What Is A Muscle Car? We Hope To Start A Fight Here!

Another car show, another difference of opinion between me and ’Cuda Ray. What is a muscle car? This is a question that causes grief and even friends fight over the definition. Can a car from 1955 be a muscle car?

The 1964 GTO may not have been the fastest machine of the ’60s, but many believe it was the first muscle car. (Photo by Don Keefe)

Ray Eugenio is a Vietnam veteran, a native Brookylnite, and a good friend. Like me, he’s a Florida transplant. We met at a car show when his ’70 340 ’Cuda still had Jersey tags on it (that was my home state). I was intrigued by the number of options on the car, among them factory air and rear defogger, and we became goombahs that very day. I would definitely call it a muscle car!

Ray’s car has a fascinating back story. He ordered it new at a PX on the base where he was stationed in Vietnam. Originally, he wanted a 390 Mustang (the same engine he had in his ’63 Thunderbird before going into the Army). Alas, there would be no 390 in the 1970 Mustang. There was a 351, but he’d never seen one, so he asked the sales rep about the Camaro.

Ordered new in a PX in Vietnam, this ’70 340 ’Cuda remains with its original owner. (Photo by Jim Campisano)

As you know, the ’70 Camaro was a late addition to the Chevrolet lineup, so there were no photos or brochures to study in the summer of 1969. That scuttled any potential F-body order.

The representative at the PX then mentioned that the Barracuda was all new and that he did have information for it. It was on this day that Mr. Eugenio became “’Cuda Ray.” He was a ragtop guy and most assuredly wanted a Hemi, but he only had so much money. Half of what he’d saved was going for the car, the rest for an engagement ring for his girlfriend back in the world.

Ray specified the 340 engine, 727 TorqueFlite trans, the aforementioned A/C and rear defogger, and AM radio. It was black-on-black, with the black hockey stick stripe. Yes, if he didn’t have a girlfriend, he’d have been the original owner of a 1970 Hemicuda convertible.

 Plymouth would not build the car until he cleared Vietnamese air space, so once he got home, he called his local dealer to let them know he was back stateside.

Two weeks later, he picked up the car you see here.

Long story short, Ray still owns the ‘Cuda, the stripe became red during the restoration (a color not available from the factory with black paint), and he is no longer married to his first wife. Guess he should have ordered the Hemicuda convertible after all.

Some consider the ’55 Chrysler 300 the first muscle car, but it was marketed to the upscale car buyer who wanted a supremely luxurious vehicle first and something that went fast second. It was not for the youth market, like the GTO, 4-4-2, etc.

But I digress. The only things we generally agree on when it comes to cars are we like E-body Mopars, Corvettes, and Mustangs. But we even disagree on these things. Obviously, he loves the ’70 ’Cuda. I’m a ’71 guy—gotta have the cheese grater grille with four headlights. Faux fender gills make the ’71 that much cooler.

Corvettes? Ray is all about the so-called C5 with its pop-up headlamps, while I fancy the C6—exposed lights and all.

When it comes to hot rods, I dig Pro Touring—the road race look on a classic muscle car does it for me—while Ray’s blood pressure skyrockets if he sees any wheel larger than a 15 or 16 on a ’60s or ’70s machine. Being a pal, sometimes I’ll even say things I know he’ll find objectionable when it comes to cars, just to get a rise out of him.

At a recent Cars and Coffee, we happened on some cars that had us disagreeing as usual. There was a stock ’69 Camaro Z/28 with the factory cross-ram intake manifold parked next to a Pro Touring Camaro SS with the RS package. (Yes, I call it an SS/RS, not RS/SS—you got a problem with that?)

While it did not have a big-block under the hood, the 302-powered Camaro Z/28 could embarrass a lot of muscle cars at the drag strip. (Photo by Jim Campisano)

Ray did his usual eye roll upon seeing the late-model Corvette ZR1-style wheels on the SS. To me, they fit the build perfectly. The car sat just right, and I could only think of how great it would be to drive it—and drive it hard.

I quickly sprang into action, saying how much better the Pro Touring car was. Ray probably wanted to burn me and those wheels to the ground. I got his goat, knowing I would love to have both of those cars. I could see myself revving the cross-ram 302 to 7,000 rpm at an autocross or drag strip while pulling massive g-forces on a road course in the Pro Touring car.

Then, there was the ’55 Chrysler 300 in the next row. It was massive, resplendent in its white paint and tan leather interior. It had its original Hemi engine under the hood, spoke wheels, and whitewalls, just as God intended.

One of my side hustles is my Muscle Car Campy YouTube channel. It’s been a fun little hobby since 2019, and the sign in front of the 300 proclaimed it, “The World’s First Muscle Car.” Ray implored me to do a video on the ’55 for my channel. I disagreed, stating it was not really a muscle car. This sparked another in a long line of interesting conversations.

And this is where you, the StreetMuscleMag.com reader, come in. I don’t think a ’50s luxury car with power everything, a small-displacement engine, and a leather bench seat that was bigger than the couch in my living room can be a muscle car.

Yes, the 300s did remarkably well in NASCAR back when the Daytona 500 was run on the beach. But how could it be a muscle car when the term was not coined until 1965 and was used to describe the new breed of factory hot rod out of Detroit that began with the GTO?

The Dart was considered a compact car, which is pretty funny now. It was not a muscle car with a 318 two-barrel engine, but ordering a GTS with a 340, 383, or 440 made it one. This is a ’68 with a 383. (Photo by Jim Campisano)

The 300 was a luxury car aimed at the rich, not a performance machine targeting the youth market. It had a slow-shifting automatic with a dainty shifter perched on the dash. The 300 was fast for its time, no doubt, but its purpose was cruising at high speeds on wide-open roads.

True confessions: I have done videos on cars I don’t consider according-to-Hoyle muscle cars: a ’76 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 455 (low compression smog motor) and a ’64 Riviera with the dual-quad intake option, to name two, but I take liberties because, well, it is my channel and I can do what I want.

There were several powerful engines available in the 1957 Chevy, including a 283 with fuel injection and one horsepower per cubic inch. It was ‘Sweet, Smooth and Sassy,’ but it was not a true muscle car—not with a three-speed trans on the column. Yes, a four-speed could be a dealer-installed option (at least in theory), but I still don’t consider it a true muscle car.

That being said, I also don’t believe a ’57 Chevy with the fuel-injected 283 is a muscle car, either. Heck of a performance machine and one I’d give a kidney to own and drive, but anything with a three-speed column shifter can’t be a muscle car. There, I said it.

If you are a purist, the term muscle car means one thing: a large displacement, high-performance engine in an intermediate-sized body. But terminology evolves. By the end of the ’60s, there was any number of cars that didn’t fit this narrow definition that were being called muscle—or super—cars: Boss 302 and 351 Mustangs, 427 Impalas and Biscaynes, 340, 383 and 440 Darts. And I’m OK with that.

I think the last true supercars were the 455 Super Duty Formulas and Trans Ams. After that, it was a vast wasteland of mills with terrible power (especially considering their size) and even worse fuel economy.

My problem is how now people call anything with a V8 a muscle car. Dart GT with a 318 two-barrel? It’s a muscle car, right? Not in my book. But it has chrome wheels and a loud exhaust system! Er, still a negative Ghostrider.

A Chevelle with an ordinary 283 or 327? Nope. Mustang II Cobra II? God no. My dad had a ’72 Mercury Montego with a 302. It couldn’t even spin the tires in reverse. Was that a muscle car?

What about early ’60s machines like the 427 Galaxie, 409 Chevys, and 413/426 Mopars? They were certainly muscle cars, even if their bodies were massive.

Though not known as a muscle car when new, the ’62 409 bubble top certainly fits the bill today. (Photo by Don Keefe)

In term the performers of ’83-up “modern muscle cars” because they embody the spirit of the ’60s, even if they might have electronic fuel injection. Cars like the 305 H.O. Camaros and Firebirds and 5-liter Mustangs with four-barrel carbs reversed the trend of ever-slower performance cars out of Detroit. They’ve gotten faster every year since—Buick Grand Nationals, TPI Corvettes, right up to and including the HEMI Challengers and Chargers, Coyote-powered Mustangs, and LS- and LT-motored Camaros. What do you think?

There were modern muscle machines before the 1987-’93 Mustang LX and GT (shown), but not had the impact on car enthusiasts that the Ford did.

What about the Corvette? Is that a muscle car? Now, I’ve surely opened a can of worms. I say yes, and many say no, but if you race in the Factory Appearing Stock Tire series, you know they are the cars to beat.

Is anything ever built with a V8 a muscle/super car? Where do you draw the line? Compression ratios fell in ’71 and later. That does not mean a ’72 Charger with a 440 is not a muscle car. It is. Yet, I don’t think a ’77 Camaro Z/28 qualifies. If everything is a muscle car, the term loses its meaning and there is nothing special about it or the cars it describes.

Let me know how you feel about the subject ([email protected]).

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About the author

Jim Campisano

Jim's had a wildly varied career, from newspaper, magazine, and Internet writing to TV production and YouTube videos. Now, he's back at his first love: Automotive content creation because words matter.
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