I’m not proposing this as the be all end all ha ha, but the GTO was a regular street car with somewhat mild tuning (4 bbl) or a little warmer (3x2) with the main performance characteristic coming from bigger inches plus lighter weight than a full size car, along with performance badges. It could be easily driven as a daily driver plus was a smaller size than the 300. I think this combination was unique to start with but heck I’m probably forgetting something.
My dorm roommate as a freshman in 1969 drove a ‘65 442, four speed. It smoked a bit and he admitted that he had run it hard and put it away wet while in high school. But it was a pleasure to take that to go get some food or whatever we needed. (Normally you couldn’t have a car on campus until you were a junior but he got an exception due to distance from family.)
I became buddies with a guy (we were taking Russian language in the same class section) and he had a ‘69 Charger, 383, 4 speed. Great car and we blasted around town and out in the country just for fun. But by then there were lots of permutations of muscle and pony cars.
Me? That year I bought a ‘67 super hawk and kept it in a non-college parking lot near campus with the agreement of the store owner. Still could have theoretically gotten expelled from school if I’d been ticketed on it as the court clerks office dutifully reported all such things to the registrar’s office in those days. On Jan 24, 2021, at 8:58 PM, Doug J <63sprtfury@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I always enjoy the first muscle car debate. In 1962 all the companys were coming out with high horsepower cars in smaller bodies. Chrysler obviously hit it out of the park. Ford had some power, as did Chevy with the 409, which was a finicky engine, but properly tuned was pretty impressive. The answer to the first muscle car laurels landing on the 64 GTO (and this is on good authority)... is that while you could buy a Dodge Dart or Plymouth Savoy with a killer engine, or for that matter a Galaxie with a 390, or a Biscayne with a 409, or a Tempest with a 389, you could also get those cars with a 6 banger. Also, you could buy a 62 Sport Fury, or a 62 Super Sport chebby, they also could be bought with a 318 or 283 2bbl. It was just a trim package. The GTO in 64 however was a stand alone model. If you ordered a 64 GTO, it came with only a performance engine. You could not buy a GTO with a 326 or a 6 banger.. That is what gives the goat the honor of the first muscle car.
Now, in my mind, that criteria points back to the 55 Chrysler 300, but I suppose the upscale full size aspect of the car disqualifies it too.
Anyway... that's the way I heard it.
Doug 63 Sport Fury ragtop
In 1964 I owned a Pontiac GTO, dubbed by many as the first Muscle Car. Mine had a 389 with tri-power with 2 speed auto trans. I ran it on a regular basis at the old Fremont Drag Strip.
I became very familiar with 1962 and 1963 Dodges with 413 and 426 Max wedge super stock with 727 torque flight 3 Speed transmissions.
However, my proclaimed as they say, first muscle car, that caught the automotive world off guard, could not muscle its way past any 1962 Max Wedge. No matter how I tried to modify it, the heads, carburation, exhaust, a B&M Hydromatic trans with drag kit. Never ever, not once.
Those Dodges were special at the time and dominated the drag strip. Lighter and quicker, big engine. Coming from someone who tried to out muscle them, although at the time, they were ugly. They are beautiful now and hard to come by. In my opinion the first real and true muscle car.
I could give rip about how or why it came on the scene as rambling and speculative about a so called rumor. The Ramchargers are the ones who really changed the automotive world in the early 1960’s.
For that we are forever grateful and the history is colorful and entertaining. 62 to 65 Mopars are special. When I was just turning 17, summer of ‘68, I wrecked my ‘58 Savoy and was riding in the wrecker to our local junkyard, where my step dad was going to meet me to drive me around so I could find another car. When we arrived, the yard boss (oddly enough both my step dad and the yard boss were named “Junior”) climbed into my car and fired it up. He said he’d give me $75 on it. He asked me if I was a Plymouth fan. Yep I said. He pointed out a ‘62 Belvedere 2 door sedan in the row of complete, titled vehicles. He said it came in for unknown non-running condition. We walked over and he tried to start it but it just spun over fruitlessly. But it did sound like it was good on compression. He pulled the distributor cap and someone turned the engine over and the rotor didn’t turn at all. We pulled the distributor out and the tab was missing from the bottom of the shaft. He got a magnet probe and retrieved the tab from the slot in the oil pump drive. Someone grabbed him a distributor from another 318 and we stabbed it in and eyeballed the timing. That was enough to get it to run and of course a little ear-wise adjustment got the timing close enough. He took me for a ride and I was hooked. So it was by accident to begin with, literally, but I’ve loved ‘62 Plymouths ever since. Excellent read, (if lengthly), concerning the downsizing of Dodge & Plymouths in the early '60's. By the way, forty years ago I thought '62 B bodies, from an aesthetic standpoint, were horrendous. Now, if I had more garage space, they would be #1 on my list.
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Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
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1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
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1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
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Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
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