Muscle cars are defined as 2 door, rear wheel drive, American mid sized cars built in the late 60s early 70s.
Ah okaaay! ...Then they can rest in peace.
Crude, poor build, no handling, no brakes, "try-and-stay-on-the-highway" steering, stage coach suspension, non existent damping, poor seats............and auto transmissions for the most part. If you could find a "standard," or "stick shift" it was hello axle tramp & broken rear leaf springs. No thanks. Look good in photos maybe :neutral:
Most of those old V8 engines weighed "half a ton" and masqueraded under grossly inflated hp figures (all hp figures in any reference book or otherwise, for pre-1972 engines was and still is, quoted using gross hp**)
A modern GM
4.8 Litre pushrod V8 nowadays would have no trouble embarassing any of the older 350's. Let alone the
LS3 6.2 Litre pushrod V8 used in the before mentioned example HSV car which could be considered one of the world's best production V8's. It could probably out-perform any old stock 60's/70's big block and in it's
LS9 guise (fitted with forged pistons and supercharger) is the most powerful American V8*** ever.
***
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_LS_engine#LS9
(and this is net hp to
J1349 standard)
The best of the old Chevy small blocks (Gen I) only ever made 248hp (net hp to J607 standard). The worst of them made a wheezing 145hp.
The first SBC to break 300hp was the Gen II LT1 and that only happened in '92.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_LT_engine
**
Gross hp
Here's a excerpt from Wiki showing very well the change from Gross to Net hp...........
...The
LT-1 was the ultimate 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8, becoming available in 1970. It used solid lifters, 11:1 compression, a high-performance camshaft, and a Holley four-barrel carburetor on a special aluminum intake to produce
370 hp (276 kW) and 380 lb·ft (515 N·m). It was available on the
Corvette and
Camaro Z28. Power was down in 1971 to 330 hp (246 kW) and 360 lb·ft (488 N·m) with 9:1 compression,
and again in 1972 (the last year of the LT-1, now rated using net, rather than gross, measurement) to 255 hp (190 kW) and 280 lb·ft (380 N·m).....
[The "LT1" designation was later reused on a Generation II GM engine, the
LT1.]
