The Return of the Muscle Car

Opinion Journal ^ | 04/23/03 | COLLIN LEVEY

[Pokey78]

Horsepower and martial valor couldn't have come at a better time.

The French semiologist Roland Barthes once said he considered cars "almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals

[Lx]

As the proud owner of a '69 Vette, I have to agree with you. To me, and everyone else, the start of the Muscle car era was the first model GTO. A big engine in a light body that the average person could afford.

While a Vette with a 427, or the hopped up 454 I think it was an LS-7 or the LT1 were all as fast or faster than the average muscle car plus they stopped and handled better, they were not an affordable car not to mention being a two seater.

Take a great muscle car, the '69 Road Runner, base engine and trans was a 383 4sp in a basic Belvedere body that the average Joe could afford and if he wanted to, he could place a check next to the engine of his choice be it a 440, 440 six pack or the 426 Hemi. With the exception of the Hemi and six pack, it was still an affordable car.

If we knew now what we didn't know then, hell, I'd own a '69 Hemi Charger Daytona or a '70 Hemi Superbird. I've got stacks of old hot rods and it kills me to see both of those cars going for less than $4,000 in 1975, I saw a hemi equipped one for around $8,000.

Oh well, what are you going to do?

[knak]

He was. He drove it 60 miles home without plates. He didn't care, he had to have it. Carnuts!

[BenR2]

He was. He drove it 60 miles home without plates. He didn't care, he had to have it. Carnuts!

/////
Unreal! LOL.

[gortklattu]

The nitro burning engines that are in the Dragsters and Funny cars are generating about 6,000 horsepower from some 600 cubic inch displacement. If you are near one of those engines as it revs up you can FEEL the sound waves go through your body...a most incredible sensation.

Those cars travel a quarter mile in 4.6 secs and top 320 mph in that time. In just 220 yards they are moving at over 250 mph!

There's a big event in Las Vegas in late October and another one in Pomona in early November. Check it out some time!

Gort

[gortklattu]

Here is Melanie Troxel. She's got quite a personality too! She's one of the few women in the 300 mph + category.

[clodkicker]

You got that right. I still have my '68 442 although the 400 is now a 455.