. Stephen Cox Blog is Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance Ford Motor Company built 128,893 Mustang coupes during the 1980 model year, making my Medium Blue Glow four cylinder example anything but rare. I bought the car when I was seventeen and it was my primary transportation for a decade. It now has nearly a quarter of a million miles on the odometer. Since the car has little value, I figure there’s no point in selling it. I might as well rebuild the car into what Ford would and should have created had it not been for the interference of Read More
This Is The Best Buy in Muscle Cars Right Now
Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance A sharp 1970 Chevelle LS6 can set you back $75,000 or more. Same for a Boss 302 Mustang. A 1969 Plymouth GTX 4-speed can run over $40,000, which is still not affordable for many car enthusiasts. You don’t even want to know what freshly restored Dodge Daytona would cost. The plain fact is that most fast sports cars from the peak of the muscle car era remain beyond the reach of the average working man. But there is one exception. What if you could buy a name brand muscle car from the Read More
COLLECTOR CARS: Road Trip, 1971 Ford Torino vs 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass
July 2016
In 1970, everyone took a two week vacation once per year. It was as American as apple pie. Two of the era's great, economical mid-sized cars perfectly suited for such epic road trips were Ford's Torino and the Cutlass from Oldsmobile.
1974 DISCO ERA FACE OFF: Fiat X 1/9 vs Ford Mustang II
June 2, 2016
We don't always get what we want. Many 1974 sports car buyers still wanted a Mustang Boss 429 or a Hemi Cuda. What they got instead was a choice between one government mandated, smog controlled, regulation-laden nightmare or another equally pitiful bureaucratmobile.
ON THE TRACK: Mazda Miata, Toyota MR2 and Datsun Z Go Head to Head
May 3, 2016
When it comes to ranking great sports cars, the Japanese machines of the previous century are rarely considered. Yet in their day they offered performance and reliability that was nowhere to be found in Detroit's American competitors.
BACK IN TIME: A New York Watchmaker Turns Back the Clock to Re-Live an Automotive Memory
November 9, 2015
Keith Boschetti didn't have his driver's license.
It was the autumn of 1985 and his 16th birthday wasn't until the following February. But like every teenager in the 1980's, he wanted a car. And it had to be a muscle car that he could drive with pride.
COLLECTOR CARS: Rebuilding My Totally-Not-Collectible Mustang, Part II
October 12, 2015
Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance
The next step in resto-modding my 1980 Ford Mustang is underway, and I am positively giddy.
At this point any rational person is thinking, “And why would someone be positively giddy about the most worthless, undesirable Mustang ever built?” I'm glad you asked.
The Amazing 162-MPH Nuremberg Daytona
November 24, 2014
It was the mid 1970's. NASCAR's aerodynamic supercars were a thing of the past. The great American muscle car had succumbed to a slow death, strangled by illegal government regulations and an absurd 55 mile per hour speed limit. The US auto industry fell into its own Dark Age and would not emerge for another 20 years.
COLLECTOR CARS: My Very Own Barn Find
April 24, 2014
“Barn finds” really happen. In the mid-1990’s my dad was visiting an old high school buddy in southern Indiana. As they talked of the good old days, my father noticed a dirty, old car sitting inside his friend’s barn. It was a blue 1971 Ford Torino.
McGunegill Engine Performance Expands Relationship with Sopwith Motorsports
April 21, 2014
The three-year relationship between Sopwith Motorsports and McGunegill Engine Performance has been broadened and extended under a new agreement for the 2014 racing season.
Read More The three-year relationship between Sopwith Motorsports and McGunegill Engine Performance has been broadened and extended under a new agreement for the 2014 racing season.