Who made it??

....

Its wild any yahoo can buy that and take it to the track, when in any other circumstance you'd need a cage, parachute and NHRA license

Tesla...yeah, but not a Muscle Car.


Ford Thunderbolt came to mind. Not a Chevy guy, but I think the L88 & ZL1 may be the most powerful engines installed in a factory car in the 60s. Props to the use of aluminum as well.

What about the 1965 A990 Dodge and Plymouths? How about the Hurst SS Hemi Cuda and Darts in 1968?

I always thought it was the 68 hurst hemi cars running 10.60's, but technically its the challenger demon, even if you cannot replicate its certified 9.65 ET

If you're talking about back in the day things the average Joe could walk in off the street and buy, the LS6 is it. Little known, the 1958 Mercury with the super Marauder engine was rated 400hp.

Once again, the question.....what constitutes a "muscle car"? Some folks have set themselves as the authority on the definition but others, myself included, don't recognize their authority.

Yes, typical, your definition is the only one that matters. A musclecar was well defined long ago, when Elon was still filling his diaper most likely and the internet wasn't invented. Don't like the definition? Too bad, it is what it is.

Most power may not mean fastest though? Kind of a hard question to nail down.

When I think of brutal torque monster then maybe the Buick GSX is it. They are heavy though...

Max horsepower? LS6, or 6 pack and Hemi cars?

There are cars like 1971 351 Boss Mustangs that were faster than other cars with larger engines if you look at the old road tests. They are often overlooked, but still pretty quick.

Agreed, as soon as someone ups the ante with a candidate, there is someone to cry foul by saying it's a pony car, or a sports car, a full size car or it was not made during the "musclecar era", or it doesn't fit the mold of intermediate chassis/big engine, or it's one of one, or limited production, race only, etc, etc, etc......and the OP's title, "Most powerful musclecar", most powerful meaning what..... HP#'s?, 1/4 mile time?, top speed?, most torque?

And what gave those who defined it the authority?

By what definition? Horsepower? Torque? Both???
I'm sure we can all agree that the "Muscle Era" was generally 1968-1972, though we can sometimes paint that with a broader brush and say 1964-1974 because that will include the premiere GTO and Mustang, and run all the way to include the swan-song Challengers, Barracudas, Javelins and final year for big-block Camaros & Firebirds.

I thought the Buick GSX won the torque trophy with an advertised 510 lb-ft of torque.
Thought it was the '70 Chevelle with LS6 engine that got peak advertised horsepower at 450.

So, both Muscle Car era; both with top advertised numbers.

But then the debate will begin over actual numbers generated. Most will argue that the 426 Hemi actually generated North of 475 Horsepower and has been somewhat proven with "stock build" dyno runs.

Myself, I look at 68-72 being the peak of the era, and generally agree with the offerings from the 64-74 years, but a few from the late 50's can qualify as "musclecars", they only lack the nomenclature..... same could be said for some foreign makes

There is a 50 fastest muscle car list that was put together back around 1997, it had the brand new Viper GTS as the king, with the 427 cobra in second. The first "muscle car" on the list was an A12 car piloted by Ronnie Sox

(the Viper ran 12.20, a 1320 challenger today would bag it with its 11.70)

Did Tesla say plaid?

Dont worry, in 2-3 years Dodge will slay it and everyone will be fine with it by then - but for now

It's just not the same. Yes it hauls azz but it's not the brutal visceral experience of a 60's to early 70's muscle car. It's more of an apples to oranges comparison.

Most powerful means horsepower. Torque means nothing if there is no rpm to turn it into horsepower. The 426 Hemi wins this one, hands down. It makes more horsepower stock than any other muscle car era motor, and with equal modifications performed to each contender, will continue to out-power anything else of the era.

For me a Musclecar was when the "average" younger person (i.e. guy) could go into a dealership & order a car according to his financial status at the time.
As In: "I want the big motor, 4-speed, good gears" He wanted a "hotrod" kinda car he could AFFORD.
Don't want no am/fm/stereo, a/c, power windows/seats, etc. I can't afford it on my grocery boy salary.
Thus, for 1 example the RR or early Mustang, GTO etc..
They allowed a younger gearhead the "means" to buy HIS car based upon what he could afford.
Unlike today, where cars "include" all the options: As If You Aren't Paying For It.!!!!!!!
Of course those "better off" could go for the SE type models with full options.'
IF a 68/69 RR came with ALL the Options back then, they wouldn't have sold as many.
I.E. $600 for A/C on a $2500 base price was ALOT back then.
It could easily pay for a Dana or a SixPak.
They were "targeting" the "youth" market during those early years.
Now they target those with the "means" or the Long-Lost-Youth crowd.
That's all for now.
Try not to bash me too harshly: please

