Affordable, mid-size, and dropped with the biggest engine that would fit — the muscle car is a distinctly American idea. Here's what defines the breed and the icons worth knowing.
The classic muscle-car formula took a mid-size, mass-market body and fitted a large, powerful V8 — performance the average buyer could actually afford. It is usually distinguished from the pony car (a compact, sporty coupe like the early Mustang) and the European sports car (built for handling as much as straight-line speed), though the categories happily overlap.
The era is generally associated with the mid-1960s through the early 1970s, when rising insurance costs, emissions rules, and the oil crisis brought the original big-power era to a close. The cars themselves only grew more beloved.
