Originally Posted by
1OldFordMan
Thanks for the info. Always thought the Mustang was the " first " muscle car. Guess that's the blue ( oval ) blood in me. First car was almost a '65 Galaxie 2 door with a 352. Didn't have enough money for the car & insurance at the time ( 16 years old & in high school ). Nearly bought it anyway.
Since the term Muscle Car, as originally coined, represented
mid-sized cars (Torino/Fairlane/Montego, Pontiac GTO, Olds 442 and etc) that used the large V8's found in the full sized passenger cars, a Mustang is
not a Muscle Car, because it was never considered a mid-sized car.
A Mustang is a Pony Car.
This term was originally coined from the Mustang in the late 1960's for Mustangs, and its competition: Camaro's, Trans-AM's, AMX's, Javelin's, Barracuda's, Cougars and etc.
The problem is...that today...the terms Muscle Car and Pony Car have become muddled, as people do not remember, or are too young to know that there was once a
big difference between these cars.
I'm 65, and have been in the car hobby since the 1950's, so I remember all this jazz, and was a Ford partsman before any of these Muscle or Pony Cars cars were made.