What is a muscle car

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kris66cuda

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Hey guys in a bit of a debate on a facebook group on what a muscle car really is here is the question that was asked and please give me what you guys think is the real answer

Is the dodge neon especialy the rt and srt a musle car or tuner normaly its obvious a civic or beamer a tuner a mustang musle but whats a neon it has more of a tuner shape but seems to be more of a musle car?

Taken copy and paste from the page



Thanks Guys
 
v8 period 2door mostly but i consider my wagon a muscle car proving some 4doors can be and yes rear wheel american.examples judges,gto,cudas,challangers
 
Back in the day the insurance companies concidered anything that had 1 or more horsepower for every 10 pounds of car weight a muscle car.
 
thanks guys this one guy beleives that if his neon isnt tuned his neon must be a muscle car
 
seabee said:
My definition: American Made, 2 doors, rear wheel drive, Big Block v8.
Click to expand...

So a Duster 340 isn't a Muscle Car? :eek:ops: What about a '70 Challenger T/A 340 6 bbl?

To the OP, I agree with everything seabee said except the BB qualification. A BB just makes it MORE of a musclecar. A neon is a tuner.
 
seabee said:
My definition: American Made, 2 doors, rear wheel drive, Big Block v8.
Click to expand...

ramcharger said:
So a Duster 340 isn't a Muscle Car? :eek:ops:

To the OP, I agree with everything seabee said except the BB qualification. A BB just makes it MORE of a musclecar. A neon is a tuner.
Click to expand...


So I guess a Boss 302 or 302 Z28 isn't a muscle car. Or maybe a 375hp 'Vette?

But I agree, muscle cars were pretty much "60's and 70's" Who knows who first 'coined' the word, probably some magazine writer. I don't think "back then" anyone ever considered any wagon or more door a muscle car. It pretty much had to be in the "sport" class to be considered. And, "FACTORY performance car" was what the original name referred to. You could "build your own" car, but that is not what the name originally referred to.
 
I don't think it was ever written, but the version I always thought it was; American iron Pre- 1974 pushing 275HP and above.
 
63VALIANT*KISS said:
but i consider my wagon a muscle car
Click to expand...

Really?

Specs on my '69 Sport Satellite 4 door (all factory)

383/4bbl, 727, 3.55 8.75 Sure-Grip, 11" drum brakes all the way around (non-power), power steering with a cooler, five full leafs on one side, five full and two half leafs on the other, Magnum 500's.

It's hardly what I'd consider a muscle car, even though it was built from the factory with extra go-goodies.

I wouldn't consider comparably equipped Belvedere's built for police use muscle cars, either.

But that's the thing about muscle cars. The definition is broad and varying.

I'd consider anything B-body size and smaller, with factory performance upgrades (4bbl or multiple carbs, bigger cams, dual exhaust, bigger brakes) to be a muscle car built between the years of '64 (open to personal definition) to about '71 (around the time compression and performance levels came down.)

My '74 Barracuda, factory 318 2bbl isn't a muscle car, in my opinion.

Hell, I wouldn't consider a factory 318 2bbl '71 Barracuda a muscle car, either.

Cars built from the factory for performance were muscle cars (ironic, then, that my definition includes my Sport... I just can't bring myself to a call a 4 door a muscle car..) except those which are bumped into the "sports" car category ( 'Vettes, Cobras, the little European cars with the horses in the emblems...).

A factory built Duster 340? Yes. A factory built slant Duster? Nope.

Pony cars... E-bodies, Mustangs, GM F-bodies... are in a slightly different category defined as a pony car: long hood, short deck comparably. That '71 318 2bbl Barracuda I was talking about, doesn't really have the muscle, but it's still a Pony.

As for the Neon in the OP? No way in hell will it ever by a muscle car, no matter what is done to it. Chrysler even called the SRT4 a factory tuner.
 
By def. a muscle car is one made from '64-'72 Equiped with a powerful engine and not a run of the mill engine. Engine size is of little importance to relation to the term. So big block guys can sit it.

