Stefan Thorarensen, founder of MustangImdb.com, reports that 100 contributors on his site have developed a list of movie and television titles that contain the Ford Mustang. Starting in 2009 with 300 titles, that list has grown with crowd-sourcing to an estimated 3,000!

It's pretty obvious. At this point, it looks like there's no stopping the Fast & Furious franchise. It's a powerhouse, no doubt. So, with the release of the newest flick hitting theaters just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, we couldn’t help but showcase one special cast member. No, it's not Vin Diesel or Paul Walker.

With this issue, Car Craft passes a significant milestone. There was no red carpet party with Lady Gaga in attendance because there's no money in the Car Craft budget—and the Stones only do benefits for worthy causes. Technically, this is Volume 61, No. 5, but despite the fuzzy chronology, this issue marks the beginning of our 60th consecutive year in publication. Initially launched in May 1953 as a Reader's Digest–sized publication with the lame title Honk!, we must be eternally grateful to Bob Petersen for changing the magazine's name for the Dec. '53 issue to Car Craft. Now that this irreverent, very hands-on magazine has officially entered its sixth decade, we thought this deserved something more than just a quick retrospective. So for the next few months (or until we run out of juicy stories), we will be retrieving snapshots from our past. Think of these stories as if leafing through your family photo album, complete with weird uncles, obsessive-compulsive editors, and the oddest assembly of writers, managers, and reluctant heroes that ever cursed a keyboard—or a manual typewriter if you're old enough to remember such things. Our plan is to relate stories you may not have heard before. Philosophy declares it's not the destination but the journey that should be important. That may be especially true for car crafters, as long as you cut a good reaction time and trip the win light at the finish line.

There’s a two-lane stretch of asphalt right behind the Harley-Davidson factory in Milwaukee, curiously decorated with epic streaks of rubber. Some squiggles are S-shaped and others look like O’s, but alphabetic resemblance aside, someone’s been having a very good time. That someone is one of the craziest band of hot rodding buddies you’ll ever meet. They don’t believe in small-blocks. To them, nitrous that doesn’t have at least two stages isn’t worth your while, and the only carb that matters is a Dominator. They even have the audacity to equate trick suspension parts and big tires to cheating. Rounding out this opinionated group of Midwestern iron is a ’72 Nova, a pair of ’67 Chevelles, a ’66 Coronet, a ’67 Chevy II, a ’66 Biscayne, and a ’55 Chevy pickup. These cars range from show-car pretty to downright ratty, but what they all share in common is serious speed.

This is a photo of Art Carr (foreground) and Bill Von Vliet in early 1962, dropping an FE into what is likely the first Ford Thunderbolt. Due credit has always been given to the East Coast boys at Tasca Ford, but this photo proves there was a ’62 Ford Fairlane with a 406 in the West at roughly the same time that Tasca Ford was experimenting with its big-block Fairlane. To read more of this story, find a copy of Elapsed Times—our spin-off retro drag racing magazine—on the newsstand.

This year marks the 110th anniversary for Buick; the company leaves behind a trail of quality cars and is currently cursing towards an even brighter future. Throughout its 11 generation history, Buick has sold more than 43 million cars - that's the equivalent of every vehicle sold in the United States over the past three years.

Car Craft featured Moore’s wagon in 2005, when it ran 10.30s at 131 with a naturally aspirated 425ci small-block. Since then, the engine let go during the first round of qualifying in the PSCA Quick Street class in Fontana, California. Mark Millhollin at Hot Rod Performance in Torrance, California, built a new, smaller, 421-inch engine using an iron Dart Little M block and Chapman 18-degree cylinder heads to make a lot more power. We caught Moore doing this wheelstand at the NMCA West Coast Shootout in Pomona, California, after a 9.69-at-141-mph qualifying pass.

"Open that hood! I have to see what's in that street car that just blew my doors off!" Nate Shaw of Lakeville, Minnesota, heard this as he pulled back into the pits. He had just put the hurt on a 500ci dedicated drag car in a bad way, and the guy was miffed.

It's been nine years since Art Morrison experimented with his own project '55 Chevy (Project GT55) at the Goodguys "Street Machine of the Year" competition. For the project he used his own chassis design, and has since assembled and sold 1,000 of the Tri-5 GT Sport chassis. Engineered in 2004 as a groundbreaking "bolt-on" high performance chassis for 1955-57 Chevrolets, Morrison has produced a product that's established a proven reputation for success.

