Adding another Car(s) to the stable!

[Bruzilla]

But the guy in the 68 428 Cobra Jet Mustang who just blew our doors off tips the needle toward muscle car rather than sports car. But you are right, they are pony cars to begin with. And isn't the term "muscle car" a recent invention? I don't recall that name being thrown around in the 80's.

If you read back through motoring history, in the Painfully Ironic folder, you find the term Muscle car pops up in the early 1970s as a response to the Pony and Sports car definitions. They got the name because they were what was considered regular cars but with added "muscle".

What's also interesting is that the Pony car guys wanted nothing to do with Muscle cars back in the day. The Pony car guys were all into the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) because they were desperately trying to get recognized as Sports cars due to their small size. The whole Mustang GT 350 and 500 efforts were 100% about getting Mustangs sanctioned to run in SCCA events. All the Muscle cars went to NASCAR and the Pony cars went to SCCA and affiliated Sports car programs. That's why you see Chevelles, Roadrunners, Chargers, Torinos, Fairlanes, 442s, etc., running in NASCAR but never, ever, did you see Mustangs, 'Cudas, Camaros, etc. They were affiliated with the Sports car crowd.

Now we have Sports cars looked down on as elitist glorified Euro Matchboxes, and Pony sounds like some little girl's car, so they're all trying to reinvent themselves, the Pony cars, Cobras, Corvettes, etc., as Muscle cars since Muscle sounds tougher. But the truth is that back in the day, Pony and Sports car owners wanted nothing to do with the Muscle crowd.