To me, muscle cars are the "Big 3" high-horsepower cars built from the mid 60's to the early 70's. All steel bodies, no safety, drum brakes, 10 MPG, ill-handling, big horsepower, and preferably a manual 4-speed. I guess you can say today's cars are modern muscle cars but the TRUE muscle cars were back in the 60's/early 70's
. It's all about perception....