Journal Classic Cars

If you’ve ever been to a car show in your life (and I’m sure you have because you’re reading this), you know the basic etiquette and perhaps the most important rule to follow: if a sign tells you not to touch the vehicle, keep your hands off it. I’ve always kept that in mind when I go to car shows, but when you have to open certain parts of a vehicle (with permission, of course) to shoot a video, things are a little different. I became acutely aware of that while filming content at the Barrett-Jackson 2025 Palm Beach Auction (stay tuned to the ClassicCars.com Journal for those videos). Below are some of the things that popped into my head there.

MINIMIZE YOUR EXTREMITIES

Swinging your arms is fine if you’re power-walking on a nature trail, but when you’re moving between cars, keep them close to your body. I had to remind myself to do that, especially because I often had my large hard-sided camera case with me. Even when I wasn’t carrying that, I had to tone down my gestures so that “talking with my hands” didn’t result in me banging my watch into a $30,000 paint job. Several times, I leaned over to get a closer look at a classic—after tucking the ID card that was hanging around my neck into my shirt.

HELP IS OUT THERE

When I needed to pop the hood on a vintage Maserati, I asked Dustin (the Collector Car Network’s media supervisor) to hold the driver’s door open so it didn’t swing into the car next to it while I pulled the release latch. Knowing there are videos out there showing people opening the hoods of various other cars gave me even more peace of mind. I was about to pull one up on the Dodge Viper RT/10 when an owner of multiple Vipers stepped in and told me how to open the massive panel. He even warned me and Dustin not to tilt it too far forward so we could avoid damaging it. We followed his instructions slowly and carefully.

TRY TO HAVE AN INVISIBLE TOUCH

“Invisible Touch” is not just a catchy Genesis song—it’s also something to strive for when opening up and filming a stranger’s car. After I opened a hood or door far enough to gain control of it, I switched to using the joints between my fingers and palm or just the palm to move it without getting fingerprints on the finish. It eventually occurred to me that I could step things up by keeping my wedding band in my pocket (we all want to be “the man,” not “that guy”). The few times I sat in a car, I made sure to move my wallet from my back pocket to my hip pocket. Yes, that was better for my back but, most importantly, it kept me from leaving a rectangular dent in the driver’s seat.

ASSUME THE WORST, THEN THINK AHEAD

Thanks to brochures and advertisements, I learned several things about the 1936 Packard 120 Convertible Sedan the easy way. One thing I didn’t know was if the front passenger-side door was going to open so wide that it would contact a nut attached to an arm holding the spare tire carrier in place. I certainly didn’t want to find out the hard way, so I kept my thumb between the door and the nut while our media supervisor got interior footage.

If you have any rules you live by when you’re at car shows or shooting other peoples’ cars, post them in the Comments section below.

I can’t speak for the West Coast or the fly-over states, but if you’ve ever visited a major city on the East Coast, chances are you’ve seen a Checker. While mainstream companies produced taxis, no brand exploited this affiliation more than Checker. But Checker didn’t only produce taxis, as our Pick of the Day shows. This 1969 Checker Marathon wagon is listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealership in Kentwood, Michigan.

In terms of the rate of attrition, Checker may have suffered more than any other brand. For a car that seemed just about everywhere (especially New York City and Boston), many Checker models produced since 1922 are practically extinct—after all, they were taxis, which were more disposable than your typical planned-obsolescence vehicle.

The best-known Checker cars can trace their lineage to the 1955 A8, which evolved into the A9 and A10 for 1958-62, the first Checker truly available for civilian use. Aside from the location of the parking lights, this is the car that became synonymous with the durable-yet-homely vehicle we’ve come to know. The A9 was the taxi, while the A10 (introduced in 1960) was the Superba, a civilian model that sold in small numbers. It was available as a four-door sedan and four-door wagon and was produced through 1962, all powered by inline-sixes from Continental. The Marathon was introduced for 1961, a better-equipped version of the Superba that would eventually absorb the lesser model.

The A11 and A12 were introduced for 1962, and this is the Checker that everyone knows. The main visual difference from the A9/A10 was the location of the parking lights underneath the headlights. It was this model that would last through 1982 and become ingrained in the consciousness of folks around the world. As before, the A11 was the taxi and the A12 was the civilian version. Chevrolet’s 230 six and 283 V8 joined the lineup in 1964, the final year for the Continental six, leaving 283 and 327 small-blocks plus the 230 for 1965. A handful were built with a Perkins diesel four-cylinder, too. Top horsepower during the A12’s tenure was a 350/300 in 1969.

