The Birth Of Muscle Vehicles

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the automobile was considered an expensive, custom made, consumer product that only the wealthy could afford to dazzle themselves with. In fact, in 1895 there was a report of only 300 cars in the United States, but that number grew dramatically in the years to come to nearly 1.7 million by 1914 (Car History, n.d.). This increase was due in part by two major shifts in the American society; the new consumer economy and the ideas that every family in America should be able to afford an automobile. Henry Ford was a large contributor to this massive increase in the United States and would make changes to the automobile industry that

Thesis: Although there were many American Muscles cars created in the 60’s only three were widely recognized.

old muscle cars had carbureted engines and were built specifically to be fast and to be loud along

Over the past sixty years, the American car scene has been dominated by two completely different vehicles and the entire communities that believe in them. Both designed, founded, and rooted in Detroit, Michigan, the Ford Mustang and the Corvette have continued to fuel the chase for the label of America’s true muscle car. The question over the years has been, why and how do consumers choose which to own, and which one is our “bald eagle”? Investigating deeper into the roots of each American superpower, it all began with introduction of something that would change the automotive industry forever. “Corvette: Dream Car Come True”, is an article that highlights the beginning of the car movement in the United States: the birth of Chevrolet’s Corvette. “Born in 1953 at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, the Corvette grew up on the raceway and has ruled the road ever since” (Seiden 14). The article also goes on to mention that “the Corvette is not for racers only. True car lovers own Corvette cars for everyday driving… and the highest performance standards have been built into every model” (Seiden 14). Early dominance of Corvettes on and off the racetrack, led other competitors such as Ford Motor Company wonder why and how the Corvette could be out-driven and out-sold. Directly opposing the release of the Corvette and its multipurpose ingenuity “Lee Iacocca, then general manager of Ford Motor Company, challenged his design team to create a car that could be driven ‘to

Next, came the Chevrolet Camaro. When the team of specialists and engineers at GM got there head together, they formed one of the best sports cars to date: The Chevrolet Camaro. When the Chevrolet Camaro was first introduced back in 1967, it was not thought very much of. The Ford Mustang had been out on the market now for quite some time and had made a very good impression on its buyers and the spectators. After General Motors pushed the sales campaign and got the first few buyers to commit they were hooked from day one. The word of mouth quickly spread of the sheer enjoyment of the Camaro vs. the Mustang. The Chevrolet Camaro provided a cheaper and better all around alternative to the Mustang. The Camaro came with loads more options and not to mention the stand features alone out did the Mustang's. The biggest reason for sales increase was the power delivered by the Camaro. The Camaro was able to astonish the buyers with loads of power, given the time period, for a cheaper price of the Mustang. Chevrolet too competes with Ford in the bigger and better race to a super sports car. Once such creation is a 600 HP Big Block Camaro. The Camaro was developed as more of a show car to show people what can be accomplished with aftermarket products as well as the time and effort to put into a car. The horsepower that the Camaro develops is unbelievable. "Horsepower builds with straight-line progressivity from 2,000 RPM (187-HP) to 6,000 RPM (600 angry ponies)" (Karr 48 -

Introduction: How it all started from the beginning. The late 1900’s muscle cars and the great spike in 1900 muscle cars.

The 1960's was a big time for muscle cars, and the Plymouth Road Runner was one of the best. It was great on the street and even better on the race track. In 1976, Plymouth made a big mistake, they made a new Volare Road Runner that wasn't even as close to as good as the others. Its engine only had 160 horsepower and it rusted so much that Plymouth had to recall it. Another car that didn’t do so well was the Delorean. Even though it was a big hit in Back to the Future, the actual car didn't meet standards. The 1980 to 1981 Delorean DMC-12 might have had gull wing doors and the body panels might have been stainless steel, but compared to five other sports cars it was the slowest

Henry Ford had a mass-production that became standard with Ford. The “Big three” auto companies, General Motors and Chrysler, began in the 1920’s. After the automobile

something that everyone once dreamed of owning. Now after the war. they could finally own one. Automobiles of the 1940’s were dull and very plain. This was because designers were too busy designing tanks, planes, etc... for the ongoing war. The major event that took place that changed the way cars looked and how they performed happened on October 14, 1947. This was when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. From this point on everyone wanted to go faster.

Camaro, a car that is easily recognizable on the streets today is probably one of the most iconic and controversial cars that hit the streets in 1967. For over 45 years the Camaro has exceeded expectations and often surpassed the likes of its adversaries, the challenger and the iconic mustang. Critiques often thought that the Camaro would fall short especially to the mustang due to the fact that it has a 3-year jump on the Camaro, but sales records and Trams Am racing titles might mean that the Camaro is doing just fine. Even though the Camaro is still going strong for over 45 years it hasn’t been easy. Workers strikes, recalls, even ending the production of the Camaro were just a few of the Camaro’s

The auto industry was starting to experiment with a new concept called a “sports car.” By the end of the 50s, Americans fell in love with the sports car. After all, the 50s gave birth to the Corvette.

When Henry Ford concocted America’s first automobile in 1896, only the upper class was seen simulating a vehicle. By the 1920’s, all classes began driving including teenagers. The controversy of teenagers’ first car seems to have carried throughout the years. Although there's hundreds of types of vehicles in America, the types teenagers drive may be categorized into specific groups. The best way to classify an American teenager’s first car is into three body types: sedans, coupe, and SUV’s.

The automobile was actually officially invented in 1885 by Karl Benz, in Germany, the United States perfected and dominated the automobile industry starting with Charles Edgar Duryea and his brother Frank Duryea. Together, they brought the United States’ first automobile in 1893. At the time, the incredibly new and innovative creation of the automobile was quite remarkably on of the most impressive inventions to the American people at the time. What this particular technological advancement did for the American Industrial Revolution was create convenience and sparked interest. The American people at this day of age had to constantly commute either by simply just walking or by stagecoaches. But then, America was introduced with an alternative solution for transportation. With such an advancement of technology, the first automobile was strongly affected the American Industrial Revolution, because it continued forward with a man named Henry Ford. Ford was the founder of Ford Motor Company, which was able to mass produce this amazingly revolutionary contraption, that would significantly affect the American people’s everyday lives. Henry Ford did not only just bring the United States the first mass produced automobile, he also introduced the assembly line that would change many companies forever. The assembly

Rudi Volti’s Cars and Culture: The Life Story of a Technology (Greenwood Press, 2004) examines the evolution of the automobile, starting from 1765, with Nicholas Cugnot’s steam-powered vehicles, to the present day. The goal of the book, as stated by Volti in the introduction, is to “pay particular attention to the automobile’s technical evolution while at the same time delineating the cultural, social, and political context in which that evolution has taken place” (xi). Thus, Volti also demonstrates the cultural and societal effects that resulted from the emergence and mass production of automobiles. Volti divides the history of automobiles into seven time periods, each a separate chapter that achieves his goal. He accomplishes his objectives by stating the technological advances and societal context under different headings, occasionally linking the two topics together.

First built in the early 1900s by inventors tinkering with combinations of the electric motor and the gasoline engine, hybrid vehicles were dropped when gasoline-fueled vehicles became more reliable and easier to start, and gasoline fuel more readily available. Research and development of hybrid vehicles was revived by concern about oil dependency in the1970s and about air pollution in the late 1980s.