Forged on Wheels

Forged on Wheels The ultimate garage for classic American cars & trucks. Ford, Chevy, Mopar. Real Detroit history.

09/19/2026

The Chevette became an easy punchline, but Chevrolet sold nearly 2.8 million of them across twelve model years. It was even America’s best-selling small car for 1979 and 1980. That did not happen because buyers confused it with a performance car.

By its final 1987 model year, the CS still used a carbureted 1.6-liter four-cylinder producing only 65 horsepower. The standard four-speed sent that power to the rear wheels, while the base price had been cut to $4,995. It was dated, slow and nearly free of anything complicated, but Chevrolet still moved more than 46,000 during the final model year.

The Chevette was not built to impress a magazine road tester. It was built for people who counted every dollar and needed a new car that could get them to work. For basic transportation, would you rather own this rear-drive Chevette or a newer front-drive Cavalier?

The Honcho was not a separate truck. It was the package that turned Jeep’s working J10 into something Ford and Chevrolet...
09/18/2026

The Honcho was not a separate truck. It was the package that turned Jeep’s working J10 into something Ford and Chevrolet owners could not ignore.

For 1978, the Honcho was available only on short wheelbase J10 pickups. The package brought those huge graphics, wide eight inch wheels, off road tires, bright trim and the unmistakable wide track stance. Buyers could also order the Levi’s interior in blue or tan.

Underneath, it was still a serious four wheel drive Jeep. Engine choices that year included the 258 inline six, 360 V8 and optional 401 V8. The 360 makes the best visual and mechanical match for this particular truck without pretending every Honcho left the factory with the biggest engine.

Jeep offered the Honcho from 1976 through 1983, but reliable production totals for the complete run have never been firmly established. That has not stopped people from repeating questionable rarity numbers. What is certain is that very few pickups from this period carried this much factory attitude.

Mopar people celebrate Hemis, Chargers, Challengers, and Vipers. But there is a good chance many of those later cars wou...
09/18/2026

Mopar people celebrate Hemis, Chargers, Challengers, and Vipers. But there is a good chance many of those later cars would never have existed without the plain Dodge Aries and its Plymouth Reliant twin.

The front wheel drive K cars arrived for 1981 while Chrysler was fighting for survival. They were affordable to build, economical to own, and roomy enough to replace larger family sedans. Motor Trend named the Aries and Reliant its 1981 Cars of the Year, and Chrysler sold roughly two million of the two nameplates during their nine model year run. The adaptable K car engineering also helped support everything from LeBarons to Chrysler’s hugely successful minivans.

This 1989 Aries LE comes from the final model year. Its fuel injected 2.2 liter four produced 93 horsepower and drove the front wheels through a three speed automatic. A 100 horsepower 2.5 liter four was also available. The wagon had disappeared after 1988, leaving the sedan and coupe until production ended in December 1988.

The Aries did not save Chrysler by itself. Loan guarantees, cost cutting, stronger management, and the minivan all mattered. But mocking the K car while celebrating the company it helped preserve has never made much sense.

09/18/2026

Ford introduced its completely redesigned, rounded F-150 for 1997, but it did not force the same platform onto the F-350. The old-body one-ton remained because Ford’s heavy-duty replacement was still being developed as a separate truck line.

That left the final OBS F-350 with the hardware working owners already trusted. The four-wheel-drive version retained a solid Dana 60 front axle, leaf springs and the available 7.3-liter Power Stroke rated at 225 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque. A Crew Cab with the eight-foot bed offered six-passenger space without pretending it was anything other than a working truck.

The all-new Super Duty arrived for the 1999 model year with greater capability, but it also ended the era when Ford’s one-ton still looked and felt like the same straightforward pickup owners had known for years. Progress brought more truck, but did it build a better one to own?

09/18/2026

The original 1960 Valiant was not officially sold as a Plymouth. Chrysler launched it as a separate make, complete with its own identity and advertising that claimed it was nobody’s kid brother.

That changed for the 1961 model year when the Valiant joined the Plymouth lineup and received Plymouth script on the body. Underneath, the familiar compact still used Chrysler’s 170 cubic-inch Slant Six with 101 gross horsepower, while the unusual Virgil Exner styling remained largely intact. Most enthusiasts remember every early example as a Plymouth, but the badge history is not that simple. Does the standalone 1960 Valiant deserve its own identity, or was it always a Plymouth in everything but name?

The fender said SS 396, but the engine underneath it displaced 402 cubic inches. Chevrolet had enlarged the big block fo...
09/17/2026

The fender said SS 396, but the engine underneath it displaced 402 cubic inches. Chevrolet had enlarged the big block for 1970, then kept the familiar 396 name because that badge already carried serious street credibility.

