Hey guys, I need your input on this. I am doing my senior paper on the effect of early muscle cars ('50s, '60s, and '70s) on the modern day sports car ('90s and today). This could be the design, the stock performance, the modifications, drag racing, road racing, or anything else you can think of. Thanks for your help guys.
Effect of early muscle cars on modern sports cars
- Thread starter CodeRed30
- Start date
The passion.
The passion of the owners - So many modern sprtscar owners are so passionate about the cars they own due to the fact that they saw these and went wow back in the day.
and most younger owners are affected too!
I remember being a little kid and just gaping at a musclecar as it went by, because I knew it was something special.
And also, the need to be better - everyone was buying the biggest engines they could get - 440, 429, etc etc...
If you had a 383 you didn't get the same kind of gawks from people
lx 5-0 not as cool as GT not as cool as Cobra
GT isn't as cool as the mach1 which isn't as cool as the cobra
firebird not as cool as trans am which is not as cool as the firehawk
SL320 not as cool as SL500 not as cool as SL55 AMG as cool as SL600 not as cool as the SL65AMG not as cool as the new supercar (what's it called?)
carrera not as cool as carrera 4 not as cool as carrera4S not as cool as turbo not as cool as turbo not as cool as GT3 not as cool as GT2
carrera cabrio not as cool as carrera4 cabrio not as cool as carrera 4S cabrio not as cool as turbo cabrio
Etc etc....
As well these are showpieces for technology, and they are what push the limits of that technology on the street - They're never sub-par, they're always built with the newest and best technology!
Same in the 60's when you had 2bbl, then tri 2bbl carb, then 4bbl, tunnel ram injection, cold air intake, EFI, etc etc...
The passion of the owners - So many modern sprtscar owners are so passionate about the cars they own due to the fact that they saw these and went wow back in the day.
and most younger owners are affected too!
I remember being a little kid and just gaping at a musclecar as it went by, because I knew it was something special.
And also, the need to be better - everyone was buying the biggest engines they could get - 440, 429, etc etc...
If you had a 383 you didn't get the same kind of gawks from people
lx 5-0 not as cool as GT not as cool as Cobra
GT isn't as cool as the mach1 which isn't as cool as the cobra
firebird not as cool as trans am which is not as cool as the firehawk
SL320 not as cool as SL500 not as cool as SL55 AMG as cool as SL600 not as cool as the SL65AMG not as cool as the new supercar (what's it called?)
carrera not as cool as carrera 4 not as cool as carrera4S not as cool as turbo not as cool as turbo not as cool as GT3 not as cool as GT2
carrera cabrio not as cool as carrera4 cabrio not as cool as carrera 4S cabrio not as cool as turbo cabrio
Etc etc....
As well these are showpieces for technology, and they are what push the limits of that technology on the street - They're never sub-par, they're always built with the newest and best technology!
Same in the 60's when you had 2bbl, then tri 2bbl carb, then 4bbl, tunnel ram injection, cold air intake, EFI, etc etc...
SVTHorsnake
Banned
it was the creation of a culture... not the fast and furious crowd, but the passion the van speaks of....
No one else?
you certainly can't overlook the impact their designs have had on every car still made today.
the long hood/short deck, hood scoops, dual exhaust tips, bucket seats, sporty center consoles, etc. are still considered what makes a car muscular or aggressive in styling.
the long hood/short deck, hood scoops, dual exhaust tips, bucket seats, sporty center consoles, etc. are still considered what makes a car muscular or aggressive in styling.
Well, lets see... From what I know, muscle cars from the pre 70's era were very tempermental, they did not get good gas milage at all, they tended to overheat quite a bit, they had terrible weight distributions, and most of them were not aero dynamically pleasing, but fun as hell to drive.
With that, I'd say it drove the desire to improve the muscle car, yet maintain the pleasure people get out of driving one.
In reality, though, after the implementation of emissions, manufacturers pretty much started over from scratch, esspecially when it came to american performance cars. In that aspect I think from a mechanical point of view its hard to make a direct link between the muscle cars of old and the performance cars of today other than the drive (the passion as vancouver put it), and tradition today's performance car has carried all the way from the performance cars of the mid 50's.
With that, I'd say it drove the desire to improve the muscle car, yet maintain the pleasure people get out of driving one.
In reality, though, after the implementation of emissions, manufacturers pretty much started over from scratch, esspecially when it came to american performance cars. In that aspect I think from a mechanical point of view its hard to make a direct link between the muscle cars of old and the performance cars of today other than the drive (the passion as vancouver put it), and tradition today's performance car has carried all the way from the performance cars of the mid 50's.
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i have an outline that i did on the history of the american muscle car........email me at [email protected] if you are interested. i don't know how much it'll help, but it may give you some ideas as far as what to include.