Gary Goeringer first saw this Mustang coupe as it raced in the SCCA June Sprints at Laguna Seca in 1972—and even then it was a seasoned veteran. Four years earlier, original owner Bill Maier special-ordered the car from nearby Hayward Ford, with the specific intent to go road racing, and eventually competed in A/Sedan, Trans-Am, and IMSA GT. Says Goeringer, "I really liked the car because it was a Ford in a sea of Corvettes—and I drove a Ford." Before the car was granted a breather from racing in 1979, Goeringer watched it morph from an Acapulco Blue sedan racer to a radically flared and brightly hued IMSA ride, with 377 inches of Weber-carbed 351 and Gurney Weslake cylinder heads. Little did he know that he'd be racing on the very same tracks with it years later, and for an even longer duration than the original owner.

We normally don't make a big deal about celebrity cars from the SEMA show, but here's an exception. This car belongs to Jeff Dunham, the comedian. If you're unfamiliar with him, a quick search of YouTube will get you up to speed. Prepare to laugh your head off while you're at it.

This month's This Guy's Garage should instead be called This Girl's Garage. This is Jeanne Chase's shop. If the Chase name sounds familiar, it's because we featured husband Brian's shop in this section back in the July '10 issue, which showed son Brandon's welding parts sandwiched between Dad's yellow '34 Chevy pickup and a black '79 Corvette. But this is Mom's garage. That's right, Jeanne is a former City of Concord police officer and a fully certified ASE technician with lots of projects. Brian says she is involved with all forms of auto repair, including major engine rebuilds and bodywork, and “excels at interior work, custom wiring (including complete custom harnesses), and glass replacement.” This no doubt makes for some interesting dinner conversations—you know, a nice candlelit meal sprinkled with light conversation about the virtues of Weatherpak versus Deutsch connectors. It also appears that Jeanne is not afraid to tackle big jobs. How many women do you know who have taken on the restoration of a '64 Mack B-67 dump truck? Brian explains, “The truck came from Milbury, Massachusetts, where it had been owned by an older gentleman with a small construction company. According to his wife, the Mack B was her husband's baby, which he kept garaged and would not use during inclement weather. We contacted the Mack Truck Historical Society in Pennsylvania—they are super people—who provided the original line sheet and purchase order. From '64 to '70, the Mack worked as a tractor-trailer for a freight company. Now it is our baby, but with upgrades, including power steering—you would not believe steering this thing with the old armstrong steering! We also updated the air-brake system to current requirements as a safety measure. We have a Mack B-61 parts truck, and will swap in the 711 diesel engine from it, with turbo. The current engine runs excellent, but love that turbo sound! We have so much fun with this truck.” Indeed, it does sound like fun.

The Z/28 is back! During its press conference at the 2013 New York auto show, General Motors dropped a bombshell on the packed house with the formal announcement of the new 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, the centerpiece of its revamped 2014 Camaro lineup. With the lights dimmed and a soundtrack of an engine revving, the bright white Z/28 rolled on stage for the first time.

So you really wanted the new COPO Camaro, but you weren't one of the lucky 69 who Chevrolet chose to get the latest version of its factory-built drag machine. Well, you can still have a version of that car - you'll just have to build it yourself. Chevy announced today that it will be manufacturing a limited number of NHRA-certified rolling chassis, designed for drag racing enthusiasts. The cars will be serialized and limited to strip-only driving (no VIN will be issued). The shell comes with a professionally assembled, painted body and chassis ready to be finished. All you need are the guts!

American muscle cars are cruising into stamp history, as the U.S. Postal Service has dedicated its newest Forever stamps, titled America on the Move: Muscle Cars Forever, to high-horsepower automobiles. Legendary NASCAR driver, Richard "The King" Petty, along with his son Kyle and Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, chose Tom Fritz's artwork to be used for the stamps. The official announcement came recently at the Daytona International Speedway in advance of the annual Daytona 500, a race Petty won a record seven times.

