MUSCLE BY THE NUMBERS
By the mid-Sixties all the big three American car manufacturers had latched on to the lure of muscle cars. They were beloved by men of all ages, much as they are today. Young men loved them, because they were ‘chick magnets’ and could be used to demonstrate their machismo and prowess in street fightin’ races at the stoplights or at the dragstrip. And they were loved by old men, because… well, they made them feel like young men!
General Motors had been particularly successful in capturing this marketing magic with its Pontiac GTO, which was launched in 1964 as an option package on the Tempest/Le Mans. It was a car which combined a genuinely fast intermediate/big engine package, with a slick marketing campaign orchestrated by
