I noticed that the 46 woody is categorized as a classic muscle car when I received it from the garage after being restored. Is it going to stay this way or will it be moved to a more fitting category like rods and customs or cult classics or even rare classics? I’m just wondering because it doesn’t fit the bill of a muscle car. Two too many doors, too few horsepower, not a car, made of wood, from the 1940s, etc.
With that said I did manage to post a top ten time in the c class muscle monthly rivals challenge with it so it’s not uncompetitive. 2:55 on shark biscuit run. I managed to beat a few of the king cobras up on the top with it which made me feel pretty good.
While I agree in principle, I must respectfully correct you on a couple things:
-Musclecars CAN have 4 doors
-While 99% of Musclecars are from the 60s and 70s, they don’t HAVE to be.
These point aside, I agree: The Ford Woody belongs in “Rods & Custom”, “Cult Classics”, or even “Vans & Utility”. It’s no Musclecar.
Yeah I’ll give you four doors on account of the ford GTHO.
But if I wanted to get really specific one of the earliest cars considered a muscle car was the 64 GTO and the Malibu from Chevy. The formula developed from these cars was the basis for the muscle car era which ended after 1970 (engines were detuned in 71 to run unleaded gas) for full compression V8s and 1972 for emissions restrictions.
Two door cars are the most valuable and most collectible/iconic. I could buy a 66 bel air station wagon with a 427 or a 66 chevelle with the same specs. Technically they are both muscle cars but not really. Where would you put the country squire? A ford galaxie 500 would be the muscle car there.
I also don’t consider corvettes to be muscle cars either and neither did Chevrolet when they built them. They are sports cars.
If it were up to me I would put all the classic muscle cars made after 71 in the retro muscle category as they fit better there, like the 78 camaro, trans am, and king cobra. Their PIs are very similar to other cars from retro muscle and if you check the leaderboards for the classic muscle rivals event you will see that no “true” (imo) muscle car will post a top time in that race when the toranas and king Cobras can get 700 horsepower and still be in c class.
Yeah, 'vettes are sportscars… for the most part. Some years/models blur the lines though, depending on the engine you got.
For example, a '69 vette with the aluminum block 427 is more of a musclecar IMO.
Vettes from C1 to C3 are totally Muscle Cars. Vettes from C4 to C7 are between muscle and sport. I call this and the Viper SportMuscles
C1 vettes are “European” styled convertible 2 seaters and the option for a V8 was not introduced until 1957, before that it was a straight six. So they are definitely not muscle cars. C2s and C3s can bend the line because they shared motors with the muscle cars but they were still two seaters which is an instant disqualification.
I don’t think any corvette fits the bill of a muscle car because it’s missing a back seat and it was in a different price bracket. (Some of the larger muscle cars like the 442 could cost as much as a vette but only after fitting them with all the options) A muscle car was defined as the two door 4 seat (or five or six seats if you had benches) V8 powered RWD grocery getter built between 1964 and 1971. At least that’s what I was taught. Corvettes are sports cars or GT cars or road cars or whatever. I just don’t think they belong in the muscle car category. They were designed for a different client and for a different purpose.
Lol, I’ve had this very debare 1000 times with my RL car buddies.
We decided this, in the end: The difference is semantic, splitting hairs.
Musclecars are performance-oriented family cars with angry, tuned V8s spinning the rear wheels. So, is an AMG Mercedes sedan a Musclecar? It ticks all those boxes, but most would say no, it isn’t.
Rear seats: If I remove the rear seats from a Chevelle to save weight, is it no longer a musclecar?
If I stuff a 350 small block into a Chevette, is it a musclecar now?
Basically, we realized musclecars, sportscars, supercars and hypercars are all the same thing: performance cars. A musclecar is a specific sub-type of sportscar that only really took off in North America and Australia (although UK made a few too).