Muscle Cars – Introduction
If ever an era was defined by the cars people drove it was the late 1960's. Power was everything--and without a street scoop poking out of the hood a car was nothing.
As the excesses of fins and chrome finally gave way to integrated and much neater car design, a new and exciting form of self-expression was formed across the USA.
It came in the shape of ultra-powerful versions of otherwise ordinary saloon cars and coupes. By shoehorning enormous V8 engines into the unitary-construction shells of family runabouts, America's biggest and boldest car manufacturers gave birth to a new era in performance motoring. The muscle car has arrived.
It's difficult to pin down when this revolution started. Some will argue it was the Ford Mustang that was first to get the ball rolling, appearing in 1964 and offering Thunderbird style at prices to suit the working man. Or was it the Thunderbird itself that was the first incarnation of a power car? It appeared a decade before the Mustang, had incredible performance and was one of the most powerful machines that a sensible amount of money could buy. But then again, the Chevy Corvette appeared even earlier, and that offered incredible performance for the money. Depending on your definition , this could be the inception point, but many will argue there are other cars that mark the birth of the performance revolution.
Sure, the Mustang and Thunderbird were fine automobiles, but were they really the ultimate power icons?
Ask a General Motors fan and they'll immediately set you straight. The Pontiac GTO, they will tell you, is the original and best muscle car, as GM was the first to truly modify a stock saloon and sell it through Pontiac dealerships.
There's certainly no denying the GTO was a legend in its own lifetime, and when a bout of political correctness forced GM to drop it from the line-up, rebellious Pontiac dealers continued to build and sell 'unofficial' GTO's by selling the modification parts needed and fitting them to customers' cars.
So is the GTO the definitive muscle car? We wouldn't like to say. As well as the manufacturer editions, several were created by their owners as the custom car scene started to take off--and it's impossible to define strictly whether a muscle car should be an untampered original or even a heavily modified standard saloon.
More… on Introduction to muscle cars
So rather than argue over the fine points of when the muscle car came into being and when it finally died, we have instead created a book dedicated to celebrating an era of American culture when the car was king. There are powerful machines here to suit all tastes, whether you believe a muscle car is a factory build model or hot rod special, and regardless of when it all started. The only criteria for selection were that each one was a significant car in its own right, had performance to rival the sports cars of today, boasted an imposing road presence and could truly claim to be an icon.