The L78 was the nastiest big block actually installed in a production Camaro that year. It used solid lifters, an aluminum intake, a Holley four barrel carburetor, and an 11 to 1 compression ratio. Chevrolet rated it at 375 gross horsepower and 415 pound feet of torque. Only 600 Camaro buyers ordered it for 1970.

That makes it far rarer than the famous 1970 Z28, but rare does not automatically mean better. The L78 delivered big block torque and straight line violence. The lighter LT1 powered Z28 carried less weight over its nose and was the sharper all around package.

The L78 disappeared after 1970, although Chevrolet continued offering a lower powered big block Camaro through 1972. The badge was misleading. The performance was not.

Ford fans remember the original Bronco as the machine that started the compact recreational four wheel drive fight. Inte...
09/17/2026

Ford fans remember the original Bronco as the machine that started the compact recreational four wheel drive fight. International Harvester was already selling the Scout nearly five years earlier. IH announced the Scout 80 on November 21, 1960, and production began that December for the 1961 model year. The Bronco arrived for 1966.

The early Scout was honest machinery. This open top Roadster rode on a 100 inch wheelbase and used a fully boxed frame, Dana transfer case, leaf springs, and four wheel drive. Its 152 cubic inch Comanche four produced 93 horsepower and shared much of its design and many components with the International 304 V8.

The Scout did not invent the compact four wheel drive because the Jeep CJ was already doing that job. What International changed was the formula. Buyers could order a Roadster, Cab Top pickup, or enclosed Travel Top, then remove the doors, windows, windshield, and roof when the job allowed it. Around 130,000 Scout 80s were built before production ended in October 1965.

The Bronco eventually brought more power and refinement. The Scout got there first and proved that farmers were not the only people who wanted a small four wheel drive.

In 1992, plenty of American performance buyers still believed real speed required rear wheel drive and a V8. Then the Ea...
09/17/2026

In 1992, plenty of American performance buyers still believed real speed required rear wheel drive and a V8. Then the Eagle Talon TSi AWD arrived with a base price of $17,390 and made that argument much harder to defend.

Its turbocharged and intercooled 2.0 liter 4G63T produced 195 horsepower and 203 pound feet of torque. A five speed manual sent power through a full time all wheel drive system using a viscous coupling center differential. Contemporary performance figures put sixty miles per hour at roughly 6.6 seconds, with none of the tire smoke that usually wasted the first few feet of a hard launch.

The Talon was developed through the Diamond Star Motors partnership between Chrysler and Mitsubishi and assembled in Normal, Illinois. Underneath, it shared its basic engineering with the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX and Plymouth Laser RS Turbo AWD. That shared bloodline does not make it less interesting. It explains why the car was so far ahead of what most buyers expected from an Eagle showroom.

A Mustang GT delivered the V8 sound and rear drive attitude. The Talon delivered turbo power, four driven wheels, and serious tuning potential for less than twenty grand. That argument is still not settled.

09/17/2026

The Beretta that paced the 1990 Indianapolis 500 was not the same car Chevrolet placed in showrooms. The actual pace-car program used specially prepared convertibles powered by a modified 3.4-liter V6 producing roughly 245 horsepower. Chevrolet never offered that combination to the public.

Instead, approximately 7,500 commemorative Indy coupes were built. Around 1,500 were yellow and 6,000 were turquoise. They received the unmistakable graphics, spoilers, bodywork, gray interior accents and color-matched wheels, but underneath was the regular 135-horsepower 3.1-liter V6. Buyers could choose an automatic or a five-speed manual, which at least made the lightweight front-wheel-drive coupe more entertaining.

The showroom car has become far rarer than anyone expected, but the truth remains: Chevrolet sold the appearance of its pace car while keeping the convertible body and additional 110 horsepower out of customers’ hands. Would the Beretta be remembered differently if Chevrolet had sold the real version?

09/17/2026

When Dodge introduced the Challenger for 1970, the Dart lost its available 383 big-block. That left the 340 four-barrel as the strongest factory engine in the Dart lineup, but the Sw***er 340 was hardly a consolation prize.

The 340 delivered 275 advertised gross horsepower and 340 pound-feet of torque without hanging big-block weight over the front wheels. Dodge backed it with heavy-duty Rallye suspension, front disc brakes, a 3.23 rear axle and functional hood scoops. The result was a compact A-body that could make cars with bigger engines work harder than their badges suggested.

The popular claim that Chrysler deliberately falsified the horsepower rating for insurance purposes is difficult to document. What can be proven is that the Sw***er combined the right engine with a lighter package. For a street-driven Dart, would you take the lighter 340 or the extra torque of the earlier 383?

***er340

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