So what IS a muscle car?

After reading about this debate since the late 1980's, I've distilled the essence of the term to mean a car built with identifiers such as badging or stripes, that marks it as a performance oriented car.

This solves the "rockett 88" issue as well as the 318 Road Runner issue.
It also addresses the "muscle" car that is also a "pony car" issue.
...and addresses the big car with a big engine issue- if it's "advertised", it's "in".