The History of Muscle Cars

The history of muscle cars is an interesting one. Muscle cars are one of the true passions you can find in many places, but typically America is known for the beginning of the muscle car era.

The muscle car era began in the 1960s and is considered to have run between the years of 1964 and 1974. Smaller to midsize cars were built with a typically high horsepower and high torque V8 engine. Car manufacturers battled to see who could make the fastest and wildest car. The Pontiac GTO is considered by many to be the original muscle car that started the craze, as it was aimed to a "hot rod" generation of car buyers.

With the Pontiac GTO, General Motors is generally credited to have built the first muscle car. It took the other two major manufacturers, Ford and Chrysler, a couple years to really be a factor in the history. Ford introduced high power versions of the Mustang to compete in the muscle car market while Chrysler had a small stable of cars including the Dodge Chargers, Challengers, and highly popular Plymouth Barracudas and Roadrunners. General Motors later added the Chevy Camaro to compete with the Ford Mustangs that were dominating the pony car section of muscle cars and also began offering more powerful versions of their wildly popular Corvette.

The 1970s began the demise of the classic muscle car era. The cars were larger and had more restrictions on them as far as emissions. After 1974 the muscle car was considered dead despite some of the classics still being built, such as the Mustang and Camaro.