It probably depends on when you were raised and where, I remember the 1958 Chevy Impala, Bel Air and Biscanyes(SP?) with the 348 Tri Power, the 1958 Pontiac with fuel injection and others starting the muscle car wars, not the 1964 Pontiac GTO, they started the pony car wars
1962 Chevy 409 4 speeds, 413 and 426 Max wedges, 1961 406 tri power Fords, the 389 Pontiac Tri Power and later 1964 421 dual quad Pontiac in full size cars and the later 19631/2 Galaxy 427 dual quad Fords were in my mind the hay days of the muscle car wars
The 1964 pony cars made by all three major brands started the down sizing of the muscle cars to pony cars with bigger more powerful motors in 1965

Sure, it’s not the same. But, when any old lady can run in the 9’s with her factory 4-door Tesla, it makes our “muscle” look very slow in comparison. What’s next for Telsa? 8-second, 7-second cars off the showroom floor? The times are exponentially changing.

New charger is supposedly coming for the crown = 8 second ET's

1) 1973 Chevy Vega
2) 1973 Ford Pinto
3) 1975 Chevette

pull up with a hemi/6pack/ls6/etc to a red light with a tesla next to you and race him to the next light and tell me it aint a muscle car

In the span of say 1963 to 1973 the quickest 1/4 mile heavy hitters were the big blocks. The 440 six pack (A12 Roadrunner) was a hell of a car along with the Buick GS 455. Both of these engines were smaller port high velocity headed engines where the Hemi and 454/427 were big port high RPM engines. From what I have read the torque of the GS455 was a reliable no fuss way to win a drag race stock against stock. Same with the 440 mopar and the Pontiac and Oldsmobile HP offerings. The Chevy and Hemi needed some distance to build that higher RPM power. Its too bad they didnt make more stage 1 455s and its a shame that big 455 Pontiac motor didnt come about 4 years earlier.

Well if that's the only criteria then put your Tesla up against a Haybusa and tell me it's not a musclecar.

How about we take a hemi/6pack/ls6/etc and race a tesla cross country?

How finely do you want to slice the turd here?

We all know the definition of a musclecar and a Tesla doesn't fit the definition. Anyone saying otherwise is, at best, delusional.

Be careful with the word "all".

The first known use of the word "muscle" to describe a car was auto writer Tom McCahill who, after the road test of a '55 Chrysler 300, said "Detroit has finally built a car with true Muscle."

https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/muscle-cars-before-the-gto/

Tom McCahill was the first thing I read when I got my hands on my dads copy of Mechanix Illustrated back in the 50's.

I think the OP needs to qualify it by saying "classic muscle car", or "American muscle car". There are cars such as various Porsche 911 turbo models that will beat most muscle cars in a 1/4 mile as well as run away from them on any sort of road race track but they are usually lumped into the "exotic" category rather than muscle car. I think eventually there will be some sort of "EV" category also.

If the OP asked "which production car accelerates the fastest" then the answer would most likely be the Tesla Plaid although there might be some super low production exotic that I don't know about.

There is no "authority" on what a muscle car is but there is probably a rough consensus among experts that it started with the GTO and ended with the SD Trans Am so Pontiac has the bookends of the era.

Actually, that does make sense. I wonder what the MSRP will be?

More affordable than the Ferrari guys that had just run things, Tavares (new CEO) just said they are a middle class brand and that must be saved. Under the Italians they cranked prices 10k per year it seems "higher transaction prices" stake holders (Euro) screamed. That may end hopefully. They lost me as a customer, not paying 90k for a scat pack, they can go **** themselves. The charger/challnger 392 is a 45k car before discount, same as the trucks

Hey: a Cadillac Escalade could do the same: call that a Muscle car?
I'd call it a Performance car, that better identifies all the newer high HP vehicles out there.
Everybody is offering a Performance car these days: Hyundai, Honda, etc.
Not just cars but trucks/SUV's.

There's no definitive answer to the question as originally posed.
Heck, a lot of folks can't agree on what a musclecar is or what "powerful" means.
Some of the cars provided to the magazines were tweaked & optimized as well, and then beaten as hard as possible by the testers.
So, what car, and when it was tested, and the conditions at that time, could skew the results.
Heck, I've owned a bunch of stock 383 Road Runners, and some were markedly stronger than others.

driving a hemi/6pk/ls6 cross-country.... u do have deep pockets

They weren't Made, Nor Marketed, for Griswald family to go to Wally World.
So moot point

Yessir.
New cars are boring.