The era ended in '72 when compression ratios dropped like rocks, valve sizes shrunk and camshafts becam broom stick. Emissions became the hot topic and power killer. So, technically, my '73 Cuda is not a muscle car be ause of the "Detuned" engine even though it is otherwise equipped exactly the same as previous years.

Back to the engines a second here.

Just because you have a *** car with a mid 300 CID engine doesn't automatically make it a muscle car. A typical Camaro for example came with a 327 or 350 in later years as a normally seen displacement size engine. There is absolutely nothing special about it. In fact, they basically littered the streets to the point of normal.

Now if you had one with a big block or the rare to be seen DZ 302 engine, you got a muscle car. Same with the stang. 302 ='s Ho-Hum and so freaking what. Boss 429 inside? HOOOO YEA!!!!

With that said, later year cars were updated with performance parts and given there muscle afterwards. Not born that way but transformed. This can be done to nearly any car. Though a Neon will always be a tuner and a **** box by any real car man (or lady) they fall in line with the jap cars. "Civic"

Hot rodding them doesn't give them muscle car status and never will though the idea of pumping up the weak is for ever a hot roddlers way of doing what Detroit did for us so many years ago and Is starting to do again. While the HayDay is gone and dead, never to return like it was, the HP wars are back on and the second coming of the muscle car is here and now.
 
Pony cars were a "Tag" first given to the Mustang for two reasons. Both reasons interlock with each other. The little chrome horse on a small sporty car. This name stuck better than glue. When Chevy came out with the Camaro and Pontiac came out with the Firebird, the name slide over to those cars as well as there answer to the pony car.

Chrysler did not get a pony car until the Challenger and Barracuda E-body cars hit the pavement. Though considerably larger than the earlier cars, the Ford and Chevy camps cars also grew in size and the name still stuck.

Earlier (Actually all) A body cars are not pony cars. There compacts via definition at the time.
 
I would say a certain H.P. per weight of the car, but there's so many 12, 13 and 14 sec. cars nowadays, V6 Mustangs, Mercedes, SUV's, whatever..... I think the whole "muscle car" thing more refers to the "good ol' days" with a hot V8/RWD American metal. When anyone or company refers to their new cars as muscle cars, I think it's just a little bit of a nod to the past.
 
Ok... then what is a "Hot Rod"?

My nephew just got a new Camaro and drove it down from Chicago. He called on the way to my house and asked where he should park his new "hot rod"...
I said, "son, you arent driving a hot rod... but you can park it next to one".
 
Are Corvettes considered "Muscle Cars' ? Talking C-2's to 1971 C-3's?
I always considered them 'sport cars'.
 
It means exactly what it states. "Muscle" "car" Not made for the timid or weak.

You don't steer "Muscle Cars' you aim them.

Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride kind of car.

Today's Technology is way beyond the word muscle. The cars now are more like Monsters that come alive. "Monster car".

In reality they were performance cars packages built from 62-72. From mopar, It started with 62 Max Wedge and went to 72 440's and every performance BB car between. A little ways back It was the Big blocks that held the title. Not any more!! My little mouse will hold its own aside of most elephants. I Call it the " Rat Eater " or "Elephant Tamer", LOL.

I always picture a little 340 mouse with a whip, Beating down an Hemi elephant. David and Golieth.

Its like my little Jack Russell dog. He is always grabbing my St. Bernard by the neck and ripping him around for no reason.

Meat David and Golieth and that is their names. You don't screw with David he rules the roost. Until the 416 stroker walks in . The king "Duke" My Black lab. He grabbed that tire off of a Mustang going by
 

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Alive yet. I was just ready to go to the Garage and shoot the kid a game of pool. Actually kick his *** in a game. LOL
 
american made factory hotrods! 4speed, dual quad, posi-traction 409! lol
 
Definitions

MUSCLE CAR: any of a group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving.
"The Muscle Car is Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face of the 98 horsepower weakling"

HOT ROD: noun Slang. an automobile specially built, customized, or altered for fast acceleration, power, and increased speed.

This list was how Wikipedia broke it down (not that I agree- Challenger a pony car???) with varied examples:
 

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