Family/Pony/Sport Car, Muscle Car, Super Car

[djunod]

For readability, I'm leaving out the use of quote.

Q: What makes a muscle car?

A: It comes down to the power-to-weight ratio. If you have a big engine or a lot of horsepower in a small or medium-size car, that is a muscle car.

By that definition, my generalization would be:

A Corvette with a 327 or 350 is a sports car. A Corvette with a 396, 427, 454 is a muscle car. A Corvette with a ZL1 is a super car.

A Camaro with a 327 or 350 is a pony car. A Camaro with a 307 or 396 is a muscle car. A COPO or ZL1 Camaro is a super car.

A Nova or Chevelle with a 327 or 350 is a family car. A Nova or Chevelle with a 396, 427, 454 is a muscle car. A COPO Nova or Chevelle is a super car.

[drdave69]

I would tend to agree with you except for this 'A Camaro with a 307 or 396 is a muscle car.' Surely you meant to say 302 instead of 307. Right.

[djunod]

Yeah... off by a little. I've never been a fan of the 1st-gen Z-28's, so I don't remember such a detail... sorry.

[gtomike1967]

I can understand your logic on this subject except...
Why is a Camaro with a 302 (Z/28) a musclecar but the camaro with the 350 a Pony car?
By your defination "If you have a big engine or a lot of horsepower in a small or medium-size car, that is a muscle car." Shouldnt the 302 car be the Pony car and the 350 car be the Musclecar?

Mike

[Belair62]

Correct me if I'm wrong but this came from a website somewhere Dave ?? It's not your definition.

[djunod]

Correct... when participating in the other discussion on "muscle car", I did a google search for "muscle car definition"... of course I ran across the goofy one that wanted to weigh in the original price of the car, which we already have a pointer to. I also found this:

[ QUOTE ]
Auto expert Steve Magnante, of Hot Rod magazine, answers a few questions about muscle cars and about car care in general.

Q: What makes a muscle car?
A: It comes down to the power-to-weight ratio. If you have a big engine or a lot of horsepower in a small or medium-size car, that is a muscle car.

[/ QUOTE ]

Source: Do-It-Yourself Network

which makes more sense to me...

[djunod]

[ QUOTE ]
Why is a Camaro with a 302 (Z/28) a musclecar but the camaro with the 350 a Pony car?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't agree with that one either, but did it to appease the 1st-gen Z/28 owners who would fight to death over not making it into the "muscle car" category. JK

Let's say then that any Camaro with a 6-cylinder is a pony car, and any Camaro with a V8 is a muscle car. Is that better?

[skierkaj]

How about this one,

Musclecar: "Any group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful enginges designed for high-performance driving."

That's according to Webster's, but there are always exceptions to the rule. Pretty fuzzy definition if you ask me.