A Muscle Car Dream: What Made Them Famous

A Muscle Car Dream: What Made Them Famous

We have all heard of the horsepower wars; they are still going today, even though gas prices in the 1970s tried to kill the muscle cars. People loved them; they loved how they looked and how they sounded, but mostly how they performed. The people who bought them drove them hard and had fun driving them.

Born 1955 Died 1976 (Not True)

The car magazine issue you’re thinking of is a symbolic 1970s cover (likely from Car Craft, Hot Rod, or Car and Driver around 1975–1976) featuring a headstone or tombstone graphic. It mourned the “death” of the classic muscle car era, with the inscription something like “Born 1955 – Died 1976” (or a similar variation marking the end of the golden age of high-performance American V8s). As you can see, they didn’t succeed in destroying the American muscle car. The 1969 Dodge Charger. Everybody has seen the 1969 Charger; the movie The Fast And The Furious featured Dom Toretto driving a supercharged 1970 Dodge Charger.

1970 Chevelle SS LS 6 454 A Street Legend

A strong runner up the 1970 SS Chevelle LS 6 454. It’s the runner-up simply because Chevrolet put a solid lifter cam in the LS 6, making it more of a race car put on the street than a car built for street/strip but more street. It certainly

doesn’t make the Hemi Charger any less of a muscle car.

Either of the street legends is light in the loafers; you had better be ready for the

torque and sheer tire-melting power; most of the cars were stacked up or raced

into the ground.

1970 GSX Stage 2 An Undercover Big Boy Killer

It’s hard for me to rank the Chevelle higher than the Buick GSX when the GSX held

the record for the hugest torque American Muscle Car from 1970 to 1992 when Dodge

introduced the Viper. It was loaded with V10 power; that’s right, it took Dodge adding

Two more cylinders to beat the GSX.

The Buick GSX was no slouch; this car could shred tires with the best of them. It is truly the

wolf in sheep’s clothing; nobody saw this beast coming. I will keep it light this time and only

do the top three. If you want the list finished, please comment below.