American Muscle

Horsepower. Tire-shredding, rubber-burning horsepower is what launched the American muscle-car era in the early Sixties. GTOs, 442s, Z28s, Boss 429s and other lean and hungry coupes with big-block engines were on the prowl, just itching for a fight. "She's real fine, my 409" and Little GTO played on the radio, but who could hear the lyrics over the rumble of a Hemi-Charger exhaust? Soon, real hot rods were mothballed because you could buy brand-new cars with at least 350 horsepower. But the golden age of horsepower didn't last long. Almost overnight, owning a gas-guzzler became the eighth deadly sin and the gloriously indