(upbeat music)
- When I was a kid back in my small hometown
of Atascadero, California,
I used to go to cruise night with my family.
This is when I started becoming interested in cars.
Most of the cars were from the '60s and '70s.
So naturally, I became obsessed
with these boxy, powerful, loud machines.
Until I started working at this channel,
muscle cars were pretty much all I cared about.
But nowadays, it seems that there are less and less
new muscle cars on the market.
In fact, I would argue that there's only one
traditional muscle car left.
What if I told you though,
that muscle cars are still being built
only no one would ever call them that
even though on paper, they are muscle cars.
Well, today we're gonna take a short look
at the history of these fine machines,
find out what actually defines muscle car.
And then I'm gonna convince you that a crossover can be one.
I made a graph.
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Thank you to Off The Record for sponsoring
this episode of Wheel House.
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Take it away, Nolan.
- So what are the actual parameters
that defines a muscle car?
We're gonna look at the ground rules
for what defines this specific type of car,
but first, let's find out where they came from.
And to do that, we're gonna have to go
back to 1960s, Detroit
- [Narrator] Detroit, the crossroads
of half the population of the United States.
- People usually give credit to the Pontiac Lemans GTO
for starting the muscle car era.
The high performance package combined Pontiac's
biggest engine with their smallest car.
The GTO was a hit and GM's own heritage center website
boasts that this car "started the muscle car era."
But I only half agree.
In the decade prior to the GTO,
a lot of manufacturers were experimenting
with the big engine, small car formula.
As early as 1949, Oldsmobile dropped the Rocket 88
a relatively lightweight V8 powered coupe
that was meant for the dragstrip.
Two years later, Hudson released the Hornet
which had a super powerful inline six engine
and a low center gravity, which made it great
for NASCAR's fledgling dirt ovals.
In 1952, the Hudson won 27 of NASCAR's 34 events that year.
Amazing.
Finally in 1957, Rambler released my favorite
proto muscle car, the Rambler Rebel.
this funky looking four-door had a V8 mo powerful
than anything Chevy was putting out at the time.
And it was the fastest sedan in America
with a zero to 60 of 7.2 seconds.
All of these cars predated the GTO.
And even though they're probably not what you
would typically consider to be muscle cars,
they proved that the demand was there
and helped convince Pontiac that the GTO was a good idea.
(upbeat music)
Racing on both ovals and the dragstrip
was really important to the popularity of the muscle car.
It was basically the main component
in generating sales especially in those early years.
You win on Sunday, sell on Monday.
And as it happens, drag racing and ovals
mean you're going in a straight line for most of the time
except for NASCAR where you're turning left.
Going fast in a straight line is a key
ingredient in the muscle car recipe.
If a car handles well,
that makes it a little less muscly in my eyes
but it's not a total disqualifier.
A third motor sport forced muscle cars
to get light on their toes.
It was called Trans-Am racing.
The SCCA first organized the trans-American
sedan championship in 1966.
Through the years, the field was dominated
by cars like the Ford Mustang,
Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger.
These cars were a little different
than your typical muscle cars.
The Mustang and Camaro were what's called pony cars.
They're smaller and more tossable
through the turns, but muscle cars nonetheless.
That being said, I think a good handling car
can still be muscle car.
It's just a different kind of flavor.
With that history in mind,
let's take a look at a checklist of what
every muscle car of the time had in common
which will give us a baseline definition.
Number one, they were all front engine rear wheel drive.
Two, they were all quick for the time.
Three, they all had four seats.
And last but not least,
they had big old engines with plenty of power.
I think these four features
are the foundation of the muscle car.
Now imagine a car has all the base
muscle car ingredients but only two seats.
Does that make something like the new Superon a muscle car?
What about the Jaguar F type?
What about the Viper?
Since all these cars only have two seats
their practicality is weakened considerably
making their focus purely on driving even more apparent.
They're not muscle cars, they're sports cars.
The exception to the two seat rule is trucks.
I do believe that rigs like the Ford lightening
and the Dodge little red express
can be considered muscle trucks.
Yes, they only had two seats,
but you could lay a pallet of Wrangler jeans
in the back making them very practical.
So let's talk about doors for a second.
For a very long time, I believe that muscle cars
can only have two
doors.
But as you look back in the history,
I'm not so sure that holds up anymore.
The Oldsmobile Rocket 88, that I just mentioned
the one that started it at all,
it was available with four doors.
The Rambler Rebel that I love so much, also had four doors.
I think the debate really boils down to personal preference.
If you give me the choice
between an Impala coupe versus sedan
I'm gonna choose the one with less doors.
They're just cooler looking
but that doesn't make the sedan any less muscly.
So we've covered seats.
We've covered doors.
Let's talk about hatchbacks.
It's not a feature you'd associate with the muscle car.
It's usually reserved for compact cars and minivans.
Admittedly, there are not many muscle cars with hatchbacks.
But I counter with this very prominent example
perhaps one of the most popular muscle cars
in the US, the Fox-body Mustang.
Available both in the more traditional notchback
and with a big old clam shell, the Fox-body kicks ass
on the dragstrip and at getting groceries.
It's a very useful car, still very muscly at the same time.
So just to reiterate:
rear wheel drive,
four seats,
quick for the time and can be a hatchback.
I think we're ready for the grid.
(instrumental music)
Here's my graph with certain cars
blocked out to be revealed later on.
At the center of our muscle car matrix
is the current Dodge Charger RT.
This four-door bruiser is ubiquitous across the US
and has every quality of a muscle car.
It looks the part.
It's quick in a straight line, it's affordable
and very practical when it needs to be.
It's the center of the muscle car market.
But why did I put it in the middle?
Well, our X axis is a spectrum
of practicality and styling.
At the very right is Coke bottle.
The term used to describe the shape
of cars like the current Dodge Challenger,
the late '60s Chevy Chevelle,
and the second gen Ford Mustang.
I don't really know why they call these cars Coke bottles.
They don't really look like bottles
from any angle, maybe from the top.
I'm not exactly sure.
You can debate in the comments.
To the left is the hatchback side of the spectrum
where I put the Fox-body hatch.
The Y axis is a lot easier to explain.
You got mo powa at top and low powa at the bottom.
With these parameters in place,
the matrix can be split into four quadrants.
In quadrant one, you've got cars that lean
to the Coke bottle side of styling with mo powa.
These can be considered traditional muscle cars
your Challengers, your GT 500s,
your Oldsmobile 442s.
These are the cars that would be
right at home at cruise night.
In quadrant two, we have low powa Coke bottles.
I would not consider cars
in this quadrant to be muscle cars
but they are muscle car-inspired.
Cars I would put in here are mostly Japanese.
As the Japanese sports cars of the '70s and '80s
looked like slimmed down American muscle cars
without the V8 under the hood.
Look no further than the Kenmeri Skyline.
This little guy debuted in 1973
at the peak of the muscle car craze
and borrowed the Coke bottle styling to a tee.
The Kenmeri is like a 7/8th scale 71 challenger.
I love it.
And that's not the only example.
Toyotas Mark one Celica Liftback is a dead ringer
for the 68 Mustang Fastback from the side, anyways.
And Toyota didn't stop there.
They really love that muscle car aesthetic.
The Mark two super and James Pumphrey's own AE86
also had very muscly dimensions.
They just weren't that quick.
So that takes us to quadrant three,
the hatchback leaning, low powa cars.
Well, they're not muscle cars, right?
Any car with lower power, a hatchback
and most likely four doors
probably isn't even rear wheel drive and would struggle
to meet the quick Ford's time requirement.
I don't have much in that quadrant
but I do have one very weird example that I wanna mention,
The AMC Gremlin.
the AMC Gremlin was famously first sketched
on the back of an airline barf bag
and had the misfortune of launching on April fool's day.
No wonder people thought this thing was a joke.
While the early six cylinder Gremlins
are certainly not muscle cars.
That discussion gets a little more difficult
when you remember the 1972 Gremlin X
powered by a 304 cubic inch V8,
good for zero to 60 in 8.5 seconds.
Now, I'll admit that's not competitive
with muscle cars from that same year.
So I don't know if I'd call it quick for the time
but it was still a compact car with a V8.
And that's pretty rad.
For fun, I Googled Hellcat Gremlin
and I found this post on John G's Mopar page.
Just look at this thing.
Shine on you crazy diamond, shine on.
Let's talk about the cars of quadrant number four
or as I like to call them muscle cars in disguise
or cars that might get me hate mail.
I haven't decided which.
The crossover segment is pretty interesting.
What started out as cars for people who like sedans
but wanted to sit high up like an SUV
has become the foremost segment in the industry.
And guess what?
There are sneaky little muscle cars hiding in this segment,
if you're willing to bend the rules just a little bit.
Now, I'll be honest with you guys.
I was going to name this video,
this Infiniti crossover is a muscle car, I'll prove it.
But
the problem is the FX 35
I was gonna use as an example, just didn't work.
It is front engine, rear wheel drive.
It's basically got four seats
since the middle rear seat is useless
and it's quick for it's segment, not for the time.
That's the problem.
The 2012 FX 35 could do zero to 60 in six seconds.
For comparison, the challenger RT
from that same year could do it a second faster.
That's a pretty wide margin
not close enough for me to successfully make the argument
even though I really, really wanted to.
But I still think there are a few
crossover muscle cars out there.
Since the segment is growing so much,
manufacturers are pumping up the performance to standout.
In 2009, Infiniti released the FX50
which thanks to its five liter V8
could do zero to 60 in 5.1 seconds,
which is four tenths faster
than the Challenger RT that year.
The reason for this speed is something
I haven't mentioned yet.
And it's an advantage, I think, disqualifies a car
from being a muscle car,
all wheel drive.
If it weren't for that little asterisk,
I would have gotten away with my cheeky clickbait title
but I just couldn't do it.
The AMG GLE 63 S
coupe has all the swagger
and beefy proportions of a fastback muscle car.
And the 603 horsepower V8 will scoot you
from zero to the Erewhon market in 3.7 seconds
which I will say is quick as heck.
But it can only do that,
thanks to the grip afforded by all wheel drive.
There's an arm race happening
between all the luxury crossover manufacturers
over who can build the baddest and fastest machine
and that secret sauce that all of them use
is all wheel drive.
The Porsche Macan, the Audi QA, the Urus
whatever X car BMW makes right now.
They can all do numbers
that would embarrass our favorite muscle cars.
That's only because all four wheels
are putting that power to the ground.
But that's not to say that there aren't cars
in the fourth quadrant that qualifies
truly undercover muscle cars.
The rear wheel drive version of the Kia Stinger
does zero to 60 in 4.7 seconds.
That's quick and it's practical as heck with that lift back.
Another car I haven't mentioned yet,
I think that the BMW M2 competition
could be considered a muscle car.
It's one of BMW's smaller cars
but it's got a big engine.
It's capable of zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds, that's insane.
Looking at the muscle car matrix,
I think it's safe to say that the definition
of a muscle car has shifted over time.
At first, they were big sedans with big motors
made for American dirt ovals and airstrips.
Then the Coke bottle formula hit its stride
and became the blueprint for all sorts of cars
both here in the States and abroad.
Obviously, quadrant one is home to the true muscle cars
your Challengers, Chargers, Mustangs and Camaros.
Sadly, there's not a lot of true muscle cars left today.
But if the four seat rear wheel drive quick Ford's time
muscle car ever does leave us,
I think the muscle car spirit
is gonna live on in other stranger forms.
Today, cars can be muscle cars within their own segments
giving drivers the screaming stoplight
the stoplight experience of yesteryear,
with all the comfort and blazing performance
only possible with today's technology.
And I think that's pretty sick.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Can a Crossover be a muscle car?
I think I made a pretty good argument.
So I wanna know what your favorite oddball muscle car is.
Maybe there are some glaring examples that I totally missed.
I'd like to hear it.
I wanna be in the comments with you guys
discussing it which I will be.
Check out the Donut Underground.
If you want to get some behind the scenes videos,
access to a private discord and exclusive stickers and such.
We're not putting any regular stuff behind a paywall.
This is just for the hardcore Donut fans.
Be nice. See you next time.
(instrumental music)
- Hey, what's up, you guys.
It's Pumphrey from the future i.e the real Neo.
Present Pumphrey sent me back in time
to let you know that today, Cyber Monday 2020
everything on DonutMedia.com is 25% off.
I guess it's a discount
if you want some shirts or hats or whatever.
I gotta go save the world.
(game show music)
This is a laser gun.
I got a plug in the back of my head.
(game show music)