Television’s History Channel tells us something about the history of the American muscle car that we all pretty much know, that there is no “final” answer to the question of which is or was our nation’s greatest performance car. Truthfully, Mopar buffs from all corners swear on Chrysler’s HEMI head platform, while Ford racing enthusiasts continue to share the story of Carroll Shelby, and how that name became synonymous with Stang performance.

Everyone in the motoring community draws their own conclusion as to when the golden age of American muscle began and ended, but for some, the muscle car movement began as early as the mid-to-late 1950s, years before Pontiac would ever make a street brawler out of the Tempest. One of these aficionados is Muscle Car Museum president, Floyd Garrett, who accredits Chrysler’s 300 as starting the corporation’s HEMI horsepower craze, “This is the famous, hemispherical head engine, what Chrysler called the ‘HEMI’ engine, and it produced 300 horsepower,” Garrett explains.

Chrysler’s 426 HEMI made 425 horses, as opposed to the Six Pack 440’s rating of 390 horsepower, but it was much more temperamental in terms of maintenance.

As president of the Muscle Car Museum, located just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, Floyd Garrett describes Chrysler’s 300 as a car that was substantially heavy for professional stock car racing, but one that grabbed top end regardless, “This car was really heavy for the NASCAR circuit, but you stretched it out in the long end and it would eat your peanut butter and jelly!” exclaims Garrett about the early HEMI sled.

By the time the late ’50s and early ’60s had arrived, Chrysler performance was in full-swing, though GM would release a missile of equal or greater strength in the form of Chevy’s very first big-block, the 348 cubic-inch “W” motor that was the 409’s predecessor.

Available with a “Tri-Power” carburetor option, the 348 big-block was a radical departure from your typical 265 V8, and horsepower numbers on a factory 348 could climb as high as 315 horses during the big-block’s first production run in the late ’50s.

The Tri-Powered 348 mill put Chevy on the high-performance map just a few years before John DeLorean would help Pontiac to develop its own performance variant, and prior to the GTO’s introduction during the 1964 sales year, the Pontiac make was mostly associated with what DeLorean himself describes as a “very ‘old folks’ car,” one that would never stand a chance in the midst of the younger buying market.

DeLorean consequently joined forces with Pontiac general manager, Bunky Knudsen and chief engineer, Pete Estes to develop the “GTO” as a high-performance package for the Tempest, that would be offered through dealerships because of GM’s decision during the early ’60s to withdraw from professional racing.

GM’s strict mandates on racing kept the GTO from becoming its own model during its initial run, but once DeLorean had spread his idea of performance-fitting a Tempest sedan to others, the idea took off like wildfire. John DeLorean had single-handedly hot rodded a Tempest, by stuffing a 389-cube version of the “Super Duty” series under its hood. The Super Duty engine, coupled with a Hurst 4-speed, made for a winning combination.

Pontiac’s GTO, named after the FIA’s “Gran Tourismo Omologato” vehicle designation, paid tribute to the original from Ferrari, the one European automaker who DeLorean himself considered the sports car market’s best of the best during the 1960s. As DeLorean himself states, the GTO was meant to pay tribute to Ferrari, rather than try to mimick them.

As Chrysler and Mopar continued to develop HEMI and 440 Six Pack performance, and Pontiac’s GTO tried with mechanical fury to compete, Chevrolet’s Chevelle SS was introduced as the Bowtie equivalent, while Oldsmobile’s Cutlass-based, 4-4-2 focused more on engineering and overall stability, adding more of a luxury stance to the GM muscle lineup.

Up until a fuel crisis in the ’70s put an end to the horsepower wars’ glory years, each of America’s major automakers had a muscle car contemporary that brought street and strip performance to the average enthusiast. Far more accessible money-wise than our nation’s new generation of muscle, America’s muscle car tradition truly does represent a time when a street legal race car could be had through one’s nearest dealer.

Since that time, the automotive industry has become a bit less personal, but with a radical focus on looks and big engine power that constituted an era, it’s no wonder that America’s canon of street legal classics are considered to be among our world’s greatest mechanical marvels!