Cripes, didn’t we just do one of these year-end most-popular blog post roundups for 2009? And now we’ve reached the end of another year, creeping up on 4,500 total posts. This last twelvemonth was actually a pretty big one around these parts: We redesigned the blog earlier this year, we added the famous Mike Bumbeck to our editorial staff and we started up the Hemmings Daily e-mail newsletter. The results of all of our efforts has been a huge jump in readership numbers, which must mean you folks out there in Hemmings Nation are enjoying what we’re writing. In particular, you found the following posts interesting:

#10 – F.A.S.T. racers break 9-second barrier. We figured the Factory Appearing Stock Tire guys might have made history at our Musclepalooza XI event at Englishtown in the fall, and indeed they did, but the first 9-second F.A.S.T. run actually took place shortly afterward, at Maryland’s Cecil County Dragway, when Lane Carey pushed his 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 to a 9.84-second quarter-mile run. For a full article on Lane and his Mach 1, check out the January 2011 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines.

#9 – Neil Young’s Lincvolt is hot – no, seriously, it’s trying to burn down the warehouse. Alternative-fuel vehicles were big news across the automotive world this year, and one of the more visible alt-fuel vehicle is Neil Young’s LincVolt, a hybridized 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible that uses a multi-fuel microturbine generator and plug-in capabilities to charge its batteries. Something in that plug-in circuit went haywire last month, however, and sent the LincVolt’s storage facility up in flames. Good news for green car fans: We hear the LincVolt will be rebuilt.

#8 – Great news! Stolen Camaro and Corvette returned to owner. Back in August, a thief attempted to abscond with the Milner family’s 1966 Corvette and 1969 Camaro. The cars didn’t get very far, however: They were both recovered a week later, a little worse for wear but still mostly intact. If we learned anything from this episode, it’s that the worldwide members of the Hemmings Nation are ready and willing to help out a fellow old car enthusiast in need.

#7 – Spectacular finds from the Forties. Any time a Tucker comes up for sale, it’s generally an event of note in the collector car world, and when we brought news of Tucker #1010 going up for sale at the Gooding auction in Scottsdale next month, all sorts of speculation followed about what price it will bring.

#6 – ’65 Fuelie Corvette: From Extra Crispy to Well Done! We’re seeing a theme here: Four of the top 10 posts from 2010 concerned destroyed, damaged or stolen cars. Fortunately, most of the stories we related have happy endings, including this one, which concerns a 1965 Corvette apparently destroyed in a fire, but then restored to its former glory. You can check out the full story in the February 2011 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines, which is on newsstands now.

#5 – Trigger’s rival: Ford woody has a unique past. Of course, we’re not all about doom and gloom here at the Hemmings Blog, as we see by the post Jim Donnelly wrote celebrating the Ford wood-bodied station wagon custom built for Roy Rogers.

#4 – The sad, strange case of the 1912 Blackiston. If you know where to look, there’s some great stories in the annals of automotive history, moreso when you start scratching beneath the surface. Such is the case with the story of the 1912 Blackiston, a one-off five-and-a-half-foot-tall roadster that played a role in a tragic tale.

#3 – Out of commission: Sir Stirling Moss’s $1.7 million Porsche damaged in racing. See what we mean about the destroyed, damaged, stolen cars theme? Add in a member of auto racing royalty, and we’re surprised this post didn’t rank higher.

#2 – Mystery junkyard of the past. Internet gold, I tellya. Junkyards and abandoned cars have always been favorite topics among Hemmings readers, and presenting photos of a junkyard without any contextual information is like throwing meat to the lions. We had plenty of guesses at the location of the junkyard, but so far no definitive answer as to when and where the photos were taken.

#1 – Soda can solar heater, v2, completed. This should come as no surprise at all, considering the initial post I wrote about my soda can solar heater still attracts traffic from the world over. This second version, bigger, better and hotter, proved that anybody with access to simple hand tools can harvest the power of the sun without spending big bucks. Of course, as all my projects go, this one’s now sitting half-finished in my garage, waiting for me to make the time to work on it.

Have a safe and happy New Year, everybody, and we promise even more good stuff like the posts above in 2011!