12 Muscle Car Firsts: The Cars That Started It All

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X498tHM4790

In 1964, Pontiac expected to sell about 5,000 GTOs and sold more than 32,000 instead, and an entire industry changed almost overnight. Here are twelve muscle car firsts, the cars that started it all, counted down from number twelve to number one. One of them beat the Mustang to showrooms by just two weeks.

#12: 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88

In 1949, Oldsmobile dropped a new overhead valve V8, called the Rocket, into its lightest body, and the Rocket 88 was born. The engine displaced 303 cubic inches and made 135 horsepower, which was a lot for the time and more than most rivals could offer. The recipe was simple and it became the template for everything that followed: put the biggest engine you have into the lightest car you build.

#11: 1955 Chrysler C-300

Chrysler shocked the industry in 1955 with the C-300, a car with a 331 cubic inch Hemi V8 rated at 300 horsepower. It was the first American production car to reach that number. Chrysler took the big Imperial front end, mounted it on a New Yorker body, and added a stiff suspension and a tuned engine with two four barrel carburetors.

⚑ Featured Gear

Start Car Conversations →

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

#10: 1957 Rambler Rebel

Almost nobody expects this car on a muscle car list. American Motors, the company behind the small and sensible Rambler, put a 327 cubic inch V8 into a compact body for 1957 and called the result the Rambler Rebel. The engine made 255 horsepower, and the car weighed only about 3,300 pounds.

#9: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Fuel Injection

Chevrolet made a bold claim in 1957: one horsepower for every cubic inch. The 283 cubic inch small block V8, equipped with Rochester mechanical fuel injection, made 283 horsepower. That was a first for a mass produced American engine, and the fuel injection option cost about 484 dollars.

#8: 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS 409

The Beach Boys released a song called 409 in 1962, and it was about a real engine. Chevrolet had introduced the 409 cubic inch V8 in 1961 as a bored out version of its big truck style W engine, and it was offered in the Impala Super Sport. In 1962 the top version was rated at 409 horsepower, a figure that echoed the displacement.

#7: 1963 Plymouth Belvedere Max Wedge 426

In 1963, Mopar engineers turned the drag strip into a showroom. The 426 Max Wedge engine, offered in the Plymouth Belvedere and Savoy and the Dodge Polara and 330, was rated at 415 horsepower with 11 to one compression, or 425 horsepower with 13.5 to one compression. It used two four barrel carburetors on a cross ram intake manifold, with long tuned runners that boosted power at high revs.

#6: 1964 Pontiac GTO

General Motors banned engines larger than 330 cubic inches in its midsize cars, and Pontiac found a way around it. Engineers Bill Collins and Russ Gee, along with Pontiac general manager John DeLorean and marketer Jim Wangers, offered the GTO as an option package on the Tempest. It carried a 389 cubic inch V8 rated at 325 horsepower, or 348 horsepower with the Tri Power setup of three two barrel carburetors.

#5: 1964 Ford Mustang

Ford introduced the Mustang on April 17, 1964, at the New York World’s Fair, and nothing in the industry was ever the same. Lee Iacocca and his team had built a sporty, affordable car on Falcon underpinnings, with a long hood, short deck, and a base price of 2,368 dollars. Ford expected strong demand, and the actual numbers were stunning: about 22,000 orders on the first day, and 418,812 cars in the first twelve months.

#4: 1965 Shelby GT350

Carroll Shelby was a Texas chicken farmer who became a racing champion, and he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959. Ford asked him to turn the Mustang fastback into a track car that could win SCCA races. Shelby took bare Mustang fastbacks from Ford and sent them to his shop in Los Angeles, where his crew removed the rear seat, swapped in a fiberglass hood, and tuned the 289 cubic inch Hi Po V8 to 306 horsepower.

#3: 1964 Plymouth Barracuda

Plymouth beat Ford to the punch, and almost nobody remembers it. The Barracuda went on sale on April 1, 1964, just two weeks before the Mustang. It was built on the compact Valiant platform, and its signature feature was a huge fastback rear window, the largest piece of glass ever fitted to a production car at the time.

#2: 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS

Chevrolet needed an answer to the Mustang, and the Camaro arrived in September 1966 as a 1967 model. When reporters asked what a Camaro was, a Chevrolet executive famously replied that it was a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs. The name was meant to suggest friendship in a French sense, but the answer was pure attitude.

#1: 1968 Plymouth Road Runner

Plymouth paid Warner Brothers 50,000 dollars for the right to use the Road Runner name and likeness, and it even added a horn that went beep beep. The idea was a stripped down, cheap muscle car for young buyers who wanted speed without the luxury price. The 1968 Road Runner came with a 383 cubic inch V8 rated at 335 horsepower, and the 426 Hemi was available for those who wanted more.

That is our list of twelve muscle car firsts, the cars that started it all. Which one do you think changed the game the most? Tell me in the comments, and subscribe to Muscle Car Fan for more muscle car stories.