Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag racing, formally and informally."Muscle Car Definition" Muscle Car Club Muscle, undated, retrieved on 2008-06-16.
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Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8s and sold at an affordable price for street use and drag racing, formally and informally."Muscle Car Definition" Muscle Car Club Muscle, undated, retrieved on 2008-06-16.
As such, they are distinct from two-seat sports cars and expensive 2+2 GTs intended for high-speed touring and road racing.
Building on the American phenomenon and developing simultaneously in their own markets, muscle cars also emerged in their own fashions in Australia, South Africa, the UK and elsewhere.
Definition
Though the notion of a muscle car as an American two-door with a big engine sold at an affordable price for street and drag racing is generally held, there is much blurring around its edges.
According to a contemporary issue of Road Test magazine (June 1967), a "muscle car" is "Exactly what the name implies. It is a product of the American car industry adhering to the hot rodder's philosophy of taking a small car and putting a BIG engine in it 1 The Muscle Car is Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face of the weakling."Henshaw, Peter (2004): Muscle Cars, Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 1-59223-303-1 Author of the book Muscle Cars the quote is drawn from, Peter Henshaw, furthers that the muscle car was designed for straight-line speed, and did not have the "sophisticated chassis", "engineering integrity" or "lithe appearance" of European high-performance carsHenshaw, Peter (2004): Muscle Cars, Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 1-59223-303-1
Opinions vary as to whether high-performance full-size cars, compacts, and pony cars qualify as muscle cars.
Early muscle
Musclecars magazine wrote: "2he idea of putting a full-size V8 under the hood of an intermediate body and making it run like Jesse Owens in Berlin belongs to none other than Oldsmobile... 3 all-new ohv V8...Rocket engine quickly found its way into the lighter 76 series body, and in February 1949, the new 88 series was born."Musclecars magazine, 1994.
The article continued: "Walt Woron of Motor Trend enjoyed the 'quick-flowing power...that pins you to your seat and keeps you there until you release your foot from the throttle 4 Olds dominated the performance landscape in 1950, including wins in the NASCAR Grand National division, Daytona Speed Weeks, and the 2100-plus-mile Carrera Panamericana. In France, an 88 won a production car race at Spa-Francorchamps... A husky V8 in a cleanly styled, lightweight coupe body, the original musclecar truly was the '49 Olds 88."