-tony
-tony
What about the 455 HD pontiacs?
mechanically, it was about power, and they always have been - mechanicaly, alot is different, but that's same with any car
i.e. the volks beetle and new beetle
or the minis
YOu need to narrow your topic. You'll get buried in the details at this rate.
Well, I can narrow it down for you to a simple list:
Old muscle cars have a unique, loud, mean sound, regardless of whether it's the engine or the exhaust. That raw, unmistakable sound you won't find in anything else but a big block. Newer sports cars have the sound of blowers, exhaust, and high revs. Different, but the same. The sound of power.
Power is a gimme. Old muscle cars were good for one thing and one thing only..going as fast as you could light to light. Today the same holds true. Imports or domestic, the street challenge is what it's all about (if you don't believe that you should sell your car right now ;-) )
Ahh, the smell of burning rubber, the smell of burning exhaust, the smell of hot oil. This is an absolute must. Fast muscle cars and fast sports cars all run hot. Heat = power. Kick the tires and light the fires. Front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, all wheel drive...it makes no difference. The muscle cars blasting through the radials lives on.
- Sound
- Power
- Smell
Old muscle cars have a unique, loud, mean sound, regardless of whether it's the engine or the exhaust. That raw, unmistakable sound you won't find in anything else but a big block. Newer sports cars have the sound of blowers, exhaust, and high revs. Different, but the same. The sound of power.
Power is a gimme. Old muscle cars were good for one thing and one thing only..going as fast as you could light to light. Today the same holds true. Imports or domestic, the street challenge is what it's all about (if you don't believe that you should sell your car right now ;-) )
Ahh, the smell of burning rubber, the smell of burning exhaust, the smell of hot oil. This is an absolute must. Fast muscle cars and fast sports cars all run hot. Heat = power. Kick the tires and light the fires. Front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, all wheel drive...it makes no difference. The muscle cars blasting through the radials lives on.
Its all about being rebellious:thumbsup:
AMEN BROTHER!! :rockon:
history repeats itself. chrysler brought back the hemi, chvy brought back the ss, next the chevelle, pontiac has the gto, ford brought back the cobra(prototype with shelby), and last the ord gt(gt40)
Problem with alot of that is, in name only... The new Hemi is not a true hemi, like the hemis of old. GM will slap the SS badge on about anything these days reguardless of whether or not it is truely a "Super Sport" just to make a sale, same goes with Pontiac and this GTO, atleast IMO. Not quite sure about this new shelby yet (though it is awsome) but, to me, the only REAL predecessor that exsists with all of these old blast from the passed names, seems to be the Ford GT.
What I mean by saying mechanical connections is that, alot of the way our performance cars are built now, are the result of developing more efficient ways for an engine to perform under emissions, not because manufacturers saw a need to improve the Muscle cars fuel economy or the fact you might be lucky to drive an old muscle car for 10 thousand miles without something going wrong. I'm saying performance cars improved because the government started breathing down manufacturers necks, not because manufacturers saw a need to make improvements. I'm sure over time they would have developed better, stronger, more efficient engines, efficient as in getting the power without using so much gas and pumping lead into the air, but in all reality todays performance cars are not a result of the evelution of muscle cars of the 50's and 60's to today, its the evelution of the "emissioned" performance automobile, which would have started in the mid to late 70's.
I guess you could look at it on the general level and say, american performance cars from the "golden era" gave us general idea's of what we would need to make a car a power house. We knew 8 cylinders had something to do with it, we knew displacement played a major roll, we knew the engine formation would have an effect on performance... things like that. But I'd say other than the fact we knew it had to be a combustion engine, after emissions, nothing we had learned prior to that, as far as performance cars are concerned, really helped with what manufacturers would have to do over the course of the next 30 years, to get these cars to perform as well as cars from the 60's, without the mechanical heartache of keeping a 400hp car running.
As far as the frame of mind, and spirtual aspect of the performance car is concerned, no arguements there.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, do you think anything Ford would have learned from building a 70 Boss 302 non emission engine would have been concidered in the building of the emission controlled 1974 302 equipped Mustang II, as the Mustang II 302, emissioned version, probably did play a roll in the development of the 302 in the 1979 FOX?
Americans have been putting bigger hotter engines into smaller lighter cars since the mid thirties...
In the early sixties the factories started doing it... then all you had to do was buy one and cruise it downtown...
The rest is history...... we fell in love with those RAW, LUSTY, BEASTS!!!!!
Jimmy:thumbsup:
In the early sixties the factories started doing it... then all you had to do was buy one and cruise it downtown...
The rest is history...... we fell in love with those RAW, LUSTY, BEASTS!!!!!
Jimmy:thumbsup:
The new goats make a bit of power but do not have any destinctive styling to call their own. It looks like a Sun Fire or Grand Prix. Not a worthy successor to the goat title if you ask me. GM needs to get on the ball, or anywhere near the ball, if they want to stay in any performance race, yet they seem to be farther ahead of Dodge. It seems like only Ford/SVT know that power is, has been, and always will be king
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