Here's a guy who could teach all of us something. Andy Manna bought one Lincoln Mark VIII and two Mustangs, combined the best parts of all three cars, added some used parts he purchased online, and ended up with a Fox-body Mustang with SN95 chassis parts, an amalgamation of the Lincoln's powertrain as his daily driver, and a net cash outlay of about $2,700.

Joel Route / Eagan, MN
2007 Ford Mustang

A successful, multi-disciplined race history has inspired many buildups of Ford's humble Falcon, and yet it wasn't historical reverence that originally drew Randy Dunphy to the fold. Instead, it was a matter of dollars and cents. Dunphy began vintage road racing a '65 GT350 in the '90s, but soon concluded the potential of wrecking the car had too many financial implications—not to mention the uneasiness he felt about possibly balling up an irreplaceable piece of automotive history. "I learned that Edelbrock's Mike Eddy was building a '65 Falcon to road race, but had decided to sell it mid-stream. I bought the car to replace the Shelby, and turned it over to Dave Dralle to finish." That red racer has since brought plenty of smiles to Dunphy and other vintage Falcon fans, as it's been a front-running fixture in West Coast vintage grids for more than a decade now.

Tsutomu was born in Wakayama, Japan, a suburban prefecture about the size of Orange County, California, with a smaller population. His fascination with classic American cars began when he saw Smokey and the Bandit during grade school. While growing up, all the movie scenes with the strong protagonists made a deep impression on him. He realized that if you wanted to drive a classic American car, you needed to know how to take care of it on your own.

This was an important day. You could feel it in the air. It was early August 2012 in Detroit, and we'd been invited by Chevrolet Performance to be present as the first few COPO Camaro owners officially took delivery of their cars. As COPO Camaro numbers 3, 5, 7, and 8 went home with their new owners, a crowd of Chevrolet Performance engineers gathered to watch as the cars were loaded onto their trailers. These four cars and the remaining 61 yet to be assembled represented several years of work on their part. "This is history in the making," was a phrase that was repeated several times over that day by nearly everyone we spoke with. As a rule, we strive not to use clichéd expressions as our article headlines, but in this case, it seemed unavoidable.

After claiming he wouldn’t presume to tell us how to do our job, Kirby Wilcox suggested we title this article about his 1962 AMC Rambler American “Scrambler.” Ironically, we had discussed the name earlier in the week, but decided not to go there for two reasons: First, the SC/Rambler was a performance and appearance package offered by AMC in collaboration with Hurst for ’69-model-year Rambler Americans. Less than 2,000 units were produced, but they came with a 390 engine, a four-speed transmission, a Twin Grip differential, disc brakes, subframe connectors, and a dual exhaust with Thrust glasspacks; and second, Tech Editor Smith pointed out that S.C. Rambler could stand for Small Chevy Rambler. We chuckled, then decided not to incur the wrath of AMC fanatics who will likely quiver with rage at the sight of a Chevy truck engine under this car’s hood.

You can buy really nice rolling engine cradles from Summit Racing for a really low price if you’re shopping for a Chevy. If you’ve got a different brand, the cost increases enough to make you wonder if you could build one yourself for less. If you already own a welder, then the answer is yes. Here’s how it’s done.

Yes, you read the headline correctly—Howard Mintz got rid of his Corvette for this Dodge Challenger, and he has no regrets about it. To be sure, some Corvettes were better than others, but the one he sold was a ’98 coupe, certainly no slouch in the performance department. Howard says that though he loved his ’Vette, the Challenger is better in every way.

“It’s really Atomic Orange, but I call it ‘pumpkin’!” Jim Brink of Carlos, Minnesota, tells us during our shoot of his very clean and well put together ’73 Z/28 Camaro. Jim felt that a true Z/28 deserved a color worthy of its heritage, hence the Atomic Orange candy coating.

“I’m 65, but I’m still in really good shape. I even went surfing in Hawaii last year,” Jim Hastings tells us while discussing his garage in preparation for writing this article. A retired heavy-equipment mechanic, he tells us his job was hard and oftentimes unpleasant, especially while fixing semis broken down on the side of the freeway in the middle of the desert, but he thinks the 28 years of heavy lifting kept him in good shape so he can now enjoy his retirement. “These days ‘have fun’ is the only thing on my agenda,” he says. You’d have to be a real Debbie Downer to not have fun with any of these three awesome cars in your garage. Let’s take a closer look.