We all know the story; it started in 1964 with the Ford Mustang. No, wait — I mean the Plymouth Barracuda. Or the Pontiac GTO. Or was it earlier with the Pontiac Catalina SD? The ’50s Dodge D-500 maybe?
Debating the origin of the muscle car is like debating over the first rock and roll record; everyone you talk to has a different opinion, and no one is exactly wrong. Let’s just say that by the early ’60s, a generation coming of age fell in love with high-performance midsize cars coming out of Detroit, and for a few brief years, performance ruled the day. Naturally, the good old days seem to look better with each passing year, and as the book was written on the muscle car, a fair amount of contenders fell by the wayside.
Every gearhead could tell a Mustang from a Camaro from a ‘Cuda from a GTO in their sleep. Slightly more advanced fans know about the Buick GNX, the Ford Torino Cobra Jet, Plymouth GTX, and the AMC SC/Rambler too. But go much deeper than that, and cars begin to get lost to time. And that’s a shame because with performance being the magic word, a number of automakers tried to cash in on the muscle car craze and, even when they failed, left some seriously powerful and interesting cars behind. Here are 10 ’60s-era muscle cars that deserve to re-enter the conversation.
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