8 Dealer-Built Classic Muscle Cars That Will Blow Your Mind

If you go into a car dealership today, you are pretty much limited to the on-site inventory, so if they don’t have the exact trim with the features you’re looking for, you are SOL. They could order what you want, but that will take forever, or they might arrange for a dealer swap to get your car, but more than likely, they’ll push you on something they have on the lot. Back in the day, dealers would build your dream car on the spot, installing the options you want, and some would even paint it the color of your choice.

Taking that customer service to an extreme level, many dealers used to build super-powered muscle cars that were beyond what the automakers offered. The most famous of these dealer builds is the COPO Camaro, which upped the performance beyond what Chevrolet offered from the factory. There were many other dealers, with a wide variety of Golden Age muscle cars, that put together some seriously killer modified rides. Here are some of the baddest dealer-built high-performance cars of the classic era.

1974 Randall AMC 401-XR Gremlin

Horsepower Rating: 255

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The AMC Gremlin is one of the weirdest-looking cars of all time, and the only reason it doesn’t get the top spot is because the AMC Pacer was goonier. There’s a reason why it was chosen as the “Mirth Mobile” in Wayne’s World, because it matched the main characters’ goofball beta personalities. That being said, one dealership managed to turn this dorkmobile into a kick-ass street machine. Randall AMC, in Mesa, Arizona, got permission from AMC to transform a few 1974 Gremlins into, basically, the first hot hatches to ever exist.

Limited Production Specs

Billed as the ’74 AMC 401-XR Gremlin, Randall swapped out the stock 304-cubic-inch V-8 for a 401-cubic-inch big-block that put 255 ponies under the hood. That doesn’t sound like a tremendous amount of power, especially when compared to the other cars on this list, but in the compact Gremlin, it made for a 13-second car. Realistically, none of the AMC muscle cars of the classic age could run in the 13s straight from the factory, so this car was actually a pretty big deal. Priced right at $2,995, which is just $18,500 in today’s dollars, the 1974 AMC 401-XR Gremlin is the best performance car value ever sold.

1968 Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge Dart GSS

Horsepower Rating: 375

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Grand Spaulding Dodge of Chicago, Illinois, was owned by Norm Kraus, affectionately known as “Mr. Norm,” who was a huge race fanatic who souped up already powerful Mopars into super-street assassins. Obviously, 426 Hemi-equipped rides didn’t need a lot of help, but the compact Dodge Dart was in desperate need of a killer app. By the late 1960s, the days of Street King 413 Max Wedge were long gone, and the most powerful engine available in a Dart was the 383-cubic-inch V-8. Mr. Norm had the notion of squeezing a 440-cubic-inch V-8 into the tiny Dodge, which gave birth to the ’69 Dart GSS.

Limited Production Specs

GSS stood for “Grand Spaulding Special,” and it truly was. It turns out, shoehorning a 440 into a dart required some extensive modifications to make it fit, but it was totally worth it as this was a real-deal 12-second ride. The Mr. Norm’s Dart GSS was groundbreaking because it not only showed Dodge that a 440 could fit in a Dart, something they did with the 1969 M-Code, but also inspired the ’68 Hemi Dart drag car. Speaking of which, Spaulding Dodge got 13 of the 80 1968 Hemi Dart L023 cars that were a collaboration between Dodge and Hurst Performance. There are some Hemi Darts billed as Mr. Norm cars, but they weren’t modified by him, only sold at his dealership.

1967 Tasca Ford GT 428 KR-8

Horsepower Rating: 400

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This one isn’t so much about a dealer mod as it is a tale of a franchise-holder who literally reshaped Ford performance. Bob Tasca Sr., owner of Taca Ford in Providence, Rhode Island, which was one of the biggest Ford dealers in the country, had a 1967 Mustang GT demo car that blew its 390-cubic-inch V-8 engine. Rather than scrap the car, he had his parts guys drop a 428 Police Interceptor engine under the hood, with some 427 Side Oiler heads and a few other modifications that made for a 400+ horsepower menace. He called this car the KR-8, which stood for “King of the Road 1968,” something Carroll Shelby would borrow for his Mustang mods later.

