What makes American muscle cars important today? What's the best American muscle car in turns of power, price, and legend?
Some of these affordable yet modern American muscle cars will give car fans goosebumps when they hit the gas 0-60 in 4 seconds! The car world may be dominated by foreign companies, and some of these are of the best quality, but most affordable modern muscle cars come from the states. Why? We love them. We buy them.
There are some powerful and affordable American cars out there, especially modern American muscle cars. But what makes these American muscle cars 1) affordable for the guy with a mortgage and 2) is loud and scary fast too?
An American muscle car of quality should have some "kick" to it, growl loud like the corvette, and fast like a mustang.
It used to be American muscle cars were V-8 engines with nice paintjobs. You put a big engine in a small car. It's evolved. Now they're even more affordable, go from 0-60 even faster, and make a heck of a lot of noise.
The Pontiac GTO was the first muscle car, but today we also have the Cadillac CTS-V and the Chrysler 300 Hemi.
In terms of the most affordable American muscle cars, there are still some options if you want to race a bit over the speed limit. These three have varying price ranges, but are high value for what you get.
Let's begin with the Pontiac GTO, the car that started it all. And what an interesting story this modern American muscle car has. An American car designer, sick of driving slow cars from work to home, decided to put a big engine into a small car. Throughout its history, the Pontiac GTO has been top 5 in American muscles cars. And the modern Pontiac GTOs are no exception. It's always had good horsepower for a modern muscle car, though usually weaker than the Cadillac and Chrysler. However, this is the best priced of all the vehicles, as used Pontiac GTOs go for fractions of their listed value all the time.
Next on the list is the most expensive, the Cadillac CTS-V. The pros here are the incredible power. It's got a supercharged 6.2 V8 engine, with horsepower numbers pushing 550, and you can go 0-60 in 4.3. The only clear con to this modern American muscle car is the price; since this line is still out, you pay about $60,000.
Next on the list would be the Pontiac GTO, the car that started it all. Again, story was a car designer, sick of driving family sedans from work to home, decided to put a big engine into one of his smaller cars. Hence, we have the creation of the muscle car. Throughout its history, the Pontiac GTO has been top 5 in American muscles cars. And the modern Pontiac GTOs are no exception. It actually has some non-American flavor to it, but an American engine with 400 and up horsepower. While changing sometimes in horsepower, and a bad production run started and stopped over the years, the price is right here, with most models being sold for fractions of the stated value.
The most important American muscle car is? It's a tough call. For history, the GTO might get it. For sheer power, the winner is the Cadillac CTS. For a combination of price and power, you've got the Chrysler 300 Hemi. It's almost a draw, but since it has the most storied history, the Pontiac GTO is the most important modern muscle car.
Author Resource:
Mike Stone used to sell muscle cars in the auto state of Michigan, but now he just writes about them for Streetside Auto .com. He can't get enough of the sound, power, and look of today modern American muscle cars.