Rep Power: 701

Don't call it a Muscle Car!
By Gerry Malloy

The mainstream media, print and electronic, have been overwrought this week with news of the Camaro's resurrection at Oshawa. But almost without exception, they have been hailing it as the rebirth of the "muscle car." Since when is a Camaro a "muscle car?" I was there for the birth of both genres and there was no confusion back then as to what was what.

Mike Adams and his lean and trim 1967 Camaro SS drag racer. (photo: GM archives)The "muscle car" was born in 1964 in the form of the original Pontiac GTO. Almost concurrently the Mustang was born, and with it the "pony car" genre.
The Camaro is a charter member of that latter club, which also came to include such vehicles as the Plymouth Barracuda, Pontiac Firebird, Mercury Cougar, Dodge Challenger, and AMC Javelin.
They were all "compact" cars by that era's standards, with a sporting bent that tilted more toward all-round performance, including handling, than to sheer brute force. They all offered V8 engines, but they were primarily small-blocks, and they earned their performance creds on the road-racing tracks of the day.

Mike Adams and his 1967 Camaro SS burning out before a run at the strip. (photo: GM archives)"Muscle cars" were bigger – mid-size cars – with big-block engines, typically in the range of 400 cubic inches (6.6 litres) and up. In addition to the GTO, they included such examples as the Chevelle SS 396, Dodge Super Bee, Plymouth Roadrunner, and many more.
The raison d'être was the drag strip – not the road course, or even the winding sideroad. They were torque-rich, straight-line missiles, waiting to be launched.
I will admit that there was some muddying of those crystal-clear waters of distinction. By the end of the sixties, more than a few big-blocks found their way into pony cars, and they too were more at home at the drag strip than anywhere else.
But they were aberrations of their "pony car" personas. Not "muscle cars." And so it remains.
So says the curmudgeon.
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This is only part of the article, the rest of the article looks at the beginning, the end, and now the rebirth of the camaro
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Rep Power: 660

The water is pretty muddy for any auto definitions. Classic or Milestone cars are a definite list of vehicles, not just an old car. Mint?.....well let's not even go there, save it for the candy because the term is never used properly.

"Big blocks found their way into 'pony' cars?" Well, I do believe they landed there on the assembly line.

I'll define a muscle car as a domestic car with a relatively large displacement motor meant to capitalize on power over handling, etc. Early Mustangs came with a small 6 as did Camaros et al. Not a muscle car. Dad's 318 or 6 cylinder Satellite? Not a muscle car. An early Chev sedan with a multi carb 409, or a 383/4speed Satellite? 427 Camaro? Oh yeah!

BTW, I had a 67 Mustang convertible, with a 390/4speed, lap belts, no head retraints or air bags, drum brakes, power brakes but no power steering and bias ply tires. AM/8track, but you couldn't hear it anyway. You actually had to drive back then. Yes, it was fun!!!!!!!!!!

Now we get computers, black boxes, abs, airbags up the wazoo (I still figure it a bomb in the car), belted in like the fridge on moving day, 20" rims (look like *** to me), tiny tires made of glueium rubber, stereo systems, DVD, GPS, cell phones, wings on everything, radar, radar detectors, radar detector detectors, red light cameras, photoradar, airplanes. May be just me, but that ain't fun at all.