The 1960s and early ’70 were a tumultuous era in American history. The war being waged in Vietnam was having an intensely polarizing effect on the population, leading to their questioning of previously unchallenged American values and norms.

Everything from politics, lifestyles, and even facets of popular culture such as art, music, and design were going through rapid and radical transformations.

One area in which this change was profoundly apparent was in the type of cars Americans were becoming desirous of. Out went the bloated, tail-finned, chrome-covered boulevard cruisers of the 1950s, and in their place came a host of svelte, relatively diminutive muscle cars which one could enjoy on the streets, or if so inclined, on the drag strips of the country.

Now, great change doesn’t always necessarily correlate with improvement per se, but in many cases, the muscle cars of the ‘60s and ’70 did in fact bring with them a new era of style and performance previously unseen. Others, however, fell short of the mark in those aspects, resulting in some less-than-memorable rides.

In an effort to elucidate the American performance cars of the period, I thought we’d take a look at the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful in a series of articles. Since a striking visage is always a fine place to start, here then are my top ten most beautiful American muscle cars of the ‘60s and ‘70s, in no particular order.

1966 PONTIAC GTO

Legend has it that one day in 1963, Pontiac chief engineer John Z. DeLorean and designers Bill Collins and Russ Gee were sitting around a studio looking at a prototype for the 1964 Le Mans, when Collins offhandedly blurted out, “You know, John, it would take about 20 minutes to stick a 389 in that thing.”

And in that moment of serendipity, the idea of the muscle car was born.

Sure, putting a big motor in a car was nothing new, but the idea of placing one in an intermediate-sized, rear-wheel-drive coupe or convertible and then outfitting it with a heavy-duty tranny, diff, and brakes was unique at the time. In 1964, the GTO, a name swiped by DeLorean from the Ferrari 250 Gran Turismo Omolagato race car, became an options package for that year’s Le Mans.

Sales were tremendous, and by 1966 Pontiac made “The Goat” a separate model in the lineup, and bestowed it with a complete restyle that many, including this author, consider to be the iconic GTO generation.

Featuring cutting-edge “Coke bottle” styling, vertically stacked headlamps, and a plush interior, the ’66 GTO looked like nothing else on the road and made all the other domestic manufacturers rush to their drawing boards to create a Goat of their own.

The ’66 did indeed bring the muscle as well, with the hot engine being a “Tri-Power” version of the 389 with three, two-barrel Rochester carbs that pushed out a healthy 360 horses.

Although the GTO would go through several more attractive iterations, and spawn a legendary sub-model known as “The Judge,” none quite captured the zeitgeist like the ’66 did.

1970 PLYMOUTH ‘CUDA

When Plymouth designer John Herlitz was given the task of redesigning the company’s pony car for the 1970 model year, few would have bet on a truly iconic car being the result.

Despite that, Herlitz hit it out of the park.

His 1970 Barracuda was a thing of sinuous beauty: a long hood, short deck creature bestowed with an aggressive-looking grille, a compact greenhouse, and sensuous hips ahead of the rear wheel arches.

Inside was rather bare bones, but that was beside the point. Order the car with one of the Chrysler’s big V8 engines, consisting of the 340, 383, 440 Super Commando, 440 Six-Barrel, or the legendary 426 Hemi “Elephant” motor and you had yourself a “‘Cuda” – the high-performance model. Top it off with a 4-speed manual, and add the Super Track Pack option with its Dana 60 rear containing 4.10 gears, and you’d possess one of the most formidable street weapons in America.

While many gravitate to the ’71 model with its quad lamps, scalloped grille, and front fender fish gills, I have always contended that the dual lamp ’70, devoid of such histrionics, was the cleaner design. Regardless of year though, whether in hardtop or convertible configurations, the ‘Cuda was simply gorgeous from any angle, and today they fetch big commensurate dollars as a result.

1969 CHEVROLET CAMARO

1970 AMC JAVELIN SST

Speaking of also-rans, no manufacturer in the 1960s and ‘70s was more of an outsider than the American Motors Corporation. The smallest American automaker, AMC was formed by the merger of the Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motor Car companies in the mid-1950s.

Its paradigm was to offer models with performance and safety at a price point below that of the majors. While this business plan often led to some fairly dreary models in terms of quality and style, every so often AMC came out with an eccentric yet thoroughly capable street monster that, by many metrics, bested cars from the Big Three.

One example of this was an exceedingly low-production variant of their popular Javelin model known as the 1970 Javelin SST Trans Am coupe, which commemorated AMC’s participation in the SCCA Trans Am racing series.

A conservatively styled yet sultry beast, the SST featured a deeply recessed grille, a “Power Blister” hood, a low roofline, and a gently sloping semi-fastback treatment topped with a large, adjustable rear wing. Inside was an eclectic dash covered in woodgrain, avant-garde by muscle car standards.

Underhood, the SST sported AMC’s most powerful lump at the time, a hot, 390 cubic-inch four-barrel V8 that offered 325 horsepower and 425 lb-ft of torque.

But the most unique facet of the SST was its paint job – Code 00 – consisting of a Matador Red, Frost White, and Commodore Blue scheme that replicated AMC’s Trans Am race cars’ look. Needless to say, it wasn’t demure and wasn’t to everybody’s taste. For me though, the car and its livery captured the essence of what ‘60s and ‘70s muscle was all about.

1968 DODGE CHARGER

Some people regard it as the single most beautiful muscle car of the era, while others consider it a candidate for one of the most stunning automotive designs of all time. Regardless of where you fall, there’s no question that the 1968 Charger, with its deeply inset “electric shaver” grille, long hood, flying buttress treatment at the trailing end of the greenhouse, and “jet-age” rear end is a flawless design, reminiscent of a gazelle in mid leap.

Riding on Chrysler’s B-body platform, the ’68 Charger was the first year of the second generation of the car. Designed principally by Richard Sias, his brainchild was more than just a pretty face.

Handling was crisp on the high-end R/T models thanks to heavy-duty suspension components, and acceleration was on point thanks to a host of big V8s, including the 383, 440, and 426 Hemi mills. A Charger equipped with the latter was tested by an automotive publication at the time hitting 60 mph in a mere 4.9 seconds and tripping the quarter mile in 13.5 ticks at 105 mph – serious numbers for 1968.

Although the basic design would carry on for several more model years, albeit with updates and tweaks, none surpassed the looks of the ’68. Today, big-block ’68 Chargers fetch premium dollars, and it’s not hard to understand why.

1970 CHEVROLET CHEVELLE