Forbidden Muscle: 10 USA Brand Performance Cars You Couldn't Buy in America

what if I told you that some of the coolest and quirkiest classic cars ever made were hidden from you by your own country that's right there are some incredible performance machines that were built by American car companies using American brand names but only for foreign markets and you never got a chance to see them let alone drive them in this video we're going to have some fun and take a trip to a parallel universe where these cars exist and show you 10 of them that might bend your brain a little these are the cars that U.S automakers made for Australia Brazil South Africa and more but never for you let's take a look and see what we've missed out on [Music] [Applause] it sort of looks like a Chevrolet Chevelle with completely wrong trim and badging it's actually a mashup hybrid creation of a Chevrolet Chevelle and Pontiac Le Mans with Chevrolet engine choices built on a Chevelle a-body intermediate platform the interior was mostly from a Pontiac Le Mans as were the exterior trim pieces except for the grill and tail light housing which were unique to the Beaumont what made this even cooler was the availability of the Beaumont SD essentially the equivalent of the Chevelle SS in the United States the l-78 396 cubic inch 375 horsepower big block engine [Music] behold the 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS it looks like the US model but it's not it's a Mexican special and had lots of subtle differences if we compare the Mexican version and the US version the differences begin to materialize no rear spoiler checkerboard pattern alloy wheels minimal side graphics and Plain Jane mirrors moving inside we can see that the steering wheel is different there's no center console no power windows and the dashboard is from a Pontiac Grand Prix the best part is that awesome four-speed Hurst shifter that tells you this car means business so that's the Mexican Monte Carlo SS a rare and awesome machine the Chevy made for one year only maybe they had some extra parts that they needed to use up or maybe they just loved Mexico either way it's a cool car that deserves respect [Music] opala a name that the Brazilian Chevrolet marketing department came up with for this small car that seems to be a mashup of Opel and Impala it was derived from the European opal rackford and debuted in the Brazilian Market in 1969 and was sold there until 1992 and had absolutely nothing to do with the U.S Chevrolet Impala throughout its model run the Apollo was available in sedan Coupe and station wagon iterations the performance version was the SS variant with its aggressive and sporty exterior styling and Graphics four-speed manual transmission and 4.1 liter six-cylinder engine that grew in power from 140 horsepower in 1970 up to 153 horsepower in 1976. no we didn't get this one here in the land of Cheval and Impala SS's but maybe we should have as an alternative to the Vega [Music] the Dodge Super Bee was a legendary American muscle car from the 1960s and early 1970s that was one of the quickest Factory cars ever to Devour the quarter mile it was also quick to devour Fuel and tires and make its owner's wallets cry like a baby let's go down south and see what the Mexican version of the Super Bee looked like nope not like this like this it looked nothing like the USB body version at all in fact it was based on the a-body Chrysler platform of the Dodge Dart and Plymouth Duster debuting in Mexico in 1970 this car was called the Valiant super b a sporty trim level of the Valiant Duster during the first half the 1970s it could be had with a 318 cubic inch engine good for 270 horsepower why they didn't call this the Spanish equivalent of the super B is a mystery to us but then in 1975 things got spicy they upgraded to a 360 cubic inch engine that cranked out 300 horsepower that's more than any duster in the U.S could ever have dreamed of at the time so if you wanted a real a-body factory hot rod in the 1970s you had to go South of the Border and get yourself a Mexican Super Bee [Music] we go back to Canada during the 1960s for the Acadian canso this one sort of looks like a Chevy 2 from the 1960s but something is a little off first there's the front grille which appears Pontiac inspired with the center portion splitting it into two halves moving around back the tail lights weren't swiped from the Chevy too but seemed to be unique to the kanso the exterior trim and badging is also exclusive for the Canada only cancel unlike the American Chevy 2 the cancel wasn't available with the high performance SS option don't feel sad for our connect Brethren though they could still outrun a moose with their own kanso high performance option the Sport Deluxe or SD if you had enough loonies despair the SD was available with the l79 327 cubic inch 350 horsepower v8 straight from the Corvette [Music] [Applause] this car is from South Africa in the early 1970s it's actually a re-badged and slightly redesigned Holden Monero HG series from Australia that was marketed as a Chevrolet with a fake American smile looking at it one can see the attempt at imbuing some American styling in the front of the car the grill and quad