Do you know what muscle cars are?
While watching high-speed car chases in movies like The Fast and the Furious (2001), have you ever wondered how a normal looking car (as in, not a race/ sports car) suddenly took the speed from 0 to 100 miles per hour within a matter of seconds? Are these cars for real or do they use computer graphics to show them on screen? Well, turns out, they do exist in the real world! In fact, these sleek, high-end automobiles have a unique name: Muscle car! Now, before you start dreaming about driving muscle car one day, let us quickly tell you all about it.
Muscle car: A bird’s eye view
Born in the 1950s USA, muscle car refers to a variety of high-performance automobiles that have some unique features. Firstly, an ideal muscle car has two doors, two seats with rear-wheel drive and an oversized, powerful eight-valve (V8) inbuilt engine. It’s almost as if the major part of the car comprises of powerhouse engines. Do you know the purpose of these engines? Yes, you guessed it right—to help you speed up from 0 to 100 miles per hour in a matter of 10 seconds. They have been modelled on American sedans.
The rising popularity of muscle cars
With car racing and Formula 1 gaining popularity in the USA in the mid-20th century, car manufacturers realised that the demand of high-performance cars were on the rise too. This is when several companies collaborated to come up with the idea of muscle car. However, Oldsmobile beat others and introduced the first ever full-sized muscle car in 1949. It was called Oldsmobile 88 or the Rocket 88 and the first ever powerful, V8 engine, lighter model car. With 135 horsepower, it had a speed of 60 miles per minute. Fascinating, isn’t it?
Rocket 88 was followed by Chrysler C-300 in 1955 and was deemed as America’s Most Powerful Car as it could accelerate from 0 to 60 miles/ hour within 9.8 seconds! Within another two years, the first mid-sized muscle car was launched, which was called Rambler Rebel. It was the brainchild of American Motor Corporation.
It was only in the 1960s and 1970s that muscle cars became mainstream, thanks to the advent of drag racing. In this form of motor racing, two cars race on a drag strip, which is a flat, straight course, generally 0.4 km long. In fact, in these decades, companies like Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet also entered the muscle car industry and made it further popular. Some of the notable muscle cars from this era were Ford Galaxie, Ford Thunderbolt, Dodge Dart 413, Dodge 300 and Chevrolet Impala.
Test of time
Unfortunately, towards the late 1970s, muscle car’s popularity declined, when the first fuel crisis struck USA and the world. Needless to say, muscle cars were not at all fuel-efficient considering they were meant for high performance. While muscle cars never really got back their popularity, some models remained on the streets. One such is the world-renowned Ford Mustang! Notably, apart from the USA, muscle cars were widely popular in Australia and Argentina.