Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

I hope everyone can read the images.

This is an interesting comparison which I am sure will bring up some controversy.
Enjoy!

"What was the fastest American muscle car ever built?
The controversy peaked in 1984 when Muscle Car magazine published the now famous list based on test in four major magazines:
Car & Driver, Motor Trend, Car Life and Road Test magazine"

Code:

MT-Mortor Trend; CD - Car & Driver; CL -Car Life; RT - Road Test

e.t/mph engine trans gears weight source

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RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

im faster than all but one of them...:)

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

You must have one butt kickin car.

What all do you have in that car that makes it so fast?

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

I'm having some trouble reading that. The only thing is different automotive media outlets find different numbers, so it is hard to compare different cars over that.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

for what its worth, i have seen that exact list, maybe hundreds of times...that is considered almost "official"..but if you take a good look at the 1/4 mph, youll see what they were really capable of. a car with lots of power, and crappy tires will have a slower et, and a big mph, like the car in slot number 2. when i was running 12.80s, i was pulling a mph of 103-104, with very good launches. that corvette ran a 12.80, with a trap speed of 112mph. most cars nowadays that trap as high as 112, are in the 11s with good tires and a proper suspension.

Jeremiah, i didnt mean the stratus, in case you werent sure. I have a 1983 dodge mirada, with a 340 out of a 69 cuda. it is running less than stock compression, with 360 heads, a godo manifold, headers, cam, roller rockers..etc. it typically runs mid 12s with trap speed of 106ish, but this year my dad is running it as we have no where to store it here, and it got new 4.56 gears, and a new tranny, and now he cant get traction, so we are poking around for new tires, as the tires on there were great when new, but theyre a couple years old now.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

RLSH700- If you open the image in IE just expand the window and you will see it more clearly.

If you open it anything just expand the size.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

Thanks. My brain is a little slow today due to final exams, final projects, lack of sleep due to studying, etc.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

I can relate....I have had days like that.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

they need to update with the Z06 and the SRT8

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

Remember, that is list was put together in 1984 for cars made back in the 60 and 70's. Those cars had much smaller, skinnier tires.

The comparison would not be a good comparison......kinda like apples and oranges.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

true, but the current cars have the downside of emissions items...

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

Aah come one, you gotta love catalytic converters. LOL!

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

Valid point!

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

The cars really were not that fast were they, I believe the fastest car ever tested by C&D was a 1967 ford galaxie with a 427 SOHC side oiler (11.1 QT) and the fabled 1969 427 aluminum block ZL1 corvette (11.1 QT apparently only 2 were ever delivered) and the 1969 Camaro with the same engine (same QT time) except in the camaro it was a dealer installed option.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

My biggest gripe about those muscle cars has no merit but they were heavy and some were over 4000 lbs. Compared to
say a 2006 Mustang at 3373 lbs., 2006 Corvette at 3130 lbs as a reference.

I did add all 50 cars and the average weight was 3520 lbs. of course that also includes 3 of the cars in the 2000 lbs range and one was 2200 lbs so that tends to skew the data.

The Challenger concept car was 4160 lbs but I believe most of it was carbon fiber. I hope with the shorter LY platform the overall weight will go down significantly.

I would love to have the Challenger come in at around 3500 lbs but that is wishful thinking.

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RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

the mirada weighed in at 3692 when running mid 12s...im not afraid of a little weight...;)

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

I'm not sure the LY platform will be ready, for the challenger, but there is not a significant differance in weight (maybe 200-300lbs max) between the LX and the LY, DCX is also testing a long wheelbase LX platform that adds about 12"-14" in length, if they decide to move this car (300SRT8 long wheelbase) to production it will remind me of the old Caddy's with the monster 501CI engine and enough room in the rear seat to get into some serious trouble.

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

the extended wheelbase 300Cs already exist...i posted pictures on this site somewhere...

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

Does 468 pounds fall into the category of "a little weight"? It will be interesting at the track. ;)

RE: Fastest 50 Muscle Cars- Back in the Day
 

I guess my point behind the weight is you can either increase the horsepower or reduce the weight to get the same effect.

Lotus is one of the best in the world to reduce the weight and have amazing performance with a small hp engine.

With today's material and design technology, I believe we can have a happy medium by doing both with and have an amazing performance machine.

The closer we can stay to 3500 lbs and farther away from 4000 lbs we will all be impressed with it's performance and beat the other ponies on the street.