A new breed of automobiles called Muscle Cars emerged from Detroit in the 1960s. This was during an era when drag racing was highly publicized and winning race cars sold briskly at car dealerships. In general, muscle cars were simple to build. They had large-displacement engines and drivetrains optimized for maximum acceleration. Back in the day, genuine factory-built muscle cars were relatively affordable but today command considerable prices in the collector car marketplace. Here are ten models that command some major money when they are offered to the public via auction or private sale.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released statistics regarding the most stolen “sporty” cars and topping the list were the Chevy Camaro, the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger in that order. Given the number of these cars of the street these numbers shouldn’t be surprising. If you have one of these muscle cars you need to make sure your car insurance is in order and covers theft along with general liability as you’d be foolish to risk losing everything.
The retro designs for these three vehicles have been huge hits over the past decade. The Mustang was the sales leader but then the retro Camaro took the top spot. Now Ford is redesigning the Mustang for the 50th anniversary in one of the most anticipated redesigns in recent memory. Let’s see if the new one generates as much passion.
Things are heating up in the battle for horsepower supremacy and the 2012 Shelby Mustang 1000 seems to be the new champ. The 1000 moniker is there for the obvious reason with a staggering 1000 horses and that’s not a misprint my friends!
From Autoblog.com:
For some, the horsepower wars being waged by auto manufacturers over the past few years are getting a bit out of hand. A 550-hp factory Camaro? A 650-hp factory Mustang? Ridiculous. But if you count massive amounts of gas-guzzling horsepower and torque a crime (we don’t), then the worst of all offenders is perhaps Shelby. Last year at the New York Auto Show, the company unveiled its most powerful creation to date: the 2012 GT500 Super Snake, with up to 800 horsepower. And while 800 hp is just bonkers, Shelby’s next trick is even more insane.
Our friends at AutoBlog.com did us all a favor and covered the Woodward Dream Cruise in full force! Check out these great pics of muscle cars, classic cars and just about anything you might see on wheels. This is a long tradition that was in need of a comeback year and it looks like Woodward is back! The 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 is one of my favorites.
Every year, the muscle car is the most well-represented vehicle type at the Woodward Dream Cruise. And with good reason: These burly V8-powered steeds reinforce Detroit’s legend as the Motor City.
As we discussed in our post on Woodward’s classic cars, we’ve kinda sorta arbitrarily split American automotive history into two parts, using 1964 as the dividing line. Everything post-1964 is a muscle car… at least for our purposes. With that in mind, take a look at a bunch of classic Mustangs, Chevelles, Corvettes and, of course, Pontiac GTOs in our high-res image gallery below.