Post a vid of a Tesla running 9.99

9.20's

read the original post... i stated stop lite to stop lite... someone wrote cross country... hence the comment of 'deep-pockets'... gotta read...

call it what u will...920's is fast......

In terms of vintage cars, I think the L88 and ZL1 engines would dyno above most all others. “Most power”

Interesting I don't see any mention of the 2018 Demon which seems to me to meet the criteria of a muscle car and with 840hp ...

I agree. Lots of Chebby guys here.

Like calling an Apple Macintosh not a Personal Computer cause it can't access the internet as fast as an AlienWare PC.
She'll still won't be a "Gear Head".
Many will "get" the term, sadly some won't

I did read entire post. Was replying to a later comment made.
Hemi/6Pk weren't for "comfort". A Tesla:Yes for both perf..& comfort.
Was that wrong?.

I didn't realize the Plaid Tesla's were released yet. They have either been released or someone has heavily modified a Tesla here Locally. There was one at the "Midnight Drags" here that ran a 9.53 with a horrible 1.59 60ft. A friend of mine posted the video and time slip on facebook, he said it was a plaid model.

There was also a Tesla that did Drag Week 2019, 5 days of racing and it averaged a 10.5 something.

That is cool, and that is fast, but it would get boring. Likely anyone who can hold a steering wheel could run that time because the car does all the work.

Someone probably said the same thing in their horse and buggy when they saw a model T. Something I've noticed with cars is everything that takes work and is cool (fast drag cars) becomes factory, so this evolution is no different. I also believe the recent stick shift, light and good handling gas cars (Viper ACR, TA, Boss 302, GT350, 1LE Camaros etc) will be the money cars in the future because people will buy them to use on the road courses for weekend fun. Vintage muscle will be expolited, 3d printed and plopped on EV chassis in great numbers

From Motor Trend review of Tesla Model S Plaid. Sounds like it would be near impossible to actually race another car when in "Drag Strip" mode.

How Quick Is The Model S Plaid On A Prepped Surface?
No matter the surface, to get the quickest launch from a 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid, you must dive into the car's infotainment system and select Drag Strip mode. Over the next eight to 15 minutes (the time needed varies), the car preconditions the powertrain for hard acceleration, heating or cooling the battery as needed and chilling the motors.

Once you've enabled Drag Strip mode, quickly chirp the tires on the VHT—at Famoso, it was caked on so thick it very nearly pulled our shoes off—by stabbing the throttle to clear any debris from the tires. To engage launch control, push hard on the brake, press the accelerator to the floor, and wait. Over the next nine or so seconds, the Model S' nose drops into the Plaid's "cheetah stance." When the final "launch control ready" message is displayed, firmly press your noggin against the headrest (trust us), release the brake, and hang on.

The Model S Plaid zips down the quarter mile in a staggeringly quick 9.25 seconds at 152.6 mph. The run from 0 to 60 mph happens just 1.98 seconds after the brutally hard launch. The Plaid covers distance so quickly, it's difficult to even register what's happening. The yoke gets light in your hands, your neck muscles strain as your helmeted head digs into the headrest, and your surroundings blur into mere shapes and colors as a quarter mile of pavement vanishes underneath you.

So much for reaction time.

Electric cars are not allowed to race against gas powered cars at the local strip here. I think test and tunes they are ok? Anyone else have it differently where they live?

Watch the vid... Over the next eight to 15 minutes (the time needed varies), the car preconditions the powertrain for hard acceleration, heating or cooling the battery as needed and chilling the motors.

The new one did it in what seems under a minute, the old model took the longer time.

I wonder if they are trying to engineer some of these prep procedures out.

By the time all that has happened that Hellcat that pulled up next you would have had time to burn 3/4 of a tank of gas lol.

You do that once getting to the strip, not before each pass. And its probably a good thing it takes time to set up kill mode on the street

It has four 245 wide tires, it is 4 wheel drive, it weighs 4700 pounds without driver.

245's have what, 8 inches of tread, maybe roughly equivalent to two 16-inch wide slicks ??

So that's the coefficient of friction argument.

That's still a heavy car.

Passenger reactions

I still see nothing there that I would ever aspire to own.

Teslas and all the other EV's are for the people who must have the most current smart phone because they think they "must have it" because they saw it advertised and it must be better because the ad said it was.

I agree

Or for people who see the handwriting on the wall.

And at the moment a Tesla Plaid costs $139,000 if you can even get one, no thanks! Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire...

LOL I'm with you!

Graffiti is against the law

Apparently not anymore…