American Muscle Cars

Cars have been a transport media for more than a century, and over that time some of the companies went from manufacturing planes to automobiles due to the necessity of transporting people to one place to another. But those necessities began to disappear when sports cars were introduced to the market. First were the Europeans with their Ferrari’s and Porsche’s, so why America could not have their own? This question led to the production of what are now called American Muscle Cars. And after more than fifty years Muscle Cars have changed radically.

Muscle Cars commonly share the same characteristics. They have a big V8 engine producing more than 300 horsepower and a whopping quantity of torque, just like the Mustang Boss 302. A peculiar characteristic that has always been present in Muscle Cars is the traditional two-door, leaving everything clear that they are for sports. These powerful machines were created with two purposes, for racing and for exhibition, and obviously they made their objective.

A few years later, something bad was occurring, it was the fuel crisis of 1973 that caused some effects on the popular Muscle Cars. Many car manufacturers in the US had to lower their engines from their enormous V8 to a more ecological and friendly motors. This had tremendous consequences; the popular American cars were vanishing. Car sales dropped by over 23% and the companies were desperately finding a way of getting more mileage per gallon than ever. But after all, some of those cars died. Legends like the Chevrolet Chevelle and the Plymouth Barracuda are now gone.

More than 30 years later, companies were still producing some of those powerful machines, but now they have combined their knowledge of Aerodynamics with their old way of making cars. This resulted in small and lighter cars that still had the power they used to have, and the perfect example is that same old Mustang Boss 302 from the 70’s that was thought dead but that Ford revived the last year. Thanks to the fuel crisis, car companies realized what they were doing; they woke up and began designing efficient cars instead of those heavy and powerful monsters. Unfortunately not all of the classic muscle cars made it, now they are what they are, classic cars that can be sold in an auction house for more than half a million of dollars.

Muscle cars had seen a lot during their existence, they began as powerful machines, were forgotten or considered dead, and now they are back to what they use to be, in a modern era where more knowledge of Physics is applied to give even more power than before with less fuel consumption.

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