Why you like Muscle Cars?
 

Ok ok... first of all I don't live in the USA and things down here in my country are quite different.. i.e: people don't buy muscle cars, nor they even know the difference between a camaro or a mustang (although they love them -the muscle cars-), german cars are loved, japanese are hated but they're cheaper so we buy them -a lot-, and most most people, including me, we won't even know much about that muscle car war of yours (that's why me, always a Mustang fan -and owner- won't have any problems driving a Camaro).. but anyways, the few of us who knows at least "something" here, we always come with the same question...

"Why we like muscle cars so much?"... why?

I mean.. look at those numbers a Subaru STI or a Mitsubishi EVO can get (300HP with an engine so so small, 400HP on a EVO FQ-400 with 4cil and 2 liters...). Look at the weight, the handling (a very nice handling because of the weight difference when compared to american cars)..

Even though japanese numbers are so great, japanese handling is so good (have you seeen that Subaru vs Shelby comparisson? i'm gonna look for it and post the link later) and that stuff... we simply... feel.. i don't know, "attracted" to muscle cars... why? what do we like bout them? I mean.. I have a Mustang GT in here, it wasn't even expensive to buy it and import it here... but everyone, on their mercedes, or subaru's (sti ones, quiiite fast) stare at it and ask me to sell it to them (and their cars are so much more expensive... but people don't get to see many muscle cars here too, almost.. none)...
what is what makes Muscle Cars so attractive to look at it, so fun to drive and makes you feel so good and so pride to have one?? tell me! what is it!

P.S: My english's not so good so please forgive any misspellings I may make.

First off, Your English is pretty damn good. So, well done!

Second, I think the American muscle car is a "statement" A bold statement that says I am what I am, and if you don't like it, I don't care. I'm going to have my fun whether you like it or not...

Something else to think about, In America we categorize just about everything... So when you see someone driving a BMW or a Mercedes, those people tend to be classified a certain way. In my opinion, Americans are comfortable with the fact that our vehicles say something about who we are as individual people. This may not be the case where you are from. In Paraguay people may just base their choice of car on the numbers. JMHO

The stance, the look, the feel, the NOISE! thats why i like muscle cars. Its just somtin about them, a certain aggressiveness and poise, they way they sit. Cant really put it in any better terms, if i had to choose one word, it would be "passion"

For me it's the noise the car produces or how the car stands. Sure the imports have better stats but I really don't care about the stats. I care how people perceive me when I'm driving the car, it's how I feel when I'm inside the car rowing though the gears.

The noise the car produces can't be reproduced by a small high-revving engine, the sound of the big V8+ turns me on. Turning on my friends Aston Martin DB9 made me melt in the seat. Muscle cars are supposed to make you feel like a kid when you step in and shut the door.

Remember when you were a kid and you made the car sounds? Did you make high revving engine sounds or did you make the deep muscle car sounds?

In conclusion; it's the way you turn into a kid when you hear the roar of the engine, when you leave rubber behind at the stop light, when other people look at you and say "I wish I had that car". Muscle cars will live forever just for that fact.


Kevin

Muscle cars, and their owners, are loud and proud. They represent the brute force method towards performance. More of a shotgun than a sniper rifle, either way you get the job done but one is a whole lot more fun. There is a rebellious and animalistic side to them as evident in names like Challenger, Mustang, Firebird, and Charger. All of them sound like a beast. And all offer an 'in your face' style and share a long hood with a relatively short back end. They offer accessible performance, both in terms of price and driveability. Generally, they outperform other types of performance cars that cost more than 25% more. Plus, when driving them on the street, the power band is so wide that you can get up and go in nearly any gear.

As far as the muscle car wars, its been reduced to mostly bickering due to globalization. Sure, there will always be Ford guys, Mopar guys, and GM guys, (and girls). But nearly all will place muscle cars above imports. the original muscle car wars had their opening shots in the late 50s and ended with legends like the 454 Chevelle and the Hemi 'Cuda. In the day, those cars could beat anything in a straight line, and will still hold their own against todays cars. Each manufacturer wanted the bragging rights, and associated sales that having the most powerful car on the market would bring.

