'65 Vette. The hottest thing going, but expensive--well over $4,000!
During the '60s there were essentially three types of cars available to the performance-minded driver:
Sports cars - Mostly British or Italian in origin, like the MG, Triumph and Alfa Romeo.
Muscle cars - Strictly American. Take a sedan platform, add a big V8 and make it look masculine. As a Pontiac GTO.
Pony cars - It all started with the Mustang.
Most performance cars didn't necessarily fit in one category or the other. The Vette was a cross between a sports car and a muscle car. The Mustang turned into part muscle car in the late '60s. Even Triumph put a V8 in one of its cars.
The '64 Vette had a 327 cubic inch V8 offering from 250 to 375 net hp. Corvettes, then as now, cost about twice as much as Mustangs so weren't considered direct competition.
'65 Vette.
The hottest thing going, but expensive--well over $4,000!
The muscle car era officially opened when Pontiac introduced the GTO in '64. Based on the intermediate Tempest it offered a 325 or a 348 hp 389 V8. GM expected to sell 5,000 that first year-- they actually sold 32,000 . The GTO sold about 60-90,000 cars a year during the muscle car heydays of the late '60s and early '70s. The Goat was a true muscle car in that it was based on an underachieving sedan with a big engine and lousy gas mileage.
'65 GTO
(it stands for Gas, Tires and Oil)
Chevrolet already had the Corvair and the Chevy II,
but they soon realized these did not compete with the Mustang in the marketplace. In '67
the Camaro and Firebird were introduced. The Camaro offered two 6-cylinder engines
plus 327, 350, and 396 cubic inch V8's with all the way up to 375 gross hp. Ford's Boss
302 was built to race directly against Chevy's Z28. In 1967, '68, and '69 Chevrolet
sold about 200,000 Camaros each year.
The '67 Firebird offered engines from a 6-cylinder up to a 325 hp 400 cubic inch V8.
Even the biggest engine came standard with a 3-speed manual and 4-wheel drum
brakes. Chevy's big blocks, although offering much more horsepower than the first
Mustangs, didn't really have the suspension to use the power well--part of the price for
rushing the car to market to grab some of the Mustang sales.
'67
Camaro SS.
The most direct competition for the Mustang, but the 'Stang had a 2 1/2 year head
start in the market.
The Barracuda was a sports coupe design based on the compact Valiant sedan. It was released at the same time as the Mustang. It wasn't until its '70 redesign that the car lost its Valiant-based styling. It was initially available with a 235 hp 273 cubic inch V8. Plymouth produced about 40,000 'Cudas a year during the Mustang's first years.
'66
Barracuda.
A Valiant with a big glass rear window and a V8.
The Javelin, like most of the competition, came along after the Mustang was well established. American Motors was a very distant 4th to the Big Three by the '60s. About 40,000 Javelins were produced in each of its first two years.
'68
Javelin
The Fairlane/Torino/Cyclone models and the "upscale" Mustang, the Mercury Cougar, all offered competition, but as with the others, less style.
 '68 Torino |
 '69 Cougar GTE 427. One of only a few hundred 427's or 428's made. |
Depending on what road tests you read from the era the '69 Plymouth Road Runner 440-6 pack (3-2 bbl carbs), the '70 Plymouth Barracuda Hemi (426 CID), and the '70 Chevy Chevelle SS454 all ran the 1/4 mile in the low to mid-13 second area. The fastest Mustangs, the Boss 429, Mach I 428 CobraJet, and the Boss 351 were in the upper-13s.
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This page last updated 08/28/02