10 greatest muscle cars of all time

Perhaps one of the most exciting periods in automotive history was during the production years of the classic American muscle car.  Muscle cars were big, loud and ultra-powerful rubber burning machines.  During the 1960′s and 70′s the American automakers progressively became more competitive with their muscle car offerings. Each year it seemed Ford, Chevy, Chrysler or even AMC would out-do the competition in terms of brute power and aggressive exterior styling.  Since we love muscle cars we thought it would be fun to create a list of the all-time top 10 best muscle cars made on US soil.  Obviously this is merely our opinion so we don’t anticipate all readers to agree with the inclusion of all of the muscle cars on this list.  Since muscle cars are widely considered to have more than 2 seats; the Chevy Corvette, Shelby Cobra and other very powerful, fast cars from the era were omitted from this best muscle cars list.  Make sure to cast your vote on which of these you think is the greatest muscle car.

10)  1970 Buick GSX

Many Buick performance fans consider 1970 as the greatest year for Buicks 455 engine as it was the most powerful engine Buick built. General Motors lifted it's corporate ban of engines larger than 400 cubic inches in an intermediate body, and Buick quickly responded by adding the brand new 455 cubic inch engine into its restyled GS. The 455 boosted more displacement, bigger valves, and a hotter cam and included standard cold air induction through functional hood scoops. The 455's was rated at 350hp and a pavement pounding 510lb-ft of torque. The Stage 1 package, was even more with a hotter cam, bigger valves, and a revised carburetor. Buick rated it at 360hp, but most testers believed it was more than 400hp.

9) 1968 Pontiac Firebird Coupe

The Pontiac Firebird was a creation of the Pontiac division of General Motors. The Firebird shared a platform and body panels with the Chevrolet Camero. It featured a coke bottle styling, that is, an automotive body styling that has a contour bottle design. This style was initially introduced with the Studebaker Avanti in 1962. From there on, the trend of Coke-bottle began to grow. An example of a clean coke bottle design is the 1963 Buick Riviera.
When the Pontiac Firebird was introduced, it was offered in a convertible and hardtop couple with five engines, including a standard Firebird OHC 230 cubic inch six-cylinder one barrel with 175 horsepower and a Firebird Sptring 230 cubic inch six cylinder four barrel overhead with 215 horsepower. Another engine, at the high performance end, was the Firebird 400 V-8 four barrel with 325 horsepower.
The 1968 Pontiac Firebird saw its standard engine increased from 230 to 250 cubic inches, delivering 175 horsepower. The price for the base model started at $2666 for a couple and $2903  for a convertible. In 1968, more than 107,000 Pontiac Firebirds were produced, most of them with the 2-dour couple version (over 90,000).

8) 1969 Dodge Charger

A Dodge Charger 1969 is a really fast car.  ‘Till this day the Charger is still one of the fastest classic cars.  The Charger is known for its super charger and great suspension.  The classic Charger is really hard to find, including the parts!  It’s also meant for racing.  Many Charger owners fix up the engine to make it sound very loud and make it pack a lot of horsepower!  When you accelerate quickly the front of the car may come up, so they designed a bar in the back so the car won’t flip.  When I saw ‘The Fast and The Furious’ I liked it a lot because it features a classic Charger.  The 1969 Dodge Charger is the car I want to get when I’m older.

7) 1970 Boss 302 Mustang

The little V6 makes more power, and scoots the 2011 down the road substantially faster. Now those test results from the Boss look a little slow compared to the commonly published figures of the times (0-60 in 6.9; 1/4 mile in 14.6 @98mph). But then the buff books didn’t buy their Bosses anonymously, like CR did. Anyway, the V6 still equals those numbers.  And gets more than twice the mileage. The prices: similar too, adjusted for inflation, comparing a base 2011 to the Boss. And the 2011 gives you a the comforts that either weren’t available or extra in 1970: AC, power steering, music and a host of other creature comforts. Progress; although maybe not as much as some of us might have imagined in 1970. Predictions then would have had us all in electric cars long ago.

6) 1965 Pontiac GTO

Again for 1965 the GTO was an option available on the Tempest LeMans models of Pontiac. The GTO popularity had been growing and Pontiac Immediately started to add unique identifiers to GTO equipped cars. Front grills, rear fender sides and trunk were now marked with bold GTO letters. In addition to more noticeable markings the hood of the GTO equipped cars featured a very distinctive hood scoop, a feature that would follow GTO throughout its production years.

Horsepower actually increased over last year’s availability. A new LeMans GTO could be ordered with an optional 389, 360 Horsepower engine. Standard engine was 389 cubic inch rated at 335 horsepower. Additionally one could order a tri-power equipped 389 cubic inch motor that featured 3 - 2-barrel carbs.

5) 1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda

This car was epic on so many levels, and it was great to chat with the owner Russell about it’s rebuild and some of the kit that went into it. I wont detail it all here, but there is a link below for those that want to know more.
This was a ‘driveway’ shot, when meant that whilst there arent many people crowding round the car, there were plenty of ‘house’ reflections off the immaculate black paint. The low angle shot helped with that – so I applied a little desaturation around the car as well as a bit of fade to white.

4) 1970 Chevelle 454 SS

No matter how you cut it, 454 cubic inches — roughly 7.4 liters — is a whole lot of engine, and it made for outrageous power in the 1970 Chevelle 454 SS. While its base power was already impressive at 360 horses, the LS6 upgrade made for an easy leap to a totally bonkers 450 ponies. This car, and the engine it held, basically represented the limit of the muscle-car power wars, and it is still the highest-output production car to date.


3) 1969 Z28 Chevy Camaro

The classic 1969 Camaro is one of the most iconic American cars of it's era, but the engineers here at LDP wanted to bring the old legend forward to the 21st century in a cloud of tyre smoke, V8 rumble and burning rubber. A true hotrod was born, boasting large power and torque figures granted acceleration which would put modern supercars to shame thanks to a fully restored and tweaked motor now supercharged to produce 565bhp the X28 means business. But we didn't just want to create a drag racer so as usual the full chassis and suspension treatment was given in order to make this car handle as well, but the beast can never truly be tamed with such power this still retains it's muscle car character which will keep the tyre companies happy for years to come.

2) 1966 Shelby Cobra 427
 

Of all the Cobra variants the 427 Semi/Competition or S/C is the most desirable series. Built from Shelby’s competition production line, these were purposeful race-cars that were prepared at the last minute for the road.

The story of the Cobra begins as early as 1959 when Carol Shelby raced for Aston Martin, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Along the way he probably took notice of a well performing AC Ace that would become a foundation for his next venture.

After quitting racing, he return to America to build his own sportscar, turning to Charles Hurlock of AC Cars to supply a chassis and body that was suitable for the new 260 cubic inch Ford V8. After considerable racing success, Ford provided the even larger 427 FE engine. By 1965, chief engineer Ken Miles wanted to fit thengine to win SCCA’s A Production Class and stay ahead of the Corvette Grand Sport.

1) 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500

The GT500 was basically a factory-authorized tuner Mustang created by Carroll Shelby. Introduced in 1967, the GT500 joined the GT350 on showroom floors and offered a 428-cubic-inch Police Interceptor engine with a conservatively rated 355 horsepower. Despite the larger engine, it was actually designed to be a more usable road-going vehicle than the lighter, race-ready GT350. Because of this, and its negligible premium over the GT350, the GT500 was an instant hit, just as it remains to this day.