Pony or Muscle? Setting the record straight

Me: “What kind of car are you interested in?”

Them: “A Muscle Car. Like a 'Cuda, Challenger, Firebird, or Camaro. I would even consider a Mustang or an AMX.”

Me: “But those are not Muscle Cars.”

Them: “Oh yeah. I meant an AAR 'Cuda, or a Challenger T/A, or a Firebird Trans-Am, or a Camaro Z-28, or a Mustang Mach I.”

Me: “I understand. But those are not Muscle Cars. They’re Pony Cars.”

I have this conversation on a daily basis. I used to let this misconception go by without saying anything, but lately I feel the need to set things straight. Maybe I’m getting curmudgeonly in my old age.

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? was a 1970 movie starring Ernest Borgnine, Tony Curtis, Brian Keith and Suzanne Pleshette. But about 5 ½ years earlier, Ford fired the first shot in what was to become known as the Pony Car Wars. And GM and Chrysler did come. They came with the Firebird, Camaro, Barracuda, and a bit later the Challenger. You can’t come to a Pony Car War with a Muscle Car. So therefore, they must be Pony Cars.

This may sound a bit as if I’m playing on semantics. But I’m not. Since neither Pony Car or Muscle Car is likely to appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, I went to Wikipedia, and they seem to have gotten it right. Here is how they define Pony Car: “An American class of automobile launched and inspired by the Ford Mustang in 1964. The term describes an affordable, compact, highly styled car with a sporty or performance-oriented image.” And here is how they define Muscle Car: “A large V8 engine is fitted in a 2-door, rear wheel drive, family-style mid-size or full-size car designed for four or more passengers.” Both definitions go on to expand on the intended use of the cars, but these definitions get to the heart of the matter. A Pony Car is small, and a Muscle Car is somewhere between mid-size and full size.

It is important to note that the definition of Pony Car does not include any mention of engine size, whereas the definition of Muscle Car specifically mandates not only a V-8 engine, but a “large V-8 engine.”

Now we have a fairly good idea of what constitutes a Pony Car, as well as some examples. So what are some examples of Muscle Cars? This is harder to exemplify, because there is no universally accepted car that started the Muscle Car Wars, and therefore no baseline. In fact, I don’t believe the term even existed until long after the last Muscle Car rolled off the assembly line. This list is open to interpretation, and therefore much longer. It raises more questions than it answers.

Is GM’s Chevelle SS a Muscle Car? It is a powerful mid-size car, but it was offered with a “small block,” so I would argue that some are and some aren’t. Same with the Oldsmobile 442, the Buick GS, and the Pontiac GTO.

Chrysler made it a bit easier with some of their mid-size cars. You could buy a Charger, Belvedere, Coronet or Satellite with a “big block” or a “small block” but if you wanted to remove all doubt as to whether you were buying a Muscle Car, all you had to do was order a Road Runner or GTX.  

As with Chrysler, Ford also offered a mixed bag. You could order a Torino, Galaxie, Marauder or Cyclone with a “big block” or a “small block.” But check the box for a Cyclone Spoiler, Torino Talladega, or Cobra and there was little doubt that years later your car would be called a Muscle Car.

So far, most of the cars that we’ve mentioned in our discussion of Muscle Cars are generally accepted as mid-size performance cars, even if not Muscle Cars.

I think that it’s the full size cars that are the most interesting. It really doesn’t matter which manufacturer they came from. It could be a Catalina, Impala, Starfire, Wildcat, New Yorker, Polara, Galaxie, LTD, Monterey, Marauder, or any other car that’s typically thought of as a large family size people-mover.

You can’t help but wonder what was going through the mind of someone who walked into the showroom, looked at one of these full-size cars and said “I’ll take one of those. Oh, and stick in that monster engine with the dual-quads. And please leave out the automatic transmission and put in a 4-speed…with a Posi. Radio and heater? I don’t need no stinkin’ radio and heater. Leave them out. I also don’t need hub caps. Put on those little center caps.”

Cars that left the factory like this are some of the most coveted and collectible of all Muscle Cars. Probably because by anyone’s definition, they are Muscle Cars.