The 8 Best Mopar-Centric Episodes of Mike Musto’s Big Muscle, Ranked

Classic American muscle cars doing massive burnouts never gets old.
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With a whole new season of /DRIVE‘s amazing automotive programming just around the corner, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the best videos we’ve made over the course of the years. And since we just so happened to have Mike Musto on the brain today—hey, can you blame us?—we figured we’d kick things off with a look back at some of our favorite installments of his show, Big Muscle.

Over the course of Big Muscle‘s multi-season run, Musto has spent seat time in quite a few completely balls-to the wall hotrods—but some of his greatest adventures have been behind the wheel of Chrysler’s muscle cars. So we decided to round up some of our favorite videos of Musto ripping around in some of Mopar’s finest automobiles. 

And just for fun, we decided to rank them. You may disagree with our choices, or the order we stacked them in; that’s your prerogative, and if you do, we hope you’ll let us know in the comments. 

#8: 1968 Charger / 1969 Daytona

/DRIVE pioneers Larry Kosilla, J.F. Musial, and Musto come together capture both of the muscle man’s own MOPAR beauties on camera. As you’ll see in the video, the two cars are very similar…yet still manage to differ in plenty of important ways.

#7: HEMIs Together, Stay Together

Watch Musto pilot a 1969 Plymouth GTX that was originally purchased by its owner in 1976, and has not since had any sort of full restoration job. And as you’ll see from the video, it sure as hell doesn’t need one.

#6: A Dodge Dart with Identity

For the young ‘uns out there, Dodge Darts were not always small, Neon-esque compact cars. Sure, they were tiny back in the day, but they were nowhere near as cutesy as they are today. This car owner turned his classic Dart into a no-joke car he could truly be proud of.

#5: Import inspiration, Domestic Execution

Ariel Alvarez’s 1973 ‘Cuda was passed through the generations of his family, but it wasn’t always a competent backroad driver.

#4: Start: $400 – Finish: Mean Green MOPAR: Violent Valiant

Is there truly anything better than a bright green, perfectly-powered muscle car? How about a bright green, perfectly-powered muscle car originally bought for $400 before being built up to masterpiece-level perfection?

#3: Original Stock Car: 1966 Coronet

This 1966 Dodge Coronet has basically been transported 50 years through time. It’s not some insane drag car or a track rat. Its just a clean, working, completely stock muscle car. And that’s a wonderful thing.

#2: 1979 Dodge Little Red Express: The Original Muscle Truck

What’s a “Muscle Truck,” you might be asking? Just watch.

#1: Triple Black Attack: 1970 440 6-Pack ‘Cuda

The owner of this 1970 440 ‘Cuda originally purchased the car for $1000 in 1978. Since then, it’s come quite a way. We’ll let him and Musto tell the story.