Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag racing, formally and informally.
As such, they are distinct from two-seat sports cars and expensive 2+2 GTs intended for high-speed touring and road racing.
Building on the American phenomenon and developing simultaneously in their own markets, muscle cars also emerged in their own fashions in Australia, South Africa, the UK and elsewhere.
Definition
Though the notion of a Muscle car as an American two-door with a big engine sold at an affordable price for street and drag racing is generally held, there is much blurring around its edges.
According to a contemporary issue of Road Test magazine (June 1967), a "muscle car" is "Exactly what the name implies. It is a product of the American car industry adhering to the hot rodder's philosophy of taking a small car and putting a BIG engine in it The Muscle Car is Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face of the 98 hp (73 kW) weakling." Author of the book Muscle Cars the quote is drawn from, Peter Henshaw, furthers that the muscle car was designed for straight-line speed, and did not have the "sophisticated chassis", "engineering integrity" or "lithe appearance" of European high-performance cars
Opinions vary as to whether high-performance full-size cars, compacts, and pony cars qualify as muscle cars.
The following is a list of muscle cars and their manufacturers (along with the pony car of the same company):
Development
Early muscle
Opinions on the origin of the muscle car vary, but the 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88, created in response to public interest in speed and power, is often cited as the first of the breed. It featured an innovative and powerful new engine—America's first high- compression overhead valve V-8—in the lighter Oldsmobile body.
Musclecars magazine wrote: "he idea of putting a full-size V8 under the hood of an intermediate body and making it run like Jesse Owens in Berlin belongs to none other than Oldsmobile... all-new ohv V8...Rocket engine quickly found its way into the lighter 76 series body, and in February 1949, the new 88 series was born."
The article continued: "Walt Woron of Motor Trend enjoyed the 'quick-flowing power...that pins you to your seat and keeps you there until you release your foot from the throttle Olds dominated the performance landscape in 1950, including wins in the NASCAR Grand National division, Daytona Speed Weeks, and the 2100-plus-mile Carrera Panamericana. In France, an 88 won a production car race at Spa-Francorchamps... A husky V8 in a cleanly styled, lightweight coupe body, the original musclecar truly was the '49 Olds 88."
Jack Nerad wrote in Driving Today : "the Rocket V-8 set the standard for every American V-8 engine that would follow it for at least three decades With a displacement of 303 cubic inches and topped by a two-barrel carburetor, the first Rocket V-8 churned out 135 horsepower (101 kW) at 3,600 rpm and 263 pound-feet of torque at a lazy 1800 rpm no mid-range car in the world, save the Hudson Hornet, came close to the Rocket Olds performance potential..."
Nerad added that the Rocket 88 was "the hit of NASCAR’s 1950 season, winning eight of the 10 races. Given its lightning-like success, one could clearly make the case that the Olds 88 with its 135 horsepower (101 kW) V-8 was the first 'musclecar'..."
Steve Dulcich, writing in Popular Hot Rodding , also cites Oldsmobile, concurrently with Cadillac, as having "launched the modern era of the high-performance V-8 with the introduction of the "Rocket 88" overhead-valve V-8 in 1949."
Growth of the trend
Other manufacturers "showcased performance hardware in flashy limited-edition models. Chrysler led the way with its 1955 C-300, an inspired blend of Hemi power and luxury-car trappings that fast became the new star of NASCAR. With 300 horsepower (224 kW), it was rightly advertised as 'America's Most Powerful Car.'"
Capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 9.8 seconds and reaching 130 miles per hour (209 km/h), the 1955 Chrysler 300 is also recognized as one of the best-handling cars of its era.
Two years later the Rambler Rebel was the fastest stock American sedan, according to Motor Trend .
The popularity and performance of muscle cars grew in the early 1960s, while Mopar (Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler) and Ford battled for supremacy in drag racing—the 1962 Dodge Dart 413 cu in (6.8 L) Max Wedge, for example, could run a 13-second 1/4-mile dragstrip at over 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). By 1964, there were Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, and Pontiac muscle cars in GM's lineup, and Buick joined them a year later. For 1964 and 1965, Ford had its 427 cu in (7 L) Thunderbolts, and Mopar unveiled the 426 cu in (7 L) Hemi engine. The Pontiac GTO was an option package that included Pontiac's 389 cu in (6.4 L) V8 engine, floor-shifted transmission with Hurst shift linkage, and special trim. In 1966 the GTO became a model in its own right. The project, spearheaded by Pontiac division president John DeLorean, technically violated GM's policy limiting its smaller cars to 330 cu in (5.4 L) displacement, but the new model proved more popular than expected and inspired GM and its competitors to produce numerous imitators. The GTO itself was a response to the Dodge Polara 500 and the Plymouth Sport Fury, which in 1962 had been shrunk to intermediates—at a time when bigger was considered better.
AMC, though late entering the muscle car market, produced "an impressive array of performance cars in a relatively short time," said Motor Trend . "The first stirrings of AMC performance came in 1965, when the dramatic if ungainly Rambler Marlin fastback was introduced to battle the Ford Mustang and Plymouth Barracuda." Although the Marlin was a flop in terms of sales and initial performance, AMC gained some muscle-car credibility in 1967, when it made both the Marlin and the "more pedestrian" Rebel available with its new 280 horsepower (209 kW), 343 cu in (5.6 L) "Typhoon" V8. And in 1968 the company offered two legitimate muscle car contenders: the Javelin and its truncated variant, the AMX.
Although the sales of true muscle cars were relatively modest by total Detroit production standards, they had value in publicity and bragging rights. Competition between manufacturers meant that buyers had the choice of ever-more powerful engines—a horsepower war that peaked in 1970, with some models offering as much as 450 hp (336 kW) (with this and others likely producing as much or more actual power, whatever their rating).
Turn-key drag racers
Muscle cars attracted young customers (and their parents) into showrooms, and they bought the standard editions of these mid-size cars. To enhance the "halo" effect of these models, the manufacturers modified some of them into turn-key drag racers.
For example, Ford built 200 lightweight Ford Galaxies for drag racing in 1963. All non-essential equipment was omitted. Modifications included fiberglass panels, aluminum bumpers, traction bars, and a competition-specification 427 cu in (7 L) engine factory-rated at a conservative 425 bhp (317 kW). This full-size car could run the quarter mile in a little over 12 seconds. Also built in 1963 were 5,000 road-legal versions that could be used every day. (Ford claimed 0-60 in less than 6 seconds for the similarly-powered 1966 Galaxie 500XL 427.)
Another Ford lightweight was the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt that utilized the mid-size Fairlane body. A stock Thunderbolt could run a quarter-mile (402 m) at a drag strip in 11.76 seconds at 122.7 mph (197.5 km/h), and Gas Ronda dominated the NHRA World Championship with a best time of 11.6 seconds at 124 mph (200 km/h). The Thunderbolt included competition-specification 427 cu in (7 L) engine and special exhausts (though technically legal for street use, the car was too raucous for the public roads—"not suitable", according to a Hot Rod magazine quote, "for driving to and from the strip, let alone on the street in
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