This Fulton Blue 1969 Checker Marathon wagon is claimed to be one of 286 A12W models built at the end of the decade. Originally sold in Portland, Oregon, this wagon lived there for most of its life, then moved to California. Power comes from a 235-horsepower 327 two-barrel backed by Powerglide and 3.31 gears. “Equipped with power steering and brakes, driving this Checker is an easy-going experience, ideal for long trips or just a day out on the town,” says the seller. Inside, what makes this one more interesting is that it’s equipped with bucket seats—one of 17, according to the seller. “The tinted glass all around offers added comfort, keeping the cabin cool and protecting the vintage upholstery from sun exposure … this Checker also comes with air conditioning, a feature that adds to the overall comfort and usability.”

Sure, the sedans may come off as dumpy, but the wagons have a commanding presence. This one has been given proper care all its life and makes for a distinctive collector’s item. For $31,900, you can buy this and make a pilgrimage to Kalamazoo, not far from where this car is currently located.

Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com

You’ve invested your heart, time, and resources into your dream car. Yet even the finest vehicles can face unexpected breakdowns, rising repair costs, and limited access to specialized service centers. Research indicates that with each passing year, the likelihood of mechanical failure increases by approximately 10.4% for older vehicles. Moreover, vehicles aged 10 years or older are twice as likely to experience breakdowns compared to newer models. (Wiley Online Library, AAA Colorado)

Restoration and maintenance costs can also be substantial. Full restorations often exceed $40,000, with some projects reaching up to $120,000. Even routine maintenance can add up, with annual costs ranging from $600 to $2,000, depending on the make and model.

Finding a trusted service center that understands your vehicle’s unique needs can also be time-consuming. Every day your car sits in a shop is another day it’s off the road – and away from you.

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Car ownership today comes with high expectations and high risks. A well-designed Vehicle Service Contract not only protects your finances, but also ensures your vehicle receives the care it deserves – no matter how iconic, rare, or routine it may be.

Currently listed on AutoHunter is this restored 1957 Chevrolet 3200 pickup. It’s powered by a rebuilt Thriftmaster 235.5ci inline-six, which is equipped with Holley fuel injection and mated to a heavy-duty four-speed synchromesh manual transmission. Finished in Brewster Green over a tan vinyl interior, this two-wheel-drive Task Force pickup is now offered by the California seller with restoration receipts and a clear title.

In 2021, the exterior was painted Brewster Green. Exterior features include chrome bumpers and mirror housings, a wraparound windshield, and a single driver-side exhaust outlet. The side steps for the bed have been treated with Rhino Linings material; inside is a new wood bed floor.

This truck gets down the road or trail on a set of body-color 15-inch wheels with Chevrolet-branded chrome hubcaps and 31 x 10.5-inch Corsa All Terrain XL radial tires.

New parts inside the single cab include the glass, tan vinyl upholstery on the bench seat, brown carpeting, Vintage Air A/C system, Bluetooth-compatible AM/FM radio, and speakers. Additional features consist of a center fold-down armrest with two cup holders, non-original steering wheel connected to power steering, and floor-mounted manual shifter.

A multi-gauge panel contains a 100-mph speedometer and shows the temperature, amperage, oil pressure, and fuel level. The odometer indicates less than one mile; according to the title, this vehicle is mileage-exempt.

Under the hood is a Thriftmaster 235.5ci I6 that has been rebuilt and converted to run a Holley Sniper electronic fuel injection system. The engine is paired with a heavy-duty four-speed synchromesh manual with a “granny gear.”

Underpinnings include power front disc brakes, leaf springs, and solid rear axle.

This 1957 Chevrolet 3200 is still going after nearly 70 years, but it won’t be available for long. The auction for it ends on Friday, May 9, 2025, at 12:15 p.m. (PDT).

Visit the AutoHunter listing for more information and a photo gallery

There’s a name I haven’t heard in awhile—One Lap of America, the legal version of the Cannonball Run that also happened to be created by Brock Yates. The idea was to produce a similar race without being thrown in jail for reckless driving. Dodge—you know, the company that had the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car and continues to make that claim without a Hemi—will be making its first race appearance a specially prepared Charger in the 41^st annual One Lap of America.

By the time you read this, the race will have already started at the Tire Rack corporate headquarters in South Bend, Indiana. Dodge high-performance vehicle dynamics engineer David Carr will be driving a special Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack in Alternative Fuel class, accompanied by Dodge Garage contributor Sean Yoder. This white Charger will feature interesting orange graphics on the rear with a hood blackout featuring the Dodge Fratzog. A standard feature on the Scat Pack are huge 16-inch Brembo vented rotors and red six-piston front/four-piston rear fixed calipers. The only modification to this Charger is the roll cage.

