If you ask the question and several give their opinion, and they're good guys who know their stuff, why would you dispute the consensus answer? Wishful thinking?

We need Roseanne here to tell you, "Get Real!" It doesn't take a $18,000 engine that makes 900 hp to have a muscle car. Back in the day, people in my neck of the woods ruled the street with Swinger 4-speed 340s with 3.91s. That was when the "muscle cars" were new. A SS454 Chevelle or a Road Runner with a 440 swapped into it were kings of the street with their 350 flywheel horsepower. Now in other parts of the good-ol USA, street cars were getting into the 450 hp range, but that was about it, and those guys were more street racers than anything else.

I'm talking abot 1968 - 1974. '74 was about the end of the muscle car era.
In 1977, I could have bought a real Yenko Camaro for $2500. My friend bought a 1968 SS396 Nova 375 hp with close ratio 4-speed and 4.11s in the 12-bolt for a little under $1000 from a dealer who had stupidly taken it in trade. Gas was up to a buck a gallon and we all knew the world was going to pieces.
That's how it really was.

R.