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we who have a buncha years under our belts fondly remember the heyday of the American Muscle Cars...mid 60's to early '70's...cars with big and noisy V8's, like the Mustangs, Chevelles, GTOs, Camaros, Barracudas, Dusters, Chargers, Challengers, Firebirds, Cutlasses and Road Runners...among several others


My memories seem to have amplified the performance of these classic beasts. I fondly and hazily "remember" 0-60 times of about 5.5 seconds and 1/4 mile times of about 13.8 seconds produced by my 1970 Road Runner with a 383 V-8. I always thought it was the fastest car I ever owned.


I came across some numbers from the muscle car era, and discovered my memories were influenced by the herbs we smoked back in our high school and college days. According to the Automoblie Catalog, the '70 Road Runner with a factory 383 C.I. V8 ran 0-60mph in 6.2 seconds and 1/4 mile in 14.7 seconds...times that were derided as run by "slugs" back in the day.

Heck, I have a 2009 Mazdaspeed3 with a 2.3 Turbo. It is rated by that same publication as running 0-60mph in 5.9 seconds and can do a 1/4 mile in 14.2 seconds. This modern "sporty" economy car with an engine about 1/3 the size of the '70 Road Runner would leave that 50 year old muscle car "slug" in the dust.

I'm thinking that my memories were fogged by the performance of those muscle cars that had bigger engines, with more horsepower and had been modified for the track. And the back seat wrestling matches...

And you can't beat the deep throated sound of a big V-8 in full growl rocketing down the strip!

I've come across similar articles. Basically a modern minivan could take out a lot of the fastest muscle from back then.

The coolness disparity though, can not be measured with current available technology

Not muscle cars, but…

i had a 65 Mustang, convertible.
Had the straight-6, 3 speed with a 200, that produced a whopping 120hp.
It was a dog. Not quite a POS, but close.
Leaky roof, noisy drive train, crappy stick shift that you had to hold in place in 2nd gear, etc

I later owned a 68 Barracuda coupe, with the slant-6, 225 automatic.
I LOVED that car. Ultra reliable, decent mpg, plenty of power, handled nice…
Should have never sold it, but was offered almost $2000 more than I paid for it……..and I just had my first child……so…

Judging the super cars of yesterday by today's standards... don't fit, does it?

Times change. Technology changes. People change.

Edit: Speaking of technology changes... SUSPENSION! Those cars were great in a straight line. Giant bag of buttholes in a corner.

[quote=MACS]Judging the super cars of yesterday by today's standards... don't fit, does it?


Yup. Try judging them next to the pre-V8 cars of just 10-12 years earlier. They were hot and each had their own style. Today they all look the same and even the modern V8's sound like like a can full of rocks instead of that rumble they had.

When the GTO hit the market I was driving VW bug and wishing I could afford gas for it. As far as ownership goes I missed the era completely.

Since then, I have owned a '69 Chevelle SS 396 (350hp) , '41 Ford truck hot rod (355HP), and currently a '65 Corvette coupe (350 HP). Of course most any modern car can have more HP and drivability but they will soon be surpassed by electrics.

We are actually in a modern era of muscle cars that will soon end. You can go out today and buy a car that comes with anywhere from 700 to over 1000 HP and is capable of daily driver manners.

So it goes.

freak...

Rose-colored look back has me missing some of the people I used to hang out with during my RR days. Whenever someone was doing something to their car, we’d gather in his garage, lend a hand, sometimes good, sometimes unneeded “advice”, and in general, just hang. Granted, I didn’t necessarily care for everyone but there were a few that became good friends long after we sold our cars.

This brings me back to my childhood. Growing up, a neighbor family about 3 houses down lived couple grease monkeys. Lars and Glen Gustufsson, (no lie, I couldn't couldn't invent a more Nordic name). They towered over 6 feet in stature.

They would buy cars at auction and fix them up and flip them. Doing the mechanical work, body work and painting all in their garage. I remember them doing a Mustang, Chevelle, Firebird (Smokey and the Bandit), Duster, Camaro... among others. Also in the neighborhood was a guy, Carl, that made a living on rebuilding carburetors.

If anyone in the neighborhood that had car problems... just call the Gustufssons and/or Carl. Pay for the parts and a case of beer for labor.

It was fun growing up with some grease monkeys as neghibors.

Reminds me of three brothers I went to grade school and high school with. Harold, Darrell and Larry Christopherson. All were big, mean and red headed and would fight with anybody they could find. Iffn they couldn't find anybody they fought each other constantly. Their father worked for the railroad and was killed on the job in some sort of accident when they were young and at age 18 they each were given a large inheritance.

Larry, my age, took his money and immediately bought a funny car, one of the first in Arizona. He ran it for a couple of years in Az and the Southern California tracks. At that time I was part of a rat trap '55 Chevy gasser team (driver mainly) and we raced at Beeline Dragway near Phoenix. He went totally broke within a few years. Haven't heard from them since about 1970s.

NINE! teen.

I heard weed is a gateway drug...

I'd have to side with MACS on that assessment. Might even toss is cigarettes too. (I differentiate tobacco from cigarettes, cigs have more addictive chemicals in them than natural tobacco)

And handle better too. But my odyssey doesn’t sound nearly as bad as my 69 Mach with headers.

who makes a minivan that runs 0-60 in 5 seconds? Sounds like a fish story.

On a related note the new, and last, hemi Challenger called the 170, with 1025 HP is projected to do 0-60 in 1.8. Comes out later this year.

And there’ll be some collectors who’ll over, overpay so they can drive it once then park it in their warehouse and brag that they have one.

1974 Buick Riviera Classic with a 455. Wasn't fast, but it was a tank. Would spin tires.

Wasn't mine, was my mom's, but I drove it.

Finally some common ground, my 280Z had the 160 MPH speedometer buried many, many times. Front and rear radar detectors when I ran the interstate, dropped those when I took it to Germany.

It was a dark time for the American people

Would love to hear about it.

I put a header on and sway bars. And the widest tires/wheels that would fit (just barely) - went from 70 series tires to 60's - was a big deal in the day. Sky blue.

Always wanted a 77 or 78 cause of the 5 speed and hood louvers.....never got one.

Drove a RX-7 for awhile.. never did a road trip but it was great around OKC... fast off the line and in the corners...

Should've kept them. 90s era RX-7s are going for like $60-70k nowadays. 80s versions significantly less

Speaking of which.... When I was in 1st two years of college I drove a 1959 MGA. The English car dealer in town was Flint British Motors where I bought parts. They had the only 289 Cobra I had ever seen in their showroom and IIRC it was selling for about $7500. They now go for $1.1 -$1.5M.

Tried unsuccessfully to get the salesman to let me take it for a test drive.

I feel your pain.

That's a distinct possibility. There was some yapping in the lounge, so I didn't catch details. Plus my mind may have fritzed just a bit when I saw the numbahs