American Dream Cars
According to the 1967 June issue of Road Test magazine, a "muscle car" is "Exactly what the name implies." It is a manufacturing of the American car industry adhering to the hot rodder's philosophy of taking a small car and putting a BIG engine in it. The Muscle Car is Charles Atlaskicking sand in the face of the 98 hp (73 kW) weakling. Author of the book Muscle Cars, Peter Henshaw, says that the muscle car was designed for straight-line speed, and did not have the "sophisticated chassis", "engineering integrity" or "lithe appearance" of European high-performance Vintage Muscle Cars. However, there are varied opinions as to whether high-performance full-size cars, compacts, and pony cars qualify as muscle cars.
This vintage muscle car had a base price of just $2,727 and came with 427 cubic inches of pure Camaro terror and today there are plenty of clones that will cost you a handsome amount of money. If you were a "Chevy Driver" back in the 60s than you know that GM had a self-imposed 400-cu.in. limit on everything that rolled out of the factory besides large-sized boats and Corvettes. This was a shame because the 427 that Chevy offered was rated at 425 horse power and no doubt had the potential to clean up at the race track. Fact is that Ford and Mopars were mopping up out at the drag strips and this left one person by the name of Don Yenko a little upset to say the least.
After bouncing some ideas back and forth what they came up with is what we know of today as the COPO Camaro (or Central Office Production Order) vehicles. Generally COPOs were issued for fleet orders of 50 to 100 cars at a time involving boring cars like taxis or police cars and usually consisted of specific requirements and unavailable to the public. Well, at the time drag racing was a practical market, so when Don ordered 50 or 100 hundred at a time the powers to be held the back door open as Yenko snuck in and that is why this legendary Vintage Muscle Cars lives today.
Do you know who Eleanor is? No? Well, for those who do not know who she is, Eleanor is not a person but a 1967 Mustang used in the film, Gone in 60 seconds. This classic vehicle pretty much embodies what a classic muscle car is. People have a general understanding that muscle cars are mean, fast and roaring machines. They are certainly right about that. Typically Vintage Muscle Cars powered by a V8 engine, these types of vehicles were considered to be the warriors of drag racing world back in the 60's up to the early 80's. They all possessed extremely powerful torque thus giving the rider an experience that they would not soon forget. It certainly was not for the faint-hearted when these cars were brought to their full potential.
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