I'll repost from the original thread:
Agreed... you don't hear it much anymore, but originally the classifications were a little more straightforward...
- Sports Cars... ala the Vette, Spitfire, Porshe... etc
- Pony Cars... named after the Mushtang, including the Firebird, Camaro, 'Cuda, Challenger, & Javelin.
- Muscle Cars... Any car your Grandma would drive that was available with a V8, RWD, & had a "Performance Variant".
The vast majority of Chevelle SS & Chevelle Malibu SS cars on the road today are in fact, originally Chevelle 300s, Deluxe 300s, or Chevelle Malibus with Straight 6's, 283's, 307's, & 327's (normal 327 wasnt impressive). Cars that people rebuilt, stuffed a real motor into, and added "SS" logos to... Dunno how many times I've listened to owners say their Super Sport is all original, only to see sweep gauges and idiot lights in the dash, along with a few other subtle tell tale pieces missing.
My point, very few people would refute that a "Base" '70-72 Chevelle is a Muscle Car Right?... but lets get a bit closer to the truth here... that same Chevelle came equipped with a Straight 6 or 307 Chevy engine, a Powerglide trans, non-F41 suspension, & a peg-leg 10 Bolt rear and had all it could do to haul its sorry *ss out on the highway at 55mph.... so is it still a Muscle Car?
As I stated above, my '72 Chevelle Malibu 350/TH350/10 Bolt posi 3:42's was not considered by "The Car Gurus" as being a Muscle car and few car shows accepted '68/69-up cars into them. My God, all Chevy Novas were considered JUNKs... you NEVER saw them in a car show... except maybe an early Nova SS... My buddy had a 69 Nova SS 396... legit car, had some rot in the quarters... nowhere near mint... bought it for $700 in '92.... Nobody ever thought it'd be worth much, except for the engine... but today the Nova is considered a Muscle Car, despite the fact that it is essentially a '67-69 F Body chassis without most of the better underpinnings and they were the cheapest thing on Chevy's lot, next to the Vega.... Comparable to today's Chevy Cruze.
The "Car Gurus" then, are no different than these *ss-hats on TV today, different people, same attitudes, same circumstances.... ie... the guy that has a Minty '66 Vette & a new BMW, more money than brains, a garage that most real mechanics could only dream of, & gets media attention because he has the money & influence to call the shots...AND the guy rarely/never turns a wrench.
To me, a "Muscle Car" is any RWD car that Joe Six-Pack can buy that he can stuff a V8 into because it was optional from the manufacturer.... same was true back in the days prior to 1964, before some "Guru" pushed their definition of "Muscle Car" in the 80's... my Grandfather is 83 years old, fought in Korea, when he came back, he bought a used '51 Pontiac which he raced and also drove to work....
.............................
To say that the A/G-Body chassis from '78-88 is not a Muscle Car is to deny that a lot of people like myself used to race against them in the stop light brackets on Main Street USA when they were still fairly new. No different than the stop light drag racers in the 60's and 70's.. difference was that the top of the line power output was insane in the LS6 454, Pontiac 455HO, Stage 1 Buick 455, and Olds 455, or the Mopar 426 Hemi, but, then again, the average car wasn't anything close to those... who here has ever driven a 2 bbl Buick 350-powered '72 Skylark or '68 Chevelle 307??? By 1980's standards for performance, those cars WERE fast... especially against the other junkyard jalopies in every high school parking lot... or even the "Newer Fast Cars" like the Dodge Iroc Daytona/Shelby Daytonas, SHO Taurus, Turbo Coupe T Birds, and other assorted excuses built by Detroit back then.
I blew the doors off many an '80's G body, but was smoked repeatedly by a Black Regal that dumfounded me... that was my first experience with the
Grand National... I also had a got blown away by a '85
Hurst/Olds that had been treated to the Mondello treatment... There was also a Silver Monte SS that I avoided because it was downright fast with a SBC that the kid swore up n down was the original 305 HO with head work. (today I believe it as I have seen L69's Monte's and '83-'85 L69 F Body's put impressive low 15 second numbers down the strip with port work and larger valves).
The common quarter times for the '64-'72 A Body's, even with big blocks, were in the 14's to high 15's... I've seen more than a few '78-'88 A/G Body's trip the lights with relatively mild engine modifications in the same slots and the Turbo Buicks are just downright fast... '64-67 A body cars suffered from frame cracking issues and additional required reinforcements. by '68, GM had corrected it mostly... Don't forget, GM also had factory convertibles alongside the hardtops, so the top end GTOs, 442s, and Skylark GS took advantage of those special 'vert boxed frames... weak frame issues were not unique to the '78-'88 A/G Body, at least they had full perimeter frames... many Mopars from the Glory Days have major structural issues that require repairs to their K Member areas... Fords.. well, they are handicapped because they are Fords... LOL... and Lil AMC did their best with the Rebel, Hornet, Javelin, and AMX-series, including their original '68-70 AMX 2 seaters.
The '64-'72 A Body's were just Mid-Sized regular production cars that were common as dirt... same as the later A and G Body cars... everyday daily driven shitboxes... Hell, G Body's even didn't exist until John Z. DeLorean created the '69 Grand Prix and then GM released the all new '70 G Body Monte Carlo and '70 Cutlass Supreme.. Buick didn't get one, and all 3 were just stretched A Body's jammed with luxury options... same as the later '78-'88 G Body's.
By 1978, Buick only had the G Body Regal because they ditched the A Body Skylark in '73, ("Skylark" replaced the X Body "Apollo" Nameplate) and ran with their '73 G Body Regal right up to '87.
Chevy kept both the A Body Chevelle and G Body Monte Carlo until '78 when they nixed the Chevelle name and ran just the "Malibu" nameplate until '83, with the Monte going through to '88.
Oldsmobile also ran with both the A Body Cutlass and G Body Cutlass Supreme, with the "cutlass becoming a pathetic FWD wreck mid 80's, and the G Body Cutlass Supreme dying in '88 as well.
Pontiac's long successful A Body LeMans rolled into '78 with its sibling Grand Am, but got killed by politics and the 4 door morphed into the revised "Bonneville" nameplate for a year or two, the Grand Prix G Body that started the whole G Body thing was slowly emasculated into a shadow of its former glory and fitted with the most basic Chevy drivetrains...
