Kevin Shaw: Why Off Brand Muscle Cars Will Always be Inevidably Cooler

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I was 17-years-old when I started not wanting to go to car shows with my older brother, Cameron. I was young and relatively unfamiliar with the nuances of the different brands or their particular quirks, and was generally just a noob by anyone's standards. It was an early morning at the weekly Donut Derelicts meet when I stopped to look at what I thought was a sweet first-generation F-Body. He walked by uncaring and shrugged, "It's just another '69 Camaro."



My teenage mind was blown. Just another '69 Camaro? How could anyone say something like that? The truth is it's a pretty common thought. The 1969 Camaro is so commonly beloved that General Motors patterned the current Camaro after it. In fact, if you had the money, you could literally build a first-generation Camaro completely from scratch without using any original parts! A Dynacorn body, a DSE subframe assembly, and a Classic Industries catalog and you'll have a completely brand-new Z/28.

While that might be cool for some people, for myself and many other enthusiasts, it takes a little bit of mystique out of the car. Today, there's more Shelby Cobras and '32 Fords registered with the DMV than the factories originally produced. Meanwhile, today's next generation of muscle car enthusiasts (regrettably including some staffers even here at powerTV) can't I.D. a '63 421 Super Duty Catalina, a factory lightweight '65 WO51 A990 Coronet or a '68 H/O 4-4-2 from a lineup.

I was introduced to cool "off brand" muscle cars early in my life. Cameron brought home a '70 4-4-2 after picking it up for a bargain. Equipped with a floorshift automatic, the torque-happy, stump-pulling 455 and dual exhaust, it was far cooler than anything I had ever sat in. Although the burgundy and black-striped A-Body was big and brutish, its peg leg differential, air conditioning and power accouterments made it almost instantaneously undesirable to my elder sibling and sold it too quickly for me to convince him to let me drive it to high school.


While it was an original '70 4-4-2 with a 455, it touted a TH400, 14-inch rims and a peg-leg rear. My brother laughs at me, "Dude, that thing was a tank." I still think it was awesome.

Thankfully, there are people like me who revel in building "different" cars. I will always gravitate towards a unique '66 Buick GS, a 413 Max Wedge clone or a '71 GMC Sprint (ever heard of one of those? -Ed.) before chatting up the owner of another '65 Mustang convertible. While it's great that these "mainstream" muscle cars are still around and restorative parts are readily available, I believe its these fringe off brand muscle machines out on the periphery that keep the sport diverse and the industry growing.

I started building my '69 Charger before there were replacement grilles, and replacement sheet metal panels were either too expensive or cheaply stamped out of a sweatshop in Vietnam. Today, Charger parts are quickly becoming more and more prevalent. I attribute this to 1) nearly everything imaginable for a Nova, Camaro, Chevelle, El Camino, Mustang, Fairlane and Falcon has already been made, and 2) people are demanding it because people are starting to spread out into other off brand cars.


Known to me only as "Mailman Carl," my brother befriended this now-retired postal carrier at an early age who, at one time, had possibly the single-coolest collection of off brand muscle in Southern California. What the eagle-eyed enthusiast will see is (left to right) a '69 Plymouth HEMI 426 4-speed Road Runner, one of two '69 Oldsmobile Hurst-equipped H/O 455s, a '69 Pontiac Ram Air IV GTO (in the garage), a '70 Buick GSX, a one-of-one '69 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-32 convertible (next to the GTO), and the other '69 H/O 455.

I've always appreciated people who labored to restore and rebuild rare AMCs. I'm blown away at those who struggle to hand-fabricate replacement parts for Willys, Studebakers or DeSotos. Although at the time I didn't really understand what Cameron was trying to teach his little brother, I finally got it. In a world where seemingly anyone can drive a cherry '57 Bel Air or a '70 Chevelle SS clone, it's quick becoming a badge of honor to own a rare or forgotten muscle car.

Light 'em up,
-Kevin




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