MUSCLE CARS or just CLASSIC?

People put hood scoops on Pintos too. Still don't make them a musclecar.

 

ummm?.. it surely would if they had come with that same scoop and a V8 from the factory. Which is what we're talking about here.

If it looks the part?.. and walks the part?

IMHO.. many people get too caught up on what the "aged purists" think a musclecar is.. many of which are into the 6 digit price territory and are now considered as "classic supercars".. not just "regular musclecars".. and forget that we drive our cars around average folks far more often. Unfortunately.. there is a dying breed of car enthusiasts who were actually "there" when many of these cars were produced.. and in another 20 years or so.. these cars will not just be considered "economy cars" as the lines between them start to blur even more.

In the end.. obviously everyone's free to put their cars in whatever catagory they prefer to view them as. But by my book.. it will look and act the "musclecar" part in every way shape and form.. and the majority rules. IOW, the day to day public will tell you what they percieve as reality far more often than any forum ever will.

Besides.. if these cars would have had a 4bbl, cam, dual exhaust, 4spd/gears as an option?.. we wouldn't even be having this conversation in the first place. It would be worth an average of twice as much.. would likely alienate many here who could afford them.. and I'd probably be working on restomodding a fastback Mustang instead.

Personally.. I'm kinda glad that Ford cheaped out.. in usual form.. and only gave us the basic building blocks to work with. Affordable, lightweight, and underpowered V8 "compact".. is fine by me since I don't even leave my lawnmowers stock anymore. lol

 

I always heard it was the Escort of the 70's.

 

We all know that a Maverick or Comet can be made into a "musclecar", but people who are not knowledgeable about these cars assume that a "Grabber" is a musclecar, when in fact it was nothing but a cosmetic package, and more Grabbers were produced with the inline 6 than with a V-8. The Maverick could easily have been on the same level as a Mustang GT or Boss Mustang, but Ford did not want it to compete with the Mustang, and the market they were going after was not in the Mustang price range.

A 4-4-2, GTO, Gran Sport, and Superbee is the performance (Musclecar) version of the Cutlass, Lemans, Skylark and Coronet respectively.

Not so for the Grabber versus standard Maverick.

Of course all those cars can be made into musclecars.

 

:deadhorse

Yeah, we know already....

 

Then why are we still discussing this??

 

Exactly!!!

 

Because it's fun.

 

I started working for a service station in 1972 in Richmond,Va.Here were some of the cars owned by the guys working w/ me,70 GTO 3spd 400,67 GTO 4spd 400,Plymouth GTX 383 4spd,64 Galaxie 390 auto.,68 Merc. Cyclone 428scj auto,70 Torino GT 351c auto and other (muscle cars) that floated in and out.The 70 to 72 Dusters & Darts w/ 340s in them were very hot cars too.There was a guy that drove a new green GTO 455 4spd car by the station every day on his way home from work that won the NHRA stock title in his class that year running at Richmond Dragway every Sat. night.Even though he did`nt stop in very often,another guy had a new 72 Grabber that was blue w/ black stripes.He did put a 4bbl & intake on it w/ Mustang headers and a few other modifications,the car was respectable and held it`s own for the day,boy those were some great times and I was only 16.

 

its an old economy car not a classic not a musclecar if fixed up its best described as a hot rod

 

I was running down the road yesterday and a guy in the truck next to me yells out the window “Hey, is that a muscle car?” with his arm bent making a muscle, then gives me a big thumbs up! I shake my head “no” and give him a big thumbs up back!

 

WOW -- This has been going on for 8 years.

 

Still don't give a flying f**k!
Purists will tout this or that, while the vast majority of the world doesn't care about their definitions to hot rod, muscle car exc exc exc.
It is what you want to call it.
I call my POS yard brick atm.

 

LOL, this one will never die...

Makes zero difference what a purist thinks, wasn't a muscle car then, isn't now & never will be...

With at least a semi performance 302(4bbl), 4-speed option, and duals the Mav/Comet could easily been a mini muscle car, but without those we are talking wannabes... Of course the reason those never happened, Ford was marketing to a different buyer than the Stang so wanted to keep the economy car image...

(yeah I'm sure this has been stated before)

 

I don't think they fit either category. To me they are just collector cars. We collect them to keep Mavericks from going extinct, and we do not want that to happen.