There is plenty of reality car TV out there, and a lot of it is pretty good too. One of the more popular and believed-to-be-authentic reality TV series is Counting Cars, which airs on the History channel.
Technically, it’s a spinoff of Pawn Stars where it focuses on the goings-on at Count’s Kustoms, an automobile restoration and customization shop that is owned and run by car cognoscenti Danny Koker, known on TV as The Count.
Koker appeared on Pawn Stars as an automobile expert multiple times and was well-received enough to get his own show. Now there are all kinds of cars that are remade or restored on the show, and their cool factor often depends upon the kind of customization the client wants from them. Are all these cars good? Not always, although Counting Cars did truly produce some legends.
Here go the 10 coolest cars modified by the cast of Counting Cars, and how they truly turned out after the team was through with them.
10 That 1969 Shelby GT500
Episode 17 of Season 8 featured a rust bucket. A true-blue 1969 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 with matching VINs came to Count’s Kustoms, and it came in a truly sorry state. Usually priced at almost $100,000, the car needed a ton of work.
After the team got to it, they turned it into a veritable dream in red with white stripes and something that fans were even afraid to ask the value of. A pure classic, restored to its legacy was definitely a win.
9 Danny’s Dad’s T-Bird
Episode 5 of Season 8 showed Koker tackling one very important car, his father’s 1956 Ford Thunderbird. This is a car that Danny was personally involved in and the project did make him pretty emotional from time to time.
The classic T-Bird looked stunning after it was finished, wearing an all-black look and the coolest whitewall tires. The spare tire at the rear end was another gorgeous touch and honestly, take this car anywhere, and it’s bound to get the most eyeballs of all.
8 A Simple Classic Dodge Charger
Dodge Chargers are cool cars and a 1968 example is as sweet as it can get. Clearly, there was cause for excitement when the team got this in the eighth episode of Season 9 and got to work on it with gusto but with restrain as well.
The car is already gorgeous and didn’t need much to make it look like its old stunning self so the team fixed all the mechanical and aesthetic damage and did a custom paint job on it. Honestly, we’d take this over a new Dodge Charger, any day!
7 That First “Bullitt” Mustang
The pilot episode of Counting Cars featured a bit of the Pawn Stars as well because the latter brought over a 1968 fastback Mustang to Danny for restoration, and it's the same spec of car that was the Bullitt Mustang of its time.
A dark green fastback Mustang brings back some memories and can make anyone behind the wheel feel like Steve McQueen catching the bad guys. The restoration was perfect and it's this car that propelled Counting Cars to its current craze.
6 A Rocked-Out Buick Riviera
In the 24th episode of Season 4, its guitarist George Lynch of the metal band Dokken, who has a 1965 Buick Riviera and wants Danny and his team to make it rock and roll for him. Lynch, of course, was as passionate about his car as he was about music so Count’s Kustoms had their job cut out for them.
Later, when the car rolls out for Lynch, the team has clearly made a win again. Decked out in a custom dual-tone paint with wood trim inside, and some musical decals on the hood, Lynch’s Buick Riviera looks like a true rockstar car.
5 The Very Unique Manta Mirage
So if you have not heard of the Manta Mirage, that’s okay because this was never a mass-production car. Basically, these were road-legal race cars, built by brothers Brad and Tim Lovette from 1974 to 1988. It was one of the cars stolen in the original ’74 Gone in 60 Seconds movie.
When the Counting Cars team got its hands on it in episode 15 of Season 8, in went a Chevy V8, Borla induction and exhausts for superior performance, and the car also got a custom paint job and aesthetics. Later it went to SEMA 2018, presented by Borla.
4 A Surprise Classic Chevy Pickup
The second episode of Season 8 had two sons come up to Count’s Kustoms and roll in a decimated 1953 Chevrolet pickup they wanted to have customized, as a gift for their parents. The Ebels run Falmouth’s oldest general store and their boys wanted a sweet surprise for them.
There’s a world of a difference between the truck that was hauled into the shop, and the dark green beauty that finally rolled out to Falmouth. With Ebels printed on the side as a tribute, this is a gift the parents are not likely to forget for a while to come.
3 Respecting The Brave
The fourth episode of Season 8 had another important client for Count’s Kustoms, when a retired four-star general goes in to ask the team to build him his dream car, a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette.
The team had to pull out all stops and make the car a dream come true for a true-blue American soldier. So they got a silver ’67 chevy, beefed up the suspension, and added in a 500-horsepower motor. All else was mostly kept stock, much like the sleeper the general wanted. The marina blue paint made it look stunning!
2 A Cross Country Bel Air
When a client walks in and wants a 1956 Bel Air, but also wants it strong enough to be able to take on a cross country drive, Count's Kustoms has to rack their brains and brawn a bit. They do find a Bel Air and have a dual job at hand.
First, they have the trip the outside and made it look as 1956 as possible, and then they have to trip out the insides – the power and the drivetrain to let the car be able to take the heavy driving it is tasked with. The dual red and white Chevy Bel Air that emerged took our breath away.
1 That Flame-Ridden Camaro
The second episode of the first season had a stunning 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 transformation. Initially seen as a half-spirited shell of a blue car, the team put in their heart and soul in it and did it up so beautifully, it brought tears to the eyes of all Camaro fans.
Other than the beefing up the power and drivetrain of the classic, it got a gorgeous deep red paint job with custom flames dancing all over it for a car that was OTT but looked just right. The car turned out so beautiful, Koker could not bear to part with it...
Sources: History, Episode Ninja, Drive Tribe