The Muscle vs Pony Cars Battle Continues

[Bruzilla]

I was watching an episode of American Icon Muscle Car this weekend, and it was the first time I watched the show. This episode was on Camaros and Mustangs, which had be tweaked from the start because I'm one of those guys who's old enough to remember when Camaros and Mustang owners wanted nothing to do with the big, lumbering, Muscle car market and considered themselves sports car owners.

So the host, Chip Foose, spends the whole show tripping over his own words, as well as the rest of the "experts" who kept contradicting themselves over if Camaros and Mustangs are Pony cars or Muscle cars. First they are Muscle cars, then they are all Pony cars, then they are Pony cars that became Muscle cars when they started putting big block engines in them. Then they were Pony cars until they became capable of providing brutal acceleration, at which time they became Muscle cars. Then they were back to competing against each other in the "Pony Car Wars". Then they were all Pony cars again because Pony cars were what competed in Trans Am racing. Aye carumba!

I kept hoping they would just tell the truth and say "Mustangs and Camaros really shouldn't be on a show about Muscle cars because they aren't Muscle cars and never have been. You can drop a rocket engine in a Mustang, and it is still a Pony car. You can drop a jet engine in a Camaro and it is still a Pony car. The only reason Mustang and Camaro owners abandoned their beloved Pony car name was because Pony started sounding weak and the sports car market lost its panache and they suddenly decided being called Muscle car owners sounded cooler." But alas... no such commentary was given.

 

[Budnicks]

This BS again we go thru this every six months or so.... "Fact" The term Muscle Car was from a writer in Hot Rod mag., talking about the 1964 GTO, "it looks Muscular, with 3 equal sized area/design, hood, cabin & trunk", in a write up about the comparison between it & the Ferrari GTO of the day... It's been misused for many years ever since... IMHFO there is no real definition of the term Muscle Car, just peoples personal ideology & description, just to fit what "they only seem, to want it to be", there were Muscle Cars before 1964 right ??, so how could it start in 1964, before the term was put on the midsize, big block, powerful, Base Model American made, striped down versions, performance car for the youth market {not all optioned up, like some cars are either}, for the performance oriented sector of the time, win on Sunday Sale on Monday marketing... The term Pony Car was for the Mustang, it was the Prancing Pony on the grill, simple as that, but just another slang term, made up by some writer or announcer somewhere, that some people put that lame label on AMX's & Ramblers, Camaros & Firebirds, Cuda's & Challengers too, just to make it easy for describing, a particular class or size of car, with long hoods & short trunks with Small Block V8 engines, the Big Block versions were called Muscle Cars by the masses in that market sector, confusing hell yes, again it sounded better than the wimpy Pony Car label, another-words there is no real Pony Car & nor a real Muscle Car definition, a mix of all & only what you, me or others want to classify your car as, by todays standards a powerful engine in a mid-size car, that are bigger than any mid-size, striped down, big block, performance car, of the 60's Muscle Car era, know matter the style, the new Charger 4 dr, Challenger, Mustang, Camaro are called a New Muscle Car Era by writers everywhere {They're actually Pony Cars by most definitions}, the smaller cars or like what was use to be called Sports-cars {because of the size} or Compacts sizes are now called Tuners... It ain't Foose's fault he was making light & "telling the story how it actually was" & making fun of the fact, the name was Pony car & had Muscle Car characteristics, because the name Pony car was wimpy sounding, the owners didn't like that label, nothing more nothing less...

 

[696pack]

Budnicks is spot one here. It is all in the eye (or mouth) of the beholder.

My personal thoughts are that a pony CAN also be a muscle car IF it has a big enough engine.

The idea that pony cars are or ever were sports cars is simply a DREAM of want-a-be owners because a TRUE sports car has no back seat and were built with road racing in mind. The thought that a 65 Mustang (built on a Falcon chassis) in stock form could even begin to hand with like year sports cars is laughable.

 

[benno440]

honestly who gives a f**k we own MOPAR MUSCLE screw them other tossers.

salute my mopar brothers