Maybe a look at the history of the term will help in understanding of some points of view. It is commonly held that the term was first coined by a magazine writer in describing the new at the time 1964 GTO and throughout the rest the 60s and into the early 70s it was used to describe car built using the same formula and targeted to the same buying segment. Even though the same car formula had been used earlier (the 62-63 Max Wedge Mopars being a good example) as it was first used in describing the GTO that car is generally the one that gets credit for being the first Muscle car and ushering in the era.
That formula for a Muscle car in that era is generally accepted as; a factory produced mid sized car 2dr car (sedan or hard top or convertible) with a high performance version of the larger engines normally found in a full sized car. Although there was no minimum displacement associated with what constituted a muscle car, I can recall nothing that was smaller than the 383 CI engine that was in the Plymouth Road Runner.
Something that I think is often overlooked is the market segment the entry level Muscle cars were built for. Generally speaking the Muscle cars were targeted at the 25 and under crowd. Drag racing, both at the track and on the street was a big part of the culture. These were NOT the highly sought after high dollar collector cars they have currently become. The entry level cars (base 2dr sedan, bench seat, manual steering and brakes and large engine) were basically a throwaway street racer priced in an area that mom and dad could afford to buy one for the kid as a high school graduation present. I grew up in a rural farm community in Ill, basically a pretty middle class area. When I graduated in 1970 (the graduating class was a little over 100 kids) the students parking lot contained 2 67, 1 69 and 1 70, SS 396 Chevelles, 1 67 Ford Fairlane GTA, a 68 and a 70 GTX. (If anyone doesn’t think these cars were street raced and abused they really don’t have a clue).
The “golden age” came to a screeching halt in the early 70s with higher insurance (big surprise, you give a teenager or early 20s something a car that that is extremely fast but did not corner or stop well and a bunch of them total the cars and possibly die insurance goes thru the roof), higher fuel prices, lower compression and the horrible early emissions. Regardless of the rating system horse power dropped. By the mid 70 all the factories were selling were a shadow of what the performance cars had been.
Having driven, raced, raced against and worked on many of the cars from the muscle car era and also having done the same with many G Bodies (one of the nice things about being a mechanic for a lot of years is that you get to drive a lot of different stuff) I can say there is no real comparison between the 2 types of cars.
As I said before the G bodies are good cars in their own right but to me they are not a muscle car. I’ve had my BB (currently a 402), 4 speed 12 Bolt 68 El Camino for about 20 years now and it’s a fun truck to drive….but that being said as a daily driver the 84 El Camino (72 LT1, TH 350 and 7.5) is a lot better ……and it has a lot more HP than the factory ever intended it to. They were built with different philosophies to do different thing well.
I realize the definition has and is evolving, but I still prefer the narrower more traditional use.