But in the end, it comes down to having an emotional connection with the car. You should get a grin every time you fire it up. And it should be very difficult to fully explain to people who don't understand in the first place. I would rather have a mint 454 Chevelle SS than a Veyron if both were offered to me for free. Call me crazy, but thats the way it is.

I would take the Veyron so I could sell it and get a few muscle cars haha.

Honestly, in the past I wasn't into 'Muscle Cars', it wasn't until this new incarnation of the Camaro that I became really insistant on getting a V8. I just liked the look in the past.

I like a more bold look to vehicles. And American 'Muscle Cars' have that look. Foreign (especially Japanese) sports cars just aren't as bold or brash as American ones in their design.

I always see foreign 'sporty' cars like a lithe thin marathon runner and American 'Muscle' as just that. The bodybuilder type that, despite having the marathon runner running around him jabbing him in the ribs, can knock the runner out with one punch.

Stupid analogy perhaps, but it's how I always saw them.

When I was little, my dad always described the Camaro as "the poor mans corvette". So to me muscle cars are an average guys supercar. Big Hp numbers in a practicle everyday car. Oh, and always front engine and rear wheel drive. It also represents America. Baseball, Apple Pie, and Muscle Cars.

Thats the only way I can describe why I love them. There are so many other reasons why I love them but i just cant describe.

I think it has to do with the feeling of almost-out-of-control...of being close to losing it, but not quite there. Unlike exotics and imports, in a muscle car you don't feel like you can flick around a corner with just a twitch of your wrist. Instead you know that you can make it around that corner, but your heart starts hammering and your more rational side is screaming its fear in the back of your mind.

It's also the romantic in all of us. Who doesn't picture themselves alone on a long empty stretch of American highway in the middle of the night with nothing but the feel of the engine vibrations and the exhaust note to keep you company and nothing to do but drive until daybreak?

Or, in the words of Talladega Nights:
"You don't need to think. You need to drive. You need speed. You need to go out there, and you need to rev your engine. You need to fire it up. You need to grab ahold of that line between speed and chaos, and you need to wrestle it to the ground like a demon cobra! And then, when the fear rises up in your belly, you use it. And you know that fear is powerful, because it has been there for billions of years. And it is good. And you use it. And you ride it; you ride it like a skeleton horse through the gates of hell, and then you win."

To me that quote sums up the muscle car experience.

Do you seriously have that crap memorized lol...

No, I copied and pasted it from IMDB....

Haha okay, would scare me otherwise.

There are some things that are distinctly American, like apple pie and muscle cars. For me memories of muscle cars stem back to when I was a kid looking at photo's in family photo albums with pictures of my Mom standing next to her '74 Camaro, and the many stories passed on by relatives of late Friday night drag races between neighborhood friends. It sounds like the begining of a novel, and well, for me at least, it is. I also get the chills when I remember the smell of fumes spewing out of old and now all but few far and inbetween first generation Mustangs and Camaro's that my Grandmothers friends bought around when i was a tiny Tim. To be specific, Muscle cars have all the style and performance of uber coupes and sedans from Europe but you get all of that awesome content at a more than reasonable price, and to boot these cars can be driven daily and you don't have to sell an organ or two just to pay for upkeep. When you listen to thrum coming from the exhaust of a brand new 650Ci coupe you remember that that's not a German sound, it's pure American muscle, distinctly American.

Because if you think about it you can't get 2000 hp out of 2 liters :chevy: and muscle cars drag race better then a ricer they may get alot of hp but they have NO TORQUE and pluse in 1969 there was one of the best camaro's ever made that was almost 40 years and with all of this hi tech computer crap they still can't beat good old raw muscle:thumbup: