Author Archive: Bryan McTaggart
Unhinged: The Lasting Legacy Of Roadkill
In case you have been living under a rock, have recently come out of a coma, have returned from foreign travel or finally replaced the smartphone that you dropped in the toilet, it is true: in...
Enjoying Scouts Old And New In The Farmlands Of Tennessee
From 1961 to 1980, International Harvester, one of the biggest names in the world of agriculture machinery, made sport-utility vehicles. The Scout 80, 800, 800A, Scout II, Terra and Traveler added a...
Junkyard Digs Shows You What To Look For On Your New-To-You Project With This 4-Speed Malibu
Oh, good lord, Kevin, what have you done. A Chevy Malibu wagon in one of the many flavors of cream/beige/”I Can’t Believe It’s Not White!” that most late 1970s-very early...
Not A Mustang: Can This Capri Turbo RS Make It To Ford Fest?
You want to know how nice of a guy Dylan McCool is? I’ll give you a little bit of insider baseball on this video. A couple of days after MoParty, he shoots me a text message: “I wanted to...
Not A Cop: This Drift-Ready Crown Victoria Looks Rowdy!
“Sleeper” is one of those words that gets thrown around in the gearhead world too much. It’s like saying that something is “cool”, even if you’re saying it so that...
Unhinged: It’s Time For An Adventure!
I’m in a text group with two friends that I graduated high school with. I met one in 1990 and excepting a seven-year gap when I moved away during childhood, have been friends since. The other I...
The Charger, Part 10: Power Tour Killed The 360. But Fate Stepped In…
June 11th, 2024. That’s the day that the 360 in the ’76 Charger failed. You could’ve boiled an egg on my head, I was so pissed off. I had been thrashing on the car for half a year...
Unhinged: Power Tour 2024, From The Eyes Of A First-Timer
I remember seeing the call-out in Hot Rod magazine: how would you like to take your street machine, 4×4, whatever you’ve got that’s cool, and join the magazine staff on a trip from...
The Charger, Part 9: Shoving A Tremec TKX Where It Truly Belongs
Every six months, it seems, it’s time to provide an update to you, the BangShift reader, on the status of my ’76 Dodge Charger. Let’s be honest: in the entire duration of my...
Rough Project: Pole Barn Garage’s Budget-Savvy $2,250 Grand Prix Rebuild!
You may remember my “Rough Start” posts from a while back. The basic sentiment was that for $5,000, you could find an interesting, worthy project that would run, drive and had the...
Draggin’ Ass: Can This Squarebody Tow Truck Live Once More?
At the corner of Hancock Avenue and Fillmore Street in Colorado Springs, there used to be a Conoco gas station of the old-school variety: four pumps and a service center that would do oil changes,...
Morning Symphony: Banging Gears In A Stick-Shifted Ford LTD II
The Ford LTD II was a strange duck. It only ran for three years (1977-1979), was effectively a 1972 Ford Torino with razor-lined styling and a park bench for a front bumper, and had all of...
Rough Start: This Festiva Is A Cute Li’l Farm Truck!
I’ll be honest with you, readers: I was dreading looking for a Rough Start vehicle of any kind. It’s been a minute since I really went dredging for a cheap-car candidate, and for good...