“The One Lap of America is a formidable endurance test, one the 670-horsepower Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack is uniquely equipped to meet head-on, as the all-new Charger is not only designed and engineered for performance on the street, but also at the track and the strip,” says Dodge CEO Matt McAlear. “The One Lap competition will showcase key Charger Daytona Scat Pack features, such as Track Package performance content and best-in-class cargo space in the ‘hidden hatch’ muscle-car design, providing our race team plenty of room to stretch out and bring along important gear as they spend basically an entire week in the Charger.”

Here’s the schedule of the One Lap:

Saturday, May 3

• Tire Rack Corporate Headquarters, South Bend, Indiana (skid pad)
• Grissom Air Force Base, North Central, Indiana (autocross)

Sunday, May 4

• Gateway Motorsports Park, Madison, Illinois (time trials)

Monday, May 5

• Hedge Hollow Road Course, Adrian, Missouri (time trials)

Tuesday, May 6

• NCM Motorsports Park Road Course, Bowling Green, Kentucky (time trials)

Wednesday, May 7

• Virginia International Raceway, Alton, Virginia (time trials)

Thursday, May 8

• Pittsburgh International Race Complex, Wampum, Pennsylvania (time trials) 
• Quaker City Motorsports Drag Strip, Salem, Ohio (drag race/bracket drag)

Friday, May 9

• Grattan Raceway, Belding, Michigan (time trials) 

Saturday, May 10

• Tire Rack Corporate Headquarters, South Bend, Indiana (skid pad)

If you’d like to follow the Dodge via online race coverage, you can visit DodgeGarage.com. You can also view the YouTube livestream at onelapofamerica.com.

(And let’s hope next year Dodge will run a companion vehicle with Hemi V8 power!)

Last week, I told you what it was like traveling around Palm Beach with some of my Collector Car Network colleagues in a rented 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe. Its 5.3-liter V8 got us where we needed to go, but we could have saved a hell of a lot of commuting time in a 2025 Hennessey H600 Tahoe or Suburban.

Technically, Hennessey could have called the upgrade package H625. By adding a new Magnuson supercharger with an intercooler, a cat-back exhaust, and upgrades to the air induction and crankcase ventilation systems, the Texas company boosted the output of the 6.2-liter V8-powered Tahoe and Suburban to 625 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 633 lb-ft torque at 4,200 rpm (and dyno-tested them to 600 horsepower, as shown in the video below). While those numbers aren’t as high as the Cadillac Escalade-V’s 682 horsepower and 653 lb-ft, they are substantially greater than the stock specs for the Tahoe and Suburban. According to Hennessey, its enhancements boost horsepower by more than 200 and torque by more than a third.

Hennessey also upgrades the hardware responsible for channeling that kind of grunt to the road. It lowers the Tahoe and Suburban 2.5 inches closer to the ground and installs a set of lightweight 24-inch gloss black wheels with Firestone Firehawk Pursuit tires. Up front, the stock brakes are replaced with heavy-duty Brembos with six-piston calipers. Of course, Hennessey makes it clear these aren’t your normal full-size Chevy SUVs by adding a windshield banner, and special exterior and interior badging.

The 2025 Hennessey H600 Tahoe and Suburban will probably be hard to spot on the road because of their supercar levels of power, but don’t worry. There’s a chance you’ll see them on showroom floors because they’re the first GM models available through Hennessey’s authorized Chevrolet dealers in the U.S. But there’s no guarantee: production is limited to 100 units for 2025.

Below you will find four pickup trucks that are currently listed for sale on AutoHunter. Some are stock, some are modified, but all should be readily identifiable. Up to the task?

You can write your answers in the Comments section below. Be sure to give us the year and make, with bonus points if you can identify the model. If you need an assist, just click on any image and you’ll be taken to the actual AutoHunter auction.

Click on a photo to reveal each car

The ClassicCars.com Journal has a new automotive puzzle every Tuesday. Once you’re done with this one, you can test your knowledge with previous games.

I love the first-generation Pontiac Firebird. It’s the combination of what I think is stellar styling, good performance and ease of use – making it, in my opinion, one of the greatest cars the U.S. has ever produced. You could say that the Camaro is the same car, but it is not. I also like the Camaro – but the Firebird was, to me, the pinnacle pony car of all time.

