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OPINION: The New Muscle Car Era
Maybe its just me but do you guys think 2000 to 2010 is turning out to be the next muscle car era? Here's why I think we're experiencing it now....or it is soon to come back to North America.
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In the early 1960's America was embroiled with the Cold War, the Communist threat in Cuba, civil rights and Vietnam. However the feverish consumerism that followed World War II was still calling for bigger and better vehicles and most of all, more horsepower.
The 1960's is thought of as the Classic Car Era, a time when American automakers responded to the threat of imported cars with vehicles like the all new Corvair, Fords' Falcon, and Chryslers' Valiant. These smaller cars were considerably lighter than their predecessors and in 1964 factory-built cars with large displacement engines took over the market. These were the Muscle Cars and names like Camero, Firebird and Barracuda became common household words.
However, despite its popularity, the Clean Air Act of 1970 called for pollution control devices that hampered performance. And then the oil embargo of 1973 limited the supply of gasoline. And by the time congress passed the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rule in 1978 the Muscle Car was gone forever.
I've always loved the old school muscle cars from the 1960's and am really starting to see similarities to that past. Think about it, just like the 60's, automotive builders are coming out in full force now. We're seeing high hp engines in cars. The Hemi engines are back. Retro cars are in (ie: the charger, gto, etc). Whether you like the imports/domestic, everything is beefy again (unlike any of the past several decades). 350Z, Supra, RX-8, even luxury sedans have muscle car tuner shops (ie: Brabus, AMG, M series BMW's, Rousch, etc). There are so many ways to hop up your car, the gov'ts are going nutz just trying to limit/stop the craze. Turbos, blowers, nos, etc.....the list is endless. Even take a look at the movie industry. The John Travolta's of the past (Grease) have been replaced with the Vin Diesel's of today. Racing their muscle cars in all kinds of action movies (ie: F&F, The Transporter, Ronin, XXX, Gone In 60 Seconds, etc).
However, like the past, gas prices are an ongoing issue. California seems to be the benchmark for future automotive legislation.....but the automotive and perfromance improvement industry seems better than ever. Is this the next muscle car era?
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Cant win them all.
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