The muscle car craze started with the release of the 1964 Pontiac GTO. At the time, the GTO struck a chord with young buyers. Within a few short years thereafter just about every U.S. Automaker had its own version of
It is funny how history plays out; sometimes the outcome is never as expected. This certainly applies to the Shelby Cobra which has to be the most unexpected high-performance car of the golden era. In some respects, it is a
When discussions arise concerning muscle cars usually the most ballsy performance oriented examples dominate the conversation. For instance when the golden era Dodge Charger is mentioned, the 426 Hemi and 440 Chargers dominate the conversation. Forgotten are the 383 and
It is safe to say that Pontiac weathered the storm of performance malaise in the 1970s better than any other automaker. When all the others had given up, Pontiac continued to put its largest displacement and most powerful V8 motors
When the words “muscle car” come to mind, one usually thinks of powerful V8 powered rear-wheel drive cars. In most cases this assumption would be correct. However when the plug got pulled on high-performance muscle car engines in the form
Everyone has heard the saying – “it is always darkest before the dawn”, for American performance car fans the period of the mid-1970s to early-1980s was a very dark period. During this time engine displacement shrank faster than the current
Ford having muddled through the 1970s without any major breakthrough innovative cars, was changing its tune by the 1980s. Ford decided by the early 1980s to cast its stodgy image aside and begin to build innovative and modern looking cars.
For those old enough to remember, the Corvette (GM’s premier sports car) had turned into a flashy two-seater by the mid 1970s. The 1978 film Corvette Summer epitomized how flamboyant the Corvette had become. The Corvette by this time looked
The GTO was one of the biggest success stories in automotive history. For the first time an inexpensive fast performance car was available to the masses, creating a whole new market segment called muscle cars. Within a few years just
Automotive history as it has been written, 1975 will never be known as a banner year for muscle cars. The GTO, Chevelle SS, Challenger, and Cuda were among some of the most famous muscle car names to bite the dust by