Muscle car

Muscle Cars are high-performance automobiles made primarily in the Detroit from 1964 to 1974. Car manufacturers placed large V-8 engines in small cars, such as Chevrolet Corvette, Pontiac GTO, Oldsmobile 442[?], Plymouth Baracuda[?], Dodge Charger[?], American Motors AMX and Chevrolet Chevelle SS[?]. The 1974 OPEC Oil Embargo[?] and insurance premiums killed muscle car production, though they are actively collected and restored.

Whlst fast (sometimes extremely fast) in a straight line most had primitive brakes and suspension (compared with modern vehicles and also European sports cars of the time), and tyres which were inadequate to handle the acceleration and speeds the engines made capable.

Australia developed its own muscle car tradition around the same period, though many were modified four-door sedans rather than two-door coupes. The most famous of the period was the Ford Falcon GTHO[?] Phase III of 1971. Holden Special Vehicles[?] currently produces high-performance versions of various rear-drive Holden Commodore sedans and Monaro coupes, fitted with highly tweaked American V8 engines, and are perhaps one of the closest contemporary equivalents to the classic American muscle car - fast, exciting, but relatively crude automobiles.