Our AutoHunter Spotlight of the day is one of these awesome cars, a 1968 Pontiac Firebird Sport Coupe located in Somersworth, New Hampshire. The auction will end Monday, May 12, 2025, at 11:00 p.m. PDT.

The seller describes this Firebird as powered by a GM Performance ZZ6 350ci V8 crate engine mated to a four-speed 700R4 automatic transmission. Finished in Hugger Orange over a black vinyl interior, this muscle car is now offered by the seller with service receipts, parts paperwork and a New Hampshire registration.

The exterior of this Firebird looks to be in nice shape, with only a couple of paint chips on the Hugger Orange paint. The body features a cowl induction hood, rear spoiler and louvered quarter-panels. Upgrades include LED headlights and taillights, as well as 15-inch Rev wheels mounted with 225/60 General radial tires.

The interior is nice-looking with a bit of a Restomod feel. It features factory black vinyl bucket seats in correct upholstery, as well as a custom center console with a B&M automatic shifter. The car also features power steering, a three-spoke steering wheel, a column-mounted Sunpro 10,000-rpm tachometer, Sunpro auxiliary gauges for oil pressure, temp and voltage, and the owner has installed a Bluetooth-enabled aftermarket Jensen stereo.

Under the hood, you see a ZZ6 350ci V8 Chevrolet crate engine with 405 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque, which makes this a seriously fast first-gen Firebird. The engine features a Holley four-barrel carburetor mounted to an upgraded intake manifold, with a March Performance serpentine belt system and Patriot headers. Power is delivered to the rear wheels by a four-speed 700R4 automatic transmission.

Under the car is a 10-bolt rear end featuring an Eaton Detroit Truetrac differential with Richmond 3.55 gears, front coilover shocks, and power front disc brakes with drilled and slotted rotors.

This is much more of a Restomod than a stock Firebird, but that only makes it a better and considerable faster car than it ever was new. It looks to be the perfect car for events such as the Hot Rod Power Tour and would be fun to run at a vintage rally like the Copperstate 1000, where I am guessing it would quickly make most of the European cars in attendance distant specks in your rearview mirror.

If you are interested, you might want to log into your AutoHunter account and place a bid, as the auction for this 1968 Pontiac Firebird ends on Monday, May 12, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. (PDT).

Visit the AutoHunter listing for more information and a photo gallery

Chevrolet made the C3 Corvette for so long (1968-1982) that it can be hard to tell with a quick glance just which model year one of them is, especially if it’s passing you on the highway. But if you become the next owner of our Pick of the Day, a 1982 Chevrolet Corvette Collector Edition posted on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in Florida, it’ll be clear where it falls on the Corvette’s timeline.

There are a few reasons for that. Let’s start with the most obvious: the colors. To mark the end of the third-generation Vette, Chevy covered the 1982 Collector Edition in silver-beige metallic paint with pinstripes and fade-away striping on the hood, fenders, and doors. A pair of bronze-colored glass removable roof panels protected passengers from inclement weather. There’s more silver-beige metallic in the leather interior, with the bucket seats and door panels upholstered in an array of neutral colors.

Then there’s the equipment. The center console houses the shifter for the new-for-1982 four-speed automatic transmission with overdrive. Elsewhere in the cabin of this particular Collector Edition you’ll find power controls for the windows and mirrors, power locks, power driver’s seat, leather-wrapped steering wheel on a tilt and telescoping column, and air conditioning. Fitting luggage in the back is easy thanks to the lift-up glass rear hatch, another new addition to the Corvette.

The 1982 model’s engine stayed the same size as before (5.7 liters), but came equipped with Cross-Fire Injection, which delivered gas through dual throttle-body fuel injectors. Output for the L83 was 200 horsepower at 4,200 rpm and 285 lb-ft of torque at 2,800 revs.

Over the past 43 years, this final-year C3 hasn’t been mothballed or driven into the ground. It’s actually been enjoyed (as all Corvettes should be), but not much: there are only 32,330 miles on it. For $39,997, you can add this 1982 Chevrolet Corvette Collector Edition to your collection of cool cars, then decide how many more miles you’ll put on the odometer.

Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com

Atomic Age magnificence and the Red Rocker converged at the Barrett-Jackson 2025 Scottsdale Auction! Owned by Sammy Hagar, this 1962 Ford Thunderbird Landau was a new entry for the model year, adding sophisticated formality to the Thunderbird lineup thanks to a standard vinyl top and landau “S-bars” on the C-pillar. Horsepower from the standard 390 V8 was 300, which was more than enough to achieve cruising speeds exceeding 55. This space-age street rocket scored $69,300 for Sammy.

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