1967 Chevrolet C-10 Pickup Truck ***no Reserve!!! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

One of the world's largest muscle car museums is auctioning off its cars

Rick Treworgy's Muscle Car City is one of the biggest collections of high-performance American cars in the world. With over 200 cars of mostly GM makes, it's a mecca for fans of the golden age of Detroit iron. Unfortunately, the museum will be shutting its doors for good on Jan. 17 and auctioning off most of its assets with no reserve. The collection is, to put it bluntly, astounding. Advertised as a combined 65,000-plus horsepower, it occupies a 60,000-square-foot retail space in Punta Gorda, Fla., in a former Walmart store. It make sense when you learn that founder Rick Treworgy made his fortune in the commercial real estate business. As a hobby, he began to amass a truly jaw-dropping collection of muscle cars, filling out a collection that often has every year of a particular model represented, or a grouping of the rarest and highest-performance option packages of that year or model. Often, Treworgy bought placeholders while scouring the country for even rarer versions. It helps that Muscle Car City also houses a showroom where unwanted cars are sold, as well as its own speed shop that stocks plenty of parts. There's even a '50s-style diner called Stingray's Bar and Grill. According to a 2014 episode of Car Crazy, Treworgy has 80 Corvettes alone, more than the actual Corvette Museum. Among them are 20 models from 1967, one of Treworgy's favorites. The rest span the decades from 1954 (he once had a '53 but sold it) to a recently acquired 2020 C8, which, according to The Drive, has only 300 miles on the odometer. You like Impalas? There are models of every year from 1958 to 1969. El Caminos? He's got 'em from 1964 to 1972. Novas? Every year from 1963 to 1970 is represented. Most are the more desirable examples of each breed, with four-speed transmissions, the biggest blocks, and unicorn option packages like a factory 1965 Z16 SS396 Chevelle, one of 200 that were ordered off-menu at Chevy dealerships. And don't even get us started on the Camaros, which include not one, but two COPO 1969s. Treworgy even owns the only known surviving example of a 1936 Chevrolet Phaeton, of which only seven were built. On top of it all, many of these cars are concours quality and have won awards at prestigious car shows. While it's sad to see a collection like this broken up, Treworgy told The Drive that he'd been planning to retire next year anyway. However, the COVID-19 pandemic sped up those plans, greatly reducing the number of visitors to his museum.

Weekly Recap: Revisting the BBC report that ended Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear run

Jeremy Clarkson's long run as a Top Gear host has come to an end, and the reason is clear: His physical assault on one of the show's producers crossed a line, and the government-owned BBC couldn't tolerate it. The incident between Clarkson and Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon was initially described as a "fracas," and Clarkson was suspended. But his popularity and widespread support – even British Prime Minister David Cameron weighed in – suggested that the controversial Clarkson might be given yet another chance. The BBC put this to rest Wednesday when it sacked Clarkson and revealed the findings of its investigation. The report spelled out how Clarkson struck Tymon on the patio of a North Yorkshire (UK) hotel, leaving him with a bloodied, swollen lip. It was severe enough that the producer sought medical treatment. During and after the attack, Clarkson shouted expletives at Tymon and threatened to fire him. The noise carried into the hotel's dining room and even to a bedroom. Local police investigated the incident, but Tymon isn't pressing charges. The huge audience numbers, Clarkson's popularity and the high-octane excitement of Top Gear all melted away in the eyes of BBC director-general Tony Hall, who saw an attacker and a victim. "For me a line has been crossed," he said in a statement. "There cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another dictated by either rank, or public relations and commercial considerations." In that moment, Clarkson was the bad guy, though he was actually the one who reported it to the network and made repeated attempts to apologize to Tymon. He's also urged the media to leave the producer alone. Hall voiced regret in the statement that announced Clarkson's contract would not be renewed, but the BBC decided to move on. Rumors are swirling about possible replacements for Clarkson. The network says it wants to continue Top Gear in 2016 and is looking to air the rest of this season's episodes. Despite the controversy, the show has a global audience of 350 million viewers and is one of the BBC's most valuable properties. It's unclear what Clarkson's co-hosts, James May and Richard Hammond, will do, as their contracts were also reportedly up to be renewed. Other News & Notes 2016 Chevrolet Malibu hybrid charges up with Volt technology Chevrolet is taking some of the learnings and technologies from the 2016 Volt and dropping them into the reborn Malibu hybrid.

Watch Evo pick its 2015 Car of the Year in this epic video

With just a few days left in 2015, it's the perfect time to check out Evo's annual Car of the Year test to determine the greatest performance vehicle of the last 12 months. The writers' picks for the 11 finalists spanned a breadth of engaging models and included: Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport, Lamborghini Aventador SV, Seat Leon Cupra Sub8, McLaren 675LT, Porsche 991 GT3 RS, Porsche Cayman GT4, Honda Civic Type R, Ferrari 488 GTB, Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, Lotus Evora 400, and Mercedes-AMG GT S. For the venue to test the mettle of these performance machines, Evo stuck close to home this year and visited the twisting roads at the beautiful north coast of Scotland. Racing brothers Marino and Dario Franchitti also came along for the ride to provide two more voices in the competitive challenge to determine a winner. Evo's video explains why each model deserves to be among such rarified company but doesn't gloss over their faults either. There can be only one winner, though. We don't want to spoil it, so check out the clip for magnificent views of these performance machines through the Scottish countryside.