Why 60's and 70's are the best era for muscle cars?

Yes, muscle cars had big-small block v8 in that era but, what makes them so amazing?

 

they felt real and not superficial when driving them

 

Much like a boat-ish?

 

They were built when there was better quality steel, more reliable parts(non computer), and no EPA regulations heavily effecting the auto industry.

(edited wording to be more accurate)

 

Matchbox201 has it right, but you can't forget the OPEC oil embargo as well. It made consumers shift from not caring about gas mileage to caring about gas mileage a lot.

 

Yes, those big v8's burned a lot of fuel,and they had bad gas mileage,buy they were the best cars because they were fun.

 

Also the design was awesome back then from those beast of cars. Also the most interresting thing was the diffrence in power here in europe we had our small vw beetles and so on with like 38bhp and then in america you had a 400hp charger and so on

 

Muscle cars were built to do everything back then. This is probably because people only had one car back then. They usually had 3 PROPER seats in the back and two in the front, even if it was a coupe. Because they generated an insane amount of power, you could tow stuff with them. The factory would let you get them with a tow hitch. Even now an old muscle car would be practical.

 

Thanks for your information,so that must be the reason why they had such a high torque!

 

performace cars only emerged in the early 60's, and by 1975, leaded fuel was banned in america and safety regulation Got stricter.

 

No health and safety board, no unisex thinking, just raw unfiltered power, then insurance people started getting scared, late 60's are last free machines, 70's brought lot of restrictions to power, late 70's had world changed to something totally different, we see those cars as symbols of freedom, they are those free spirits we want to be, untamed, raw, real.

Car manufacturers did compete who makes best performing car for traffic light races, they were advertised to such purpose and you actually could get race ready engine installed to your new car from the dealership.

600hp or even more at your disposal at 60's, think about that, how much more it was than other cars at that time! It would be something like 1500-2000hp car today I guess.

Then the design, cars important lines were shaped after other attractive shapes, no pedestrian safety messing beautiful lines, wife's opinion had not much weight to car styling, so cars were made to please male's eye, today car design have to please also female buyer's eye, so they are more of compromise on that too, car is no longer manly thing for manly men, but at those days it was a male thing and that primitive being in every male gets tickle from that old perfect design that speaks man language.

Today times are different and thinking like 60's gets you trouble faster than a girl can make a u-turn, but that primitive being is still in man, certain things still tickle him same way and boy, those designers of 60's and 70's knew their jobs.

 

Best explanation I've ever seen!

 

Just sitting in a 70 charger while the engine is idling shakes the 2 and a half foot long pistol grip shifter around like it has somewhere better to be. These cars were raw, whereas modern cars are more efficient about getting the power to the wheels, the old ones put a bunch of that wonderful horsepower into the driver's seat, and that makes driving an old charger a completely different experience. You just feel more wild while tearing the tires off and bouncing around inside the car while it happens.

 

Yeah, even though nowadays muscle cars like demon, mustang,Camaro make more horsepower than their grandfather's but they cannot be more exciting than good ol' beasts

 

I think dodge are the only ones that still make real muscle cars ( as far as performance goes) because theyre made to go fast in a straight line and the mustang and camaro are made so that theyre sports cars more so they can make turns fast

 

Nah, dude, as @Mr.Twiglesworth said,none of these cars have raw power under the hood.Some old engines made 500+ horsepower which was phenomenal for it's time.Nowadays even some cars can't get this amount of horsepower from turbo or supercharger.

 

i meant that theyre the only ones that get close to the old ones

 

When you look at them from a mechanical point of view they are as basic as you can get for a performance car (double wishbone in front, leaf springs in the rear, and a powerful ohv V8 with only drums and occasional discs to stop them) but that's what makes them great.

But when you realize that you can get the performance of a 60s v8 out of a 4 pot or even 6 pot turbo (maybe not the torque) it makes you realize how far engine technology has come.

 

One thing that always is forgotten to say those engines were measured in sae hp and in the 70s they changed to din hp wich meant they had alot less horsepower on paper but theotetically they had the same amount

 

Torque is really useful for passing people, too.

Muscle cars had discs in the front, and drums in the back.