They only built about 7000 from '64-67, of which there are only about 2500 known to still exist. All but the last 533 had the 260, the last ones had a 289. (Of course, mine has a 302 !) -TD

 

70 Mustang,351 CJ.

 

It would seem there is a whole generation now growing up since 1970 that are not aware of what the "muscle car" designation defined .

Oh what the h--l eh! it's all hot wheels talk any way .

 

I have a 1965 Pontiac GTO. It's bored 0.060 over to 400 CID and has a big lumpy hydraulic cam, factory headers and TriPower (3 two barrels). It has bucket seats, console, 4 speed and a Moser Engineering Chevy 12-bolt rear axle. It's painted ticket-getter red and has a black interior.

 

Is a 90 T-Bird SuperCoupe a muscle car, if you remove the SC 3.8 V-6, and install a built 347 stroker? All I know, is it's faster then any big block 60's and 70's true muscle cars I've ever owned.

 

stevef100 : I'd bet that coupe would dance the dance for sure and a 383 stroker would fit as well but what was commonly refered to as the muscle car era ended in 1970 when the Gobberment regulated the compression ratio that could be used to produce factory muscle cars .

We always were building street rods that would blow the factory cars off then as well but none were being produced in North America at the time untill the muscle car era from about '63 to '70 .

Muscle Cars are factory stock street rods when it boiled right down to it and those are the only ones that are worth the bucks today . The ones that have been kept factory stock . For instance an altered '69 Road Runner is worth about $7000 while a factory stock one will now bring as much as $35,000 depending on the model .

 

There seems to be more and more confusion these days regarding what exactly constitutes a muscle car. Are we talking about cars that are/were fast out of the factory, or are we talking about vehicles that have already been massaged by someone's loving hands? The reason I ask is, many of the so-called muscle cars of the 60's and 70's really didn't have a whole lot of horsepower coming off the assembly line. Just look at their spec sheets. It was only after enthusiasts went to work on these cars and their engines that they became recognized as "muscle worthy".

Every so often I hear people still claiming it, but personally I don't feel that the muscle-car era died back in the late 60s-early 70s. It just went on hiatus for about 15-20 years, until Amercian automobile makers were forced to take their heads out of their butts and started engineering stronger, more efficient powerplants.

My '94 SHO has a 220 hp engine in it, it's capable of 143 mph off the dealer lot with no mods. I would put it up against virtually any stock, American-made car of the 60s and 70s and feel pretty good about my chances.

 

I have a 93 Cobra that was my daily driver for many years. I just pulled it out of storage to get it back on the road because my truck blew a head gasket. Just in time for 6 - 9 inches of snow.... Oh well, I guess it'll just stay in storage till monday...

I love that car. It has 148,000 miles on it and other then normal wear parts it's only needed and alternator, and two (yes I said TWO) heater cores. Heck, the brakes outlasted the heater core; what's up with that!?!? I'm really good at replacing them now, I can do it in 6 or 7 hours....

I also have a 70 chevelle that I'm restoring. It's only a 307 car but who cares. It's only got 57,816 original miles. I've replaced alot of metal and I think it was all Tiawan stuff Oh well, what are you going to do... I want to know if I can enter the import drags now....

Hey Rockledge, the SHO's no joke... I had a hard time running away from one. He at least had exhaust mods, I don't know what else. By the time I realised what I was doing I was going 130 and he was close behind... Oh yeah, this was 7:30am on the way to work on the highway... I'm glad I grew up instead of dying....

David

 

Hey Dave, that was you?!

 

the later ones were 289`s and the funny things is I heard that Chrysler bought the factory that made them. Chyco ended up selling their cars that had a Ford 289 For an engine! At least back then they had a more of an idea!

 

Fomoko1, I think you're right. I remember hearing about that. I like stories like that. It's like the one about how Ford ended up with a Buick engine. Rover bought the old 215 aluminum V8 from Buick, Ford bought Rover and with it a Buick engine...

David

 

Chrysler aquired an interest in Rootes Group (the makers of the Sunbeam Tiger) in '66, and then took them over in '67 to save their investment as Rootes was going down the tubes. Chrysler corp. was NOT happy about selling a vehicle through their dealerships that had a Ford drivetrain, and having to give a warranty on it as well. They looked into sticking the 273 into the Tiger, but it was a no-go, they would have had to totally redesign the car and it wasn't a good enough seller to justify the expense so they just pulled the plug on it. -TD

 

tiger
didn't ah have a chevy in it for a while?

 

71 Cuda 440 4 speed.

The musclecar era lasted a bit longer than 1970. Chrysler musclecars peaked in '71, in 72 it started downhill when they killed the Hemi and alot of bigblock options in many cars.

Kudos for pontiac for soldiering on with the 455 for as long as they did.

 

No, thank God! They never went there! The Tiger engine compartment is too tight, and when Ian Garrad, Rootes West Coast manager first concieved the idea of stuffing a V8 into an Alpine, they made the rounds of So. Cal. dealerships measuring engines with a yardstick. The new 260 that wad been introduced in the Fairlane looked about right, and a plus was that Carroll Shelby had been having good success sticking them into AC bodies and calling them Cobras. They paid Shelby 10 grand to build a prototype and then shipped it to England where Lord Rootes got his first look at it. (It had been done without his knowledge, the 10 grand snuck out of the advertising budget by his son Brian.) Lord Rootes took off on a 100 mph test drive and came back with an ear-to-ear grin and got on the phone to Henry Ford to negotiate the purchase of Ford engines and transmissions, and the Tiger was born. They always had the Ford engine and no other. Sorry if I've gone on too long about this, but it's your own fault getting me started on one of my favorite subjects!


And as for the muscle car era, I always considered '72 to be the last year of the true muscle car. In '73 the automakers had all this new legislation enacted that killed performance, as well as appearance. More smog equip. big ugly 5 mph bumpers, and so on. -TD