Starting off our list is the so-called “Swiss Cheese” Pontiac Catalina Sport Coupe Super Duty, so named for its aggressive weight-savings tactic of drilling holes in the frame, which helped trim a total of 123kg.

The lightweighting duties were performed by NASCAR builder Ray Nichols and hot-rodder/racer Mickey Thompson. The result produced a leaner, meaner, and more competitive stock-body race car. Of the 14 that were built for the 1963 model year, only three remain, further bolstering the desirability of this 410 hp muscle car.

Chevrolet Chevelles were produced between 1964 and 1978, but it was the SS variants—short for Super Sport—that brought heavy artillery to the muscle-car wars. The 1970 model year was notable for Chevelle SS models because a longstanding displacement limitation was lifted, opening the floodgates for the massive 7.4-litre motor.

The top of the range features the LS6 power plant, which upgraded loads of components including the carburetor, featuring a Holly four-barrel setup that helps the engine produce 450 hp and 679Nm of torque. This power boost helped the LS6 vanquish lesser foes like the Mustang 428 Cobra Jet and Dodge Challenger Hemi. The vast majority of the 4,475 examples of the LS6 versions produced for 1970 were coupes, leaving somewhere between 19 and 26 examples with the convertible option. Drag racers of the era might have preferred hardtops, but the drop-top’s scarcity makes it the one to have today.

With a moniker inspired by entertainer Sammy Davis Jr’s line, “Here come da Judge!”, from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In, these notorious variations on the Pontiac GTO have earned a special place in the hearts of collectors. This is especially due to the model’s performance add-ons, which included a gutsier V-8 engine, enhanced wheels, specialty trim, and a rear spoiler.

While a total of 6,725 Judge hardtops and 108 Judge convertibles were produced, only five open-air Judge examples were built with the high-spec Ram Air IV V-8 for the 1969 model year.

Few muscle cars are as visually emphatic as the pointy-nosed, enormously winged Plymouth Road Runner Superbird and its sister car, the Dodge Charger Daytona. With Looney Tunes–derived naming and an over-the-top silhouette, the menacing power of the Superbird’s seven-litre V-8 led to a dominating 33 wins out of 48 races at the hands of none other than Richard Petty.

While the big-spoilered competition version was so good that it was banned before the 1971 season, road-homologated iterations sat on dealer lots, proving that the 1,920 examples built for public consumption were too radical for the period. Now that the sands of time have washed over this unusual one-year-only model, prices have climbed, landing it at No. 7 on our list of most valuable muscle cars.

Although the “King of the Hill” moniker was unofficially earned by a Corvette in the 1990s, the ultimate muscle car in 1969 was the Camaro ZL1. Thanks to Chevrolet’s decision to make an exception to its self-imposed limit on the Camaro’s engine size, in order for the model to be homologated for competitive drag racing, this Camaro claims a 427 cubic-inch V-8 derived from a Can-Am Chaparral big-block engine.

Total output is officially rated at 425 hp, but the V-8 actually produces closer to 550 horses, enough to vanquish the range-topping Corvette back in the day. The aluminium engine was possible due to COPO 9560—short for Central Office Production Order, a specialised fleet division that enabled special build projects to slip into the production flow. While only 50 examples were planned for homologation purposes, a total of 69 were built.

Conceived along with the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird as one of two “Aero Cars” for competition, the Dodge Charger Daytona left an unforgettable impression thanks to its long body, bulky nose cone, and towering rear wing. Powered by either a seven-litre Hemi or a 7.2-litre Magnum V-8, the Daytona—named after the legendary track—was a sensation when its race variants battled foes in NASCAR. In competition, it took 20 victories, became the first to break 322 km/hr, and scored a title series.

The next year’s Superbird continued those winning ways, cementing the legend of the big-winged duo and fuelling values for the 503 street cars which were produced, the best examples now valued at a cool million bucks.

The maestro behind this bit of madness was none other than Carroll Shelby, who was ordered by Ford boss Lee Iacocca to build a car that could dominate the Sport Car Club of America (SCCA) B/Production class in racing. The street car was an athletic and intimidating expression of speed: unlike most unwieldy muscle cars of its era, this ‘Stang was smaller, nimbler, and fitted with plexiglass windows, a roll cage, and fender flares housing larger wheels and tires.

Powered by a hot-rodded 289 cubic-inch V-8, these fastbacks earned notoriety because they subverted the Pony car formula with focused performance that earned them SCCA B-Production championship wins three years in a row with legends like Ken Miles, Bob Bondurant, and Peter Brock behind the wheel. Racing lore has nudged values for top-condition road-car examples to US$1.05 million in the USA. In fact, the first GT350R prototype, chassis No. 5R002, became the most valuable Mustang on the planet when it sold for US$3.85 million in 2020.

In retrospect, it might seem like a no-brainer to tick the “Trans Am” box when ordering a Pontiac Firebird back in 1969. Powered by a 400 hp H.O. V-8 with Ram Air III heads, and fed by a four-barrel Quadrajet carburetor, the package brought special spoilers, scoops, and trim to 689 coupes, though only eight convertibles.

Muscle cars, by nature, are extreme. This is thanks to their respective automakers’ philosophy of stuffing the biggest possible engine into a small body. The 1970 Dodge Challenger Convertible R/T added another layer of intrigue due to its notoriously flexible body, making its most-desirable 426 Hemi-engine option grossly overpowered for the model’s skimpy chassis.

Named after the predatory fish, the Plymouth Barracuda was leveraged off the more affordable Valiant platform in the same way the Mustang was based on the budget-minded Falcon. Even hotter than Barracudas was the so-called “Cuda” variant, though one particular strain of the hot-rodded Plymouth model became the ne plus ultra of muscle cars, thanks to its menacing personality and the success of racing legend Dan Gurney when piloting it.

This story was first published on Robb Report USA