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About This Quiz
There's no 100% definite way to describe a muscle car. It has never been as apparent as a convertible or a coupe because it's not the type of car that any company specifically made. It was more of a way of producing cars, one that really appealed to a segment of the motoring public. Though the rules aren't hard and fast, if you were looking for a muscle car, you likely wanted an American-built automobile that featured a powerful engine, was either mid-size or full-size and maybe had 4-speed manual transmission, front-wheel drive and two doors. But again, these features aren't set in stone. The muscle part comes from the engine, so that was the critical feature. Does it have a lot of horses under the hood? Do the neighborhood animals go mysteriously quiet when you put the key in the ignition? Does it purr like a jungle cat? If so, you just might have yourself a muscle car.
People still make cars that qualify as muscle cars, but the heyday of the muscle car was from the mid-1960s into the '70s. Those were the cars everyone thinks of, and those are the ones we want you to think of. But we're not making it easy! You have to name what you can while being distracted by hot women. It's, uh, scientific. Try it!
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is one of the most iconic of all muscle cars thanks to its extensive use on "The Dukes of Hazzard" which made use of the 1969 model Charger and also destroyed hundreds of them on camera.
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Dart
Dodge Duster
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Thunderbird
The Thunderbird has been around since 1955 as competition for Chevrolet's Corvette. By the 1960s, it was amped up to the muscle car level and came with a standard 390 V8 engine with an optional 428.
Torino
Mustang
Galaxie
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Chevrolet Corvette
Shelby GT350
The 1966 Shelby GT350 came with a supercharger option that was said to improve engine output by nearly 50%, though there's reason to doubt that it was quite as good as all that. The option, however, cost one-fourth of the car's entire price!
Ford Mustang
Mercury Cougar
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1964 Pontiac GTO
The 1964 Pontiac GTO is generally considered to be the first official muscle car ever manufactured. Pontiac borrowed the "GTO" part of the name from Ferrari which had developed the 250 GTO. GTO stands for "Gran Turismo Omologato."
1963 Ford Mustang
1964 Plymouth Superbird
1962 Chevy Nova
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Pontiac
Ford
Chevrolet
Dodge
The Dodge Super Bee had a lot in common with the Dodge Coronet in terms of body, but under the hood, things got weird. Midway through 1969, Dodge changed up its strategy and swapped the V8 Hemi with a new Six-Pack. It performed as well as the Hemi but cost less.
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100
543
The Dodge Daytona was manufactured only in 1969 and is mostly remembered for that enormous wing that was on the back. Only 543 of them were ever produced, and if you want one today, it's going to cost you a fortune.
1,017
2,010
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Cyclone
The Mercury Comet had ben in production since 1962 and was really a compact car to start things off. In 1964, it got souped-up as the Cyclone, and the 1968 Cyclone was officially a muscle car with a full-on V8 engine.
Cougar
Zephyr
Monarch
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Poniac
Plymouth
Buick
Oldsmobile
The Oldsmobile 442 was produced from 1954 until 1987. Why call it a 442? Four-speed manual transmission, four-barrel carburetor and, naturally, dual exhaust. The math adds up.
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Dodge Charger
Plymouth Superbird
Ford Maverick
Chevy Nova SS
The Chevy Nova SS was essentially a compact option for the muscle car market. By 1964, it was fully decked out with all the engine options you'd expect for a muscle car, including the Camaro's 396 V8.
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Pontiac Superbird
Buick Skylark
AMC AMX
From 1968 to 1970, AMC produced the AMX, a two-seat GT sportscar that was essentially the closest competition you were going to get to the Corvette. As for the name, it means "American Motors Experimental."
Ford Galaxie
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Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang was the first of the pony cars on the market. What the heck is a pony car? It's basically a compact coupe or convertible performance car. They're not always muscle cars, but don't ever suggest that a 1965 Mustang with a 289 V8 engine isn't a muscle car!
AMC Rebel
Chevrolet Chevelle
Pontiac GTO
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Plymouth Road Runner
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Ford Galaxie
Plymouth Barracuda
The Plymouth Barracuda is very frequently referred to simply as a 'Cuda, and no 'Cuda was more famous than the Hemi 'Cuda. In 1970, four Hemi 'Cudas were raced in Europe and won several championships.
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Dodge Challenger
Buick GNX
The all-black GNX with its sci-fi grill netted the nickname "Darth Vader's car" back in the day and, all things being equal, it was a suitable nickname for a monstrous and powerful automobile.
Ford Thunderbird
Pontiac GTO
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AMC
The AMC Rebel Machine hit the roads in 1970. It was a bit of an over-the-top design with a full-on Captain America red, white and blue paint job as well as a massive hood scoop. It lasted one year, and then was long gone.
Pontiac
Lotus
Ford
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Chevelle
Corvette
Camaro
The Camaro was Chevrolet's answer to the Mustang. Legend has it that the design team insisted the name was a play on the French word for "comrade," but linguists may have suggested it was actually a Spanish word that means shrimp. Comrade in French is "camarade," while shrimp in Spanish is "camaron."
Impala SS
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Pontiac Grand Prix
Buick Regal
Plymouth Fury
It makes sense that a furious car like Christine was a Plymouth Fury. They were manufactured from 1955 to 1989. While the early models may not have been fully muscle cars, by the mid-1960s, they were maxed out with powerful V8 engines.