headlight treatment somewhat resembled those of the 1966 American Chevelle with the familiar SS badging and dig those tiny Hood scoopets why would they need those one might wonder because the SS was available with a Holden 308 cubic inch V8 or the mighty American Chevrolet 350 cubic inch V8 generating 300 horsepower and required lots of air instantly available to breathe in when the go pedal got mashed [Music] we head back to South Africa for this next one and it's another Chevrolet this one has race Heritage connections as it was a homologation special that was limited to just 100 copies that were sold to the public it also has a secret under its hood that comes right from a 1960s era American Pony car derived from the British voxel ferenza it was rebranded as the Chevrolet Firenza for the South African market and offered with some lackluster four-cylinder engine choices and a range of body styles none of which got anybody's pulse racing the hot one to have was the 1971-72 Forenza Can-Am with the engine from the Stateside Trans Am series Camaro z28s the z28's 302 cubic inch engine delivered 290 high revving horsepower to the rear wheels of this race tune Corner Carver that only weighed in at around 2 000 pounds of course it was wicked fast it could Sprint from 0 to 60 in 5.3 seconds and hit over 140 miles per hour [Music] well here's one that car chase action movie fans from around the globe will recognize the Australian Market Ford Falcon the one driven in the first and second Mad Max films was a modified 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT it definitely didn't look like the U.S market Falcon that only sold from 1960 to 1970 especially in the 1970s onward but it did resemble the Mustang Milano concept car that Ford showed in the early 1970s here in the states in Australia it was available from 1960 through 2016 in Sudan a state wagon Coupe utility and GT flavors the GT models definitely packed a wallop in fact the 1971 XY gtho phase 3 was a homologation version sold to the public for race eligibility it was upgraded over the standard GT with an underrated 300 horsepower 351 cubic inch Cleveland engine and considered the world's fastest four-door production car at the time capable of taking on Ferraris and Aston Martins on the racetrack these days the ones that still exist are incredibly rare and expensive collector cars [Music] [Applause] arriving at number two on our list we think this one is pretty special and a little mind-blowing everyone can recall what the US version of the Dodge Dart looked like from the late 1960s but in Brazil Chrysler decided to go in a different styling Direction entirely they used the dark body that we're also familiar with but changed the name to the charger and added a flying buttress rear window treatment headlights that were covered by a full width Grille and unique Stripes along the sides in 1971 they released the Charger RT their performance model that included a 215 horsepower 318 cubic inch engine with dual exhaust and a four-speed manual transmission at the time the charger was considered the fastest car that one could buy in Brazil they stopped making it after a few years and now it's a rare gem that only a few lucky collectors can own [Music] coming in at number one the Chrysler Valiant charger no not the yawn-inducing Plymouth that Americans had to put up with for 16 years this was the Aussie Valiant mate and it's a bloody Ripper you could get it as a sedan a wagon a coupe or a ute but who cares about that we're here for the performance that's why we're focusing on the early 70s when the Valiant went full beast mode and unleashed the Charger RT look at this beauty it's like a mini me version of the 1966-67 Dodge Charger the best of the best was a 1972 Valiant Charger RT with the e49 option that gave you a Hemi six-pack engine no not the one you might be thinking of this one was a straight six with a Hemi head and three side draft Weber carburetors that pumped out 302 horsepower it also had all the other goodies you'd want in a muscle car like a four-speed manual transmission a limited slip differential and disc brakes some say it's the greatest Aussie muscle car ever made we say it's bloody awesome that's it for now folks we hope you enjoyed this tour of some of the coolest cars that U.S automakers made for other countries but not for us these are the cars that show how creative and diverse the Auto industry can be and how sometimes you have to look beyond your own borders to find the gems thanks for watching and don't forget to like share and subscribe for more awesome content like this [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: MagnaLume

Views: 480,165

Keywords: Forbidden Muscle 10 USA Brand Performance Cars You Couldn't Buy in America, Ford, Chrysler, Chevrolet, opala, beaumont, canso, acadian canso, acadian, super bee, valiant super bee, chevrolet ss, super sport, ss, chevrolet firenza, chevrolet firenza can am, ford falcon xb gt, ford falcon xy, ford falcon xy gtho phase 3, dodge charger rt, chrylser valiant australia, valiant charger rt e49, aussie muscle, aussie muscle cars

Id: l0F5gMBeIaE

Length: 12min 42sec (762 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023