.
So this right here is my 2013 Mustang D, pleh pleh pleh.
- [Director] (laughs) Wrecked it.
- Yeah (laughs)
Get away bugs, hang on it's crossing of all paths.
(sneezes)
- [Director] And
action.
- In terms of perfo
In terms of performance, balah
- [Director] Sound on the back
- Do you feel the House of Muscle?
In terms of performance, why can't I say that word?
See, that, that, you need to rephrase that.
because that's not okay
(laughs)
- [Director] And so rephrasing.