Muscle Car or Pony Car
4/11/05, 12:34 PM
#41
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Yes it wasn't just the "energy crisis" there was another dark force, the insurance companies, at the time rates went thought the roof. This was a 1, 2 punch that kill many great cars.
One thing I find is funny, I have always been a Ford fan, I hated everything else, now I love all of the Pony cars and Muscle cars.
One other point the new GTO is not a pony or a muscle car it is foreign and in it’s own class, sort of a freak of automotive DNA. That’s not a slam or judgment just the facts.
Sorry for the ramble.
MustangDan
One thing I find is funny, I have always been a Ford fan, I hated everything else, now I love all of the Pony cars and Muscle cars.
One other point the new GTO is not a pony or a muscle car it is foreign and in it’s own class, sort of a freak of automotive DNA. That’s not a slam or judgment just the facts.
Sorry for the ramble.
MustangDan
Originally posted by harleybill@April 11, 2005, 9:17 AM
Muscle Car:
Sometimes called “Pony Cars” too. Big giant V8 engines with super chargers and special exhaust created these gas-guzzlers that were really fast! Muscle cars reached their epitome in the 1960’s with the advent of the GTO, certain Mustangs, Camaro’s and some Chyrsler models like the Challenger, etc. Unfortunately the “energy crisis” killed this genre of cars.
Muscle cars are high-performance automobiles made primarily in Detroit from 1964 to 1974. Car manufacturers placed large V8 engines in mid-sized cars, giving them quite startling performance and setting off intense competition between manufacturers to produce the most powerful and extreme machine. The 1973 OPEC oil embargo, stricter air pollution laws and insurance premiums killed most muscle car models, though they are actively collected and restored.
I think you can see it goes "both" ways...
Muscle Car:
Sometimes called “Pony Cars” too. Big giant V8 engines with super chargers and special exhaust created these gas-guzzlers that were really fast! Muscle cars reached their epitome in the 1960’s with the advent of the GTO, certain Mustangs, Camaro’s and some Chyrsler models like the Challenger, etc. Unfortunately the “energy crisis” killed this genre of cars.
Muscle cars are high-performance automobiles made primarily in Detroit from 1964 to 1974. Car manufacturers placed large V8 engines in mid-sized cars, giving them quite startling performance and setting off intense competition between manufacturers to produce the most powerful and extreme machine. The 1973 OPEC oil embargo, stricter air pollution laws and insurance premiums killed most muscle car models, though they are actively collected and restored.
I think you can see it goes "both" ways...
4/11/05, 01:47 PM
#42
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Originally posted by 05GT-O.C.D.@April 10, 2005, 4:50 PM
My feeling is that it now deserves a new term. I'm calling it a Modern Day Muscle Car. I think that fits perfect!
My feeling is that it now deserves a new term. I'm calling it a Modern Day Muscle Car. I think that fits perfect!
4/11/05, 02:14 PM
#43
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There are no real set definitions per se, and what definitions there are have fuzzy boundries and have changed over time.
In the earlier 19602 inceptions, muscle cars, which is actually a much later term, were mid-size sedans with big block motors that were pretty much focused on off the line acceleration.
Pony cars, of which the Stang was the progenitor, were smaller coupes that emphasized a more balanced approach to performance, i.e., handling and braking as much as simple straight line performance. The first few years of the Stang only offered the small, high winding 289 as its top motor.
But the definitions did blur a bit with the later advent of big-block pony cars like the 390, 427, 428 and 429 Stangs; 396 and 454 Camaros, Hemi and 440 Cudas, etc. While still a bit smaller than the muscle car sedans, they sacraficed a great deal of their performance envelope to focus narrowly on straight line speed in much the same way as their larger breatheren.
Lines also blurred over time. Throughout the '70s, 80s' and 90s, with nearly all midsized and even large sedans going to downsized FWD platforms, their was only rather few real RWD V8 platforms of any sort for those who liked drag racing and thus, Pony cars were often adopted as sort of neo-muscle cars in lieu of the real thing. This is not to say that Pony cars such as the Mustang left their more balanced performance ideal but rather, that they also pinch hitted as muscle cars too.
This multifaceted persona can be seen today amongst those drag racers who have adopted the Stang pretty much as a muscle car and those who still see the Mustang in their more balanced traditional conception. That dichotomy can be seen readily in the SRA vs IRS posts with the former seeing that Stang as basically a cheap, big-motored straight-line bruiser while the IRS crowd wanting to better capture the original multifaceted spirit of the Stang.
In a sense, both identities have come to be true, along with many others too, which is perhaps a key to the Stang's 40+ year staying power.
In the earlier 19602 inceptions, muscle cars, which is actually a much later term, were mid-size sedans with big block motors that were pretty much focused on off the line acceleration.
Pony cars, of which the Stang was the progenitor, were smaller coupes that emphasized a more balanced approach to performance, i.e., handling and braking as much as simple straight line performance. The first few years of the Stang only offered the small, high winding 289 as its top motor.
But the definitions did blur a bit with the later advent of big-block pony cars like the 390, 427, 428 and 429 Stangs; 396 and 454 Camaros, Hemi and 440 Cudas, etc. While still a bit smaller than the muscle car sedans, they sacraficed a great deal of their performance envelope to focus narrowly on straight line speed in much the same way as their larger breatheren.
Lines also blurred over time. Throughout the '70s, 80s' and 90s, with nearly all midsized and even large sedans going to downsized FWD platforms, their was only rather few real RWD V8 platforms of any sort for those who liked drag racing and thus, Pony cars were often adopted as sort of neo-muscle cars in lieu of the real thing. This is not to say that Pony cars such as the Mustang left their more balanced performance ideal but rather, that they also pinch hitted as muscle cars too.
This multifaceted persona can be seen today amongst those drag racers who have adopted the Stang pretty much as a muscle car and those who still see the Mustang in their more balanced traditional conception. That dichotomy can be seen readily in the SRA vs IRS posts with the former seeing that Stang as basically a cheap, big-motored straight-line bruiser while the IRS crowd wanting to better capture the original multifaceted spirit of the Stang.
In a sense, both identities have come to be true, along with many others too, which is perhaps a key to the Stang's 40+ year staying power.
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