In , the Chrysler C was the first American car to be marketed by its parent company as a high-performance variant with track numbers to back it up. That year, , was a watershed year for the automobile. Car manufacturers were in a cycle of production for almost 10 years after the WWII-mandated moratorium on civilian manufacturing ended.
Since that time, Detroit had upped engineering advancements with overhead-valve V-8 engines, reliable automatic transmissions, along with styling that was soon off the charts in terms of flamboyance.
Other than the engines, Chryslers were completely new, shedding their conservative reputation with dynamically engineered and styled cars. That hp came by means of two four-barrel carburetors, solid lifters, a hotter cam, and large dual exhaust. The problem was, this motor did not perform well on the street. It was slower than the other big-block Mustangs at the time. The Nascar-bound V-8 was monstrously large and did not fit in a stock Mustang's engine bay.
The company relocated the shock towers, widened the track of the front end using unique componentry, relocated the battery to the trunk, and fitted a smaller brake booster—all to make room for this beastly powerplant to fit in the Mustang.
Fast Fact: There were actually three different engines installed in the Boss between '69 and ' The hardcore "S-Code" was installed in early cars and filled with race-duty parts. But the S-Code had warranty problems, reportedly because of an incorrect assembly process. So the "T-Code" with lighter-duty parts was used in some cars. The later "A-Code" version of the , equipped with smog equipment and a new valvetrain, appeared toward the end of production. When GM relaxed its longstanding rule forbidding engines larger than cubic inches to be installed in midsize cars, it set off a muscle frenzy across the company's divisions.
A conservative estimate of the LS6's power puts it at hp and lb-ft of torque. But thanks to its high Our pals at Car and Driver tested one in and found it hit 60 mph in just 5.
And that was with the skinny low-grip tires of the day; that same car with modern rubber would be much quicker. The LS6 carries the highest factory horsepower rating of all muscle cars. And up until the LS6, GM wouldn't allow any other Chevy to carry a horsepower rating higher than that of the Corvette. But somehow that stance was relaxed for ; the highest horsepower engine you could get in a Corvette was a hp LS5 An LS7 was planned with hp, but it was never officially sold.
So why no LS6? An LS6 Corvette was offered for , but its potency slipped at least officially to hp. Pontiac owned the muscle scene in the early s. In fact, the Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as the very first of the breed. But by , that car had plenty of competition. The thought within Pontiac was to make a cheaper version of the GTO with a smaller cubic-inch engine called the ET for "elapsed time" a drag-racing term. Pontiac boss John DeLorean didn't like that idea.
To him, no GTO could have an engine that small. Instead, the team built a car one step up from the regular GTO. According to the book Pontiac Pizazz , by Jim Wangers and Art Fitzpatrick, the lead singer, Mark Lindsay, was a car guy and loved the Judge, so he wrote a song about it. Wangers claims this commercial is considered one of the earliest rock-music videos. Chevrolet's Central Office Production Order COPO system was designed for fleet sales; it was intended to spec out heavy-duty suspensions for cop cars and stain-proof interiors for taxicabs.
But enterprising dealers with the right connections, such as Yenko Chevrolet in Pennsylvania, figured out that Camaros could be ordered this way, too. And given the right order codes, the dealer could spec out a fire-breathing monster of a Camaro that Chevy didn't really want you to own.
The production order specified a big-block V-8 rated at hp—just like a Corvette. Though this engine was rated with just 5 more hp, it was widely known that this race-spec engine delivered more like hp. Chevy originally developed this motor for the Chaparral racing team to use in the Can Am series.
There are no external emblems on a ZL-1 Camaro that let you know what's under the hood—only plain-vanilla Camaro badges. Long after the big block Vpowered muscle cars of the s and s went, Buick brought back some of that magic in the s.
Car and Driver tested one in and recorded a 0-tomph time of just 4. Buick made only of these black beasts. First-year models were powered by a ci Packard V8 with a bore and stroke of 4. Engine output was horsepower, which at the time, was second only to the Chrysler The July edition of Speed Age Magazine ran a comparison test between the fastest production cars of the day.
For , the Packard motor was no longer available, so the Golden Hawk was fitted with Studebaker's ci V8. With the addition of a McCulloch supercharger, horsepower was still achieved, but with less torque than the Packard V8. The Rebel debuted as a special model showcasing Rambler's new V8 engine. Not to be confused with the small-block Chevy V8 produced from to , Rambler's ci engine featured 9. Placed in the mid-size Rebel body, it gave a power-to-weight ratio of The only car faster was a fuel-injected Corvette, at 7.
Starting in the early sixties, both Ford and Dodge were building cars specifically to compete at the drag strip. Often described as a street legal race car, they were not widely advertised, and production numbers were very low. Dodge and Plymouth revamped their model lines for , including the then full-size Dodge Dart. In the spring of , a special "Ramcharger " model was offered. The race-ready ci Max Wedge engine featured aluminum pistons, magnafluxed connecting rods, dual cfm Carter four-barrels, and a solid-lifter camshaft.
This meant installing them in "ordinary" production vehicles. Huge by any standards, the Street Hemi was nicknamed "Elephant Engine" not only for its cubic capacity and power, but for its plus pound weight. Due to increases in optional equipment and luxury appointments, muscle cars were becoming more expensive. In response to rising cost and weight, a secondary trend towards more basic "budget" muscle cars emerged in and The standard transmission was a 4-speed manual with floor shifter.
Chrysler's three-speed TorqueFlite automatic was optional. Plymouth expected to sell about 20, Road Runners in Actual sales numbered around 45, Equipped with high-performance carburetor, exhaust manifolds, and slick tires, a ci Road Runner could run a The name "" pronounced "four-four-two" stands for four-barrel carburetor, four-speed manual transmission, and dual exhausts.
In , engine size grew from ci to ci. The became a model in it's own right in Offered by Chevrolet for the model years through , the Chevelle was offered in many body styles, including two-door coupe, four-door sedan, two-door station wagon, four-door station wagon, and convertible. The most popular of these were the two-door V8 coupes, which included the Malibu and SS models.
After Chevrolet introduced their small-block V8 in , they were virtually unchallenged on the street. That was until , when the ci GTO appeared. The Chevelle was offered with either a ci or ci small-block engine. After Oldsmobile offered a cid and Buick a ci Gran Sport in early , that was all it took for Chevy to break GM's policy for A-body series engines.
A new big-block V8 displacing cubic-inches was scheduled for release in full-size Chevys and Corvettes. It would also be the standard engine in the Chevelle Super Sport package. Although a ci V8 was already offered in the Skylark, the Gran Sport came with the largest engine permitted by GM at the time, a ci V8.
The engine was actually ci, but called a because that was the maximum engine size allowed. The following year, it was replaced with the GS For and , Buick offered a GS in both convertible and hardtop model. The Torino was initially an upscale version of the Fairlane, with the most popular-selling models being the 4-door sedans and 2-door hardtops. The GT model came standard with a ci V-8 engine, bucket seats, console, tachometer, and power front-disc brakes.
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