So how did Muscle Cars get the name?
The word muscle car came from the beginning of the drag racing era
then morphed into the street legal big engine car. People started
customizing to make their car faster. The auto industry caught on like the
Chevy SS. And the Muscle car name was born. It was the 1960s that became the heart
of the muscle cars. The dictionaries’ defines muscle cars as "any of a group
of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for
high-performance driving. It is rumored the name muscle car came in
1969. The Chevy muscle cars and
Ford muscle cars were the big sellers in
1969. The Camaro,
Chevelle,
Mustang,
Challenger,
Firebird Trans Am.
It was the big block engines are what one would look for. Just so they could
beat their friends on street races or on the track. Then in the early 1970s
we got hit the greed of the oil rich countries called
OPEC. And there was the Clean Air Act. Pollution was becoming a big
problem. The later 1960s and early 1970s was also the peak baby boomer years
for the teenage driver. Also drinking laws was changed to 18 years old. If
you’re 18 and reading this you probably are thinking it must have been
heaven. Well, it was a double edge sword. We had great drinking parties and
our cars. Kids that were 17 were also drinking and driving. It was easy to
get alcohol back then. However, the deaths from drunk drivers had increased
at a fast pace. Greatest percent was the teenagers. A group of mothers had
gotten together to stop teenage drinking and driving. That group is call
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers). This also caused car insurance to
rise to unaffordable prices if you had a muscle car with a big engine.
Camaro, Mustang and the other powerful muscle cars were labeled and had high
insurance cost. All of this was the ingredients for the end of the muscle
car back then. Today with great technology deaths from high performance
muscle cars have decreased. And today it looks like the Muscle Car
has returned with vengeance.
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