Limited Production Specs

Bob Tasca SR. was actually good friends with Henry Ford II and brought his KR-8 to Dearborn, Michigan, to show it off. After the car smoked anything Ford had to offer, they took the engine out of the car to analyze it, which led to the development of the 428 Cobra Jet, which went live in 1968 for Mustangs and Torinos. Also in 1968, Ford created a limited number of Lightweight 428 Mustang drag cars, of which Tasca Ford got first dibs to sell. The original KR-8 was wrapped around a telephone pole by Bob Tasca Jr. and completely totaled, so no images of it exist. The picture above is of the one-of-fifty ’68 Lightweight Mustang 428s, and one-of-ten that were delivered to Tasca Ford.

1969 Berger Chevrolet Double COPO Camaro RS

Horsepower Rating: 425

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GM decided on the cusp of the muscle car craze that its divisions couldn’t equip engines larger than 400 cubic inches in intermediate cars, which is another way of saying they wanted their cars to be slower than the competition. While Chevy was able to get some decent power out of their 396-cubic-inch V-8, it was no comparison to the mighty 426 Street Hemis that allowed Mopar to dominate most of the Golden Age. In the late 1960s, dealers discovered a great workaround to GM’s silly ban, known as the COPO (Central Office Production Order) system, that allowed them to special-order equipment not normally offered, including 427-cubic-inch engines in Camaros.

Limited Production Specs

Several dealerships offered COPO Camaros, but Berger Chevrolet in Grand Rapids took a step further with their “Double COPOs.” In 1969, Berger ordered a few dozen Camaros with the 425-horsepower L72 427-cubic-inch V-8 and the RPO 9737 “Sports Car Conversion Package” that was only available from COPO. It included a beefier suspension, disc brakes, rally wheels with race tires, and a 140 MPH speedometer. The presence of both of these special orders in a car made it a Double COPO, which sounds twice as cool. For the record, the Berger Double COPO Camaro was a Mopar killer, owning all the SS/E class Hemis at the 1969 NHRA Spring Nationals.

1968 Royal Pontiac Bobcat GTO

Horsepower Rating: 425

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The Pontiac GTO launched the classic muscle car age in 1964 and set the styling pace with its scorching second-gen design in 1968, but it never had the performance to match its aggressive looks, thanks to GM’s big engine ban. Royal Pontiac in Royal Oak, Michigan, set out to do something about this crime against the OG muscle car with a kit that could turn a goat into the G.O.A.T. The “Bobcat” kit included performance parts like better intakes and ignition components that could either be dealer-installed or wrenched-in at home. Then, there was the ’68 Bobcat GTO, which swapped out the 400-cubic-inch V-8 for a 425-horsepower 428 big-block.

Limited Production Specs

This is the car that Pontiac should have offered from the factory, but couldn’t because of GM’s Draconian corporate edict. While GM definitely disapproved of the Bobcat, there are rumors that forces within Pontiac were secretly assisting Royal Pontiac with technical advice. Because this was never an official factory model, or even an authorized modification, the true number of ’68 Bobcat GTOs is unknown. There isn’t even an estimate as to how many cars Royal Pontiac converted, so it’s a super-rarity and classic-era royalty. That ’68 pictured above sold for $150,500 at Mecum Indy 2021, and another was bid up to $225,000 at an RM Sotheby’s auction, but didn’t hit the reserve.

1969 Yenko Chevrolet Nova SC

Horsepower Rating: 450

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Don Yenko’s Chevrolet dealership in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was the most famous COPO Camaro seller, and most famous for selling COPO Camaros, but there was more to their lineup of super-powered cars. In what seemed like an impossible task, Yenko shoehorned 427-cubic-inch V-8s into the engine bays of 1969 Chevy Nova SS cars. With some extra work on the suspension and brakes, as well as a cool graphics package, these were sold as Yenko Super Cars. Yenko also tuned the engines to 450 horsepower, which made the compact muscle cars even more frightening.

Limited Production Specs

Because of the Nova’s smaller size, the Yenko SCs had an insane power-to-weight ratio and were just crazy fast. In fact, they were the quickest cars Don Yenko ever modified, with anecdotal evidence that they could run a quarter-mile in the low-11s. To the average observer, it doesn’t make a lick of sense to create a compact this powerful and quick, but for muscle car enthusiasts, it’s the baddest thing that ever was. It’s also the rarest Yenko SC, with fewer than 40 built, and there is a better than average chance that many of them were destroyed by noobs who couldn’t handle their savage power. Also, keep in mind that this car didn’t have all the modern safety features like anti-lock brakes, traction control, and the like, so it was something that only a pro could operate.

1968 Nickey Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396

Horsepower Rating: 500

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Most of the dealer-built muscle cars on the list got an engine swap to upgrade the lunacy, but a 1968 Chevelle SS from Nickey Chevrolet in Chicago, Illinois, was simply souped up into a maniac. The Chevelle’s 396-cubic-inch V-8 got better intake manifolds, thirstier carbs, hotter cams, more compression, headers, and performance ignitions, which really made that engine scream. The highest output for a factory 386 was 375 horsepower, but according to the Mecum listing for that car pictured above, the Nickey mods squeezed another 150 ponies out of the engine. Nickey Chevrolet also upgraded the suspensions, brakes, and tires, as well as added some cool graphics to all its Chevelle builds.

Limited Production Specs

Performance like that is amazing, but it came with a cost that added $1,500 to $2,000 to the price of a ’68 Chevelle SS 396. A Nickey Chevelle cost around $6,000, which doesn’t seem extreme to our 2025 wallets, but that’s the equivalent of $55,697 in today’s dollars. While there are plenty of folks nowadays who will drop that kind of money on a performance ride, or go into deep debt for one, that wasn’t a common occurrence in 1968. As such, ’68 Nickey Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396s are incredibly rare. It’s impossible to say exactly how rare, however, because there are no credible sources for their production numbers, nor any authoritative best guesses. We know for a fact that there’s at least one still alive, and probably a handful more socked away in secret stashes or private collections.

Baldwin-Motion Phase III Chevrolet Super Vega

Horsepower Rating: 500+

The Baldwin Motion muscle cars are some of the most legendary dealer mods of the classic era, and the most ferocious rides to ever hit the streets. The Baldwin Auto Company, a Chevrolet dealership in Baldwin, New York, sold the cars, which were then sent across town to Motion Performance, a local speed shop, where they were transformed into track-ready but mostly street-legal monsters. Customers had the option of how much performance they wanted, with the Phase III 427-cubic-inch or 454-cubic-inch V-8 engine swap being the ultimate. Baldwin Motion specialized in Camaros and Chevelles, but also did a few Vegas that were so very wrong in all the right ways.

Limited Production Specs

Baldwin Motion did some early ’70 Vegas with a super-tuned 425-horsepower 350-cubic-inch V-8, but customers were clamoring for something even more ridiculous, so they dropped a few 454 big-blocks into the compact Chevy. As radical as that sounds, the engines were reportedly jacked up in excess of 500 horsepower, which is completely insane and thoroughly awesome. The 350s were referred to as Super Vegas, while a Phase III beast was properly named “King Kong.” It’s estimated that only three or four 1974 Baldwin Motion King Kong Vegas were built, and they have all apparently disappeared. It’s very probable that they imploded under the weight of their massive power, like a collapsing star, so any Vega-sized black holes in the New York area may be a clue to their whereabouts.