Please, name ONE old era muscle car that could even stay close enough to see the tailights of this beast.
Posted on 10/29/2010 2:55:35 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
And insurance costs.
And gas costs.
My brother had one. The guy he bought it from beat everything in South Omaha. Before he went to prison...
Yes, the Camaro and the Firebird never were an even choice, never had the muscle, compared to the GTO.
But, in a larger sense, IT WAS long overdue for GM to consolidate similar models and non-distinctive “brands” and quit pretending that most of the different brands’ models represented real differences. (though, as I said, the GTO model did)
The multi-brand structure of GM turned GM into a marketing organization trying to “sell” cars instead of an automobile manufacturer focused on building quality cars that would, by their level of quality for the price-asked, attract buyers.
The 1980s and 1990s SHOULD have seen the model and brand consolidation process at GM started and finished. Maybe it’s still “better late than never”; though it would be nice if it all was already re-branded as “GM” and the distinct GTO model could have continued in the consolidated GM brand.
Specs from the time (stock) had the GTO at 360 hp and the 396 at 375 hp. The GTO with a good driver could barely pull a sub 15 quarter mile while the real super cars were doing low 13's, high 12's.
The ‘65 I remember from my home town made a sound like nothing else. The 396 was a screamer but the 389 seemed to wind up quicker than the big block.
The present Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers would (do) eat the lunch of just about every old muscle car. The Mustang will do low 12's off the show room floor. The Ford GT500 is in the 11's. Compare that to the 60's GTO of mid 14's and you start to see the light! Plus the Mustang gets 25+ mpg cruising down the road! You can get a dealer installed supercharger for the Mustang which puts out 600+ horsepower. Plus the Mustang rides the road like it is on rails and stops like heck.
Please, name ONE old era muscle car that could even stay close enough to see the tailights of this beast.
You really know how to twist the knife!
My ‘66 looked like “dad’s car.” It had whitewalls, automatic on the floor and the full muffler & resonator set up. The tip off was the rattle of the solid lifters and loping cam.
I think it got about 8 miles per gallon on $.27 premium gasoline.
Also, the GTO redlined at 114 mph! My late model vehicle is speedo limited at 155.
I was recently looking through the Consumers Reports annual and was amazed at the horsepower numbers for a lot of the new cars. Way more than we had back in the muscle car days, at least stock.
Considering the cars are also smaller I am sure they would beat those old muscle cars.
There is another side tho. I had a 65 Olds Delta 88 with a 425 and 370 hp. It had an automatic and also positraction. Now it would not run as fast as the SS396’s and Olds 442’s but it would beat them for the first 100 yards and probably had a higher top end.
It also was extremely comfortable, handled really nimbly especially for a car that large.
The best thing tho was it was my car third handed. My daddy bought it new, then my older brother got it then he sold it to me with 125,000 miles on it.
It had not slowed down one bit and never used oil. In it’s 20 year run, it had only 3 minor repairs. AC compressor had to have a new seal, new water pump, and new starter. Aside from regular maintenance (oil changes, replace plugs and points, lubes, and oil filters) that was all that was ever done to it. It would cruise at 80 as easily as my Crown Vic cruises at 55.
As I said, not quite a muscle car but it would still run like a bat out of hell and when you floored it those carbs literally roared. You could hear huge amounts of air being sucked in.
It was the best car I ever had and I sold it to a guy who worked for me and he, the last time I saw him still loved it.
The fastest “stock car” I ever drag raced was my friend’s new 1970 SS454 Chevelle with the LS6. Low 12s right off the showroom and 11s with some tweaking...
I remember that sound well. My car also had a some type of gauge on it where the needle move to the left at a rate corresponding to how loud the roar was.
How about low 13s ...
New heads, cams, exhaust and 5.10 rear ends and drag slicks resulted in 11.33 documented record. A little more than 'some' tweaking.
You could be right...
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