Chrysler 300
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Buick
The Buick Wildcat was manufactured from 1962 until 1977. The 1966 model had an optional upgrade which included a high-performance V8 with two, 4-barrel carburetors, dual exhaust, a chrome-plated air cleaner and a handful of other perks.
Pontiac
Ford
Dodge
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Chevrolet Camaro
Dodge Challenger
The Dodge Challenger may have been slow to market compared to the other cars in its class, but at least the company took its time to get things right. It debuted with a variety of engine options, including the 426 Hemi.
Ford Mustang
Pontiac GTO
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Pontiac Banshee
Ford Galaxie
The Ford Galaxie's 427 engine was an unheard of beast of an engine at the time it was introduced in 1965 and, to be quite honest, it's still a fearsome thing in the present. It may be the most powerful production engine in history.
AMC Javelin
Mercury Montclair
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Dodge Dart
Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt
Buick Skylark
Oldsmobile Toronado
When Oldsmobile rolled out the Toronado in 1966, it was the first attempt at a front-wheel-drive vehicle since 1937. With a 425 V8, it's hard to argue that this thing wasn't built to chew up the roads like any other muscle car.
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Dodge Coronet
Pontiac Firebird
The Pontiac Firebird has long had that incredibly iconic firebird-printed hood that lets you know from blocks away what kind of car is coming. Not every Firebird had that bird printed on the hood, of course, but if you saw it, you knew it was a Firebird.
Ford Mustang
AMC Pacer
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Dodge
By 1968, the Dodge Dart was a pretty decent alternative to the Chevy Nova SS. It was available with either a 348 V8 engine or a 383 but, interestingly enough, the added weight of the 383 completely removed the benefit of using it rather than sticking with the 348.
Chrysler
Ford
AMC
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Torino Talladega
Galaxie
Fairlane Thunderbolt
While the Ford Fairlane has been around for a few years, by 1964, the Fairlane Thunderbolt was a drag racing version. The engine was rated at 425 horsepower, but the word is it was pulling closer to 600.
Challenger
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Matador
Galaxie
Dart
Duster
The Plymouth Duster was produced from 1970 to 1976 and was a performance version of Plymouth's Valiant. What made it performance? Well, the 340 V8 definitely helped get the job done for drivers.
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Chevrolet Impala SS
Ford Mustang
AMC Javelin
The AMC Javelin was looked at by the Alabama Highway Patrol in '71 when they wanted a cheaper alternative to bulky police cruisers. The Javelin was the first pony car used by any law enforcement in the country, and they kept it in service until 1979.
Buick Riviera
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Buick Skylark
Chevrolet El Camino
Plymouth Road Runner
The Road Runner was designed to be a fairly basic model when many of the other muscle cars on the market were becoming more and more extravagant. Plymouth paid $50,000 to Warner Brothers to use the likeness of the Road Runner cartoon for advertising and for making a horn that sounded like the cartoon.
Pontiac Catalina
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Monte Carlo SS
Impala SS
By 1966, only the Impala SS was still on the full-size market for Chevrolet as sales had been slipping somewhat. Midsize SS models like the Chevelle were still popular. The Impala was still rocking out with an available 427 Turbojet engine for when you needed ultimate power in your muscle car.
Chevelle SS
Camaro SS
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1966 Catalina 2+2
The 1966 Pontiac Catalina 2+2 was rocking the "Pontiac 421" plaque on the fender to drive home that the model was standard with a 421 V8 engine and had been since 1965. Three different 421 engines were available.
1971 Firebird
1980 GTO
1972 Tempest
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Matador
Skylark
Riviera
Monte Carlo
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was pretty much un-muscled by 1978 thanks to the oil embargo when the model was downsized. Prior to that, however, the Monte Carlo was positioned as a luxury car to compete with the Buick Rivera.
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Valiant
300
Chrysler's 300 has a long history, first as the letter series, then the non-letter series, then an even later series. The letter series from the '50s to the '60s were clear muscle car material, however, with high-performance engines. The '65 300L, the last of the letter series, came with a standard 413 V8 engine.
Saratoga
Newport
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Oldsmobile Cutlass
Plymouth Fury
Mercury Cougar
The Mercury Cougar debuted in 1967 with a 3-inch longer wheelbase than the Mustang, a more refined interior and an eye towards the luxury end of the muscle car spectrum. It was Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1967.
Dodge Charger
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GNX
Regal
Skylark
The Buick Skylark has six generations over its production run starting in 1955. The 1965 model rolled out the "Gran Sport" option which eventually morphed into the Buick GS and came with a high performance 300 cubic-inch V8.
Wildcat
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Mercury Comet
Ford Galaxie
Dodge Coronet
The Dodge Coronet dates back to 1949 with a retooling in 1965, when Dodge offered up engines that were high performance, including a 440 Magnum V8 and a 426 Hemi.
Chevrolet El Camino
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Nova SS
Corvette
Camaro
Chevelle SS
Though it was slow out of the gate with some of the lower-powered models in the '60s, the 1970 Chevelle was a monster with the LS6 454 V8 which made it the most powerful rated engine in the entire world of muscle cars.
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Ford Galaxie
Oldsmobile Cutlass
The Oldsmobile Cutlass was the forerunner of the 442 muscle car, but on its own, it had some decent specs over the years, not the least of which was the '62 Jetfire that featured the Turbo-Rocket V8 engine.
Chevrolet Camaro
Plymouth GTX
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