What Are the Differences Between Pony Cars and Muscle Cars?
Is the age-old debate still relevant with today’s modern performance cars?
The Ford Mustang was the genesis of the pony car. Why? Because the Mustang is a horse. But beyond that, it was the first pony car because it was the first car that wasn’t entirely about straight-line speed. It had a lightweight body and a choice of engines. Compared to what was on the market then, it was a first.
In the video above, CarThrottle tries to tackle the question of what a pony car is, and how it compares to a muscle car. In the beginning it was easy; pony cars had small-blocks or V6s, and were light. While the muscle cars had the biggest V8s possible shoehorned into big cars.
A Mustang was a pony car. A Challenger was a muscle car.
Today, the lines are a bit more blurred. All the usual contenders are more agile than ever before, including the Challenger. The modern Mustang, especially in GT350 guise, is a sports car with a pony badge. The ZL1 Camaro is also more sports car than point-and-squirt muscle car.
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The Challenger is still the biggest and heaviest of the herd, and also has a variant that makes 707 horsepower. It’s the closest to the original muscle car formula, and there’s really nothing else quite like it.
But after looking at the Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger, are there other muscle or pony cars? Does slapping a twin-turbo V8 into a small Mercedes-Benz make it a muscle car? You can easily see where the lines can get crossed.
So what say you? Obviously the Mustang is a pony car. But in the future, it’s easy to see it being considered a sports car, with the pony definition going away. So what makes a modern car a pony car, and what makes it a muscle car?
