How Much Do You Know About Classic Muscle Cars?

The backwoods boys of "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV show drove a 1969 Dodge Charger they called the General Lee. The orange muscle car had a Confederate flag painted on the roof.

Chevy’s Camaro debuted for 1967 and offered SS 350 and SS 396 models with muscle car performance.

Ford intermittently used the Cobra name on various Fairlane, Torino and Mustang models from the late 1960s until the early 2000s.

Pontiac created the GTO in 1964 by installing a 389 cubic-inch V8 from its full-size models in the midsize Tempest. The GTO kicked off the whole muscle car category.

Introduced in 1969, the Six Pack option for the Dodge Super Bee used an intake manifold with three two-barrel carburetors (a “six pack”) on its 440-cubic-inch V8, which made 390 horsepower

A muscle car is a high-performance model, most often with a powerful V8 engine and known for very rapid acceleration. In the ‘60s and early ‘70s, American carmakers produced a wide array of muscle cars.

In 1969, Ford introduced the Boss 302 Mustang, a high-performance version of its ponycar. The Boss 302 engine made 290 horsepower, and the car had a distinctive C-stripe.

On some Chevys, Super Sport or SS was just a sporty trim package. But used on the Chevelle and Camaro, SS meant a comprehensive high-performance upgrade.

The 1968 Nova SS was a compact model weighing about 3,000 pounds. The standard 295-horsepower 350-cubic-inch V8 engine could be replaced with an optional 396 big-block V8.

Ex-racer Carroll Shelby turned the 1965-1966 Mustang into the high-performance GT350 sports car (and SCCA road-racing champ). The 1967 GT500 was more muscular, using a 428 cubic inch big block V8.

Ford introduced the Torino, named for Turin, Italy (“Torino” in Italian) in 1968. It was an upscale version of the redesigned Fairlane, and the optional 390 cubic-inch and 428 Cobra Jet V8s made Torino a muscle car.

A year after Plymouth introduced the 1970 Duster compact coupe, Dodge got its own version called the Demon. In both, a “340” performance package used a 275-horsepower 340 cubic-inch V8.

In 1968, Dodge introduced the Super Bee as a bargain-priced muscle car. It was basically the same package as the Plymouth Road Runner, but in the Dodge Coronet body. A 335-horsepower 383-cubic-inch V8 was standard.

The 1967 Camaro SS came with a 295-horsepower 350-cubic-inch small-block V8. The big-block 396 V8 was optional in 325-, 350- and 375-horsepower versions

Nova was the upscale trim line of the Chevy II compact. Starting in 1969, all versions were called Nova. Muscle car variants offered high-performance small-block and big-block V8s.

American muscle cars were born in the ‘60s, a melding of trends in drag racing and a youth population boom. All the major carmakers fielded contenders.

On the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird, a low, pointy nose and a high rear wing improved aerodynamics for NASCAR racing. The 425-horsepower Hemi V8 was the top engine option.

Inspired by drag racing, the classic American muscle cars were built mainly for straight-line speed. As in that motorsport, the main measure of a muscle car’s performance is acceleration in the quarter-mile.

In 1969, inspired by the Plymouth Road Runner’s Looney Toons character image, Pontiac named a special version of the GTO “The Judge.” The name came from the “Here come da judge” skit on the popular “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” TV show.

Pronounced “Four-Four-Two,” Oldsmobile’s 4-4-2 muscle car kept its name even when equipped with an optional 3-speed automatic transmission or the Tri-Power intake using three two-barrel carburetors.

Pontiac took “GTO” from the 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, a sports car homolgated (“omologato”), meaning approved, for a certain class of road racing.

The 1967 GTX was Plymouth’s response to the Pontiac GTO. It may have come three years late, but it outgunned the GTO with a fierce 375-horsepower 440 cubic-inch V8.

Plymouth introduced the sporty Barracuda in 1964 and in 1969 added a high-performance version called the ‘Cuda. Many people use the name for the whole series.

The 1964 Dodge Super Stock lightweight drag racing package with the Hemi 426 V8 had no sound dampening, reducing weight for maximum speed in the quarter-mile.

The 1967 Camaro was offered in four basic versions: Sport Coupe, Rally Sport (RS), SS and Z/28. The three upgrade models were actually options on the Camaro V8 Sport Coupe, and the RS package could also be combined with the SS or Z/28 packages.

Muscle car or muscle truck? Like the Chevelle it was based on, the El Camino pickup was offered as the SS 454 version, including (for 1970 only) the LS6 450-horsepower version of the 454-cubic-inch V8.

The 1965 Ford Mustang is credited with starting the “ponycar” segment, but the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda beat it to market by a couple of weeks. Muscle car versions of both came later.

First-generation Camaros were also assembled in other countries, including Belgium, the Philippines, Peru, Switzerland and Venezuela. These were not sold in the U.S. and did not include the muscle car versions.

Business types at Plymouth initially wanted to name their sporty Valiant-based 1964 fastback “Panda.” Somehow, we don’t think that would have had quite the same ring as “Barracuda.”

The 1970 Chevelle SS 454 came standard with a 360-horsepower 454 cubic-inch V8 known as the LS5. The optional LS6 version had 450 horsepower and became one of the most famous muscle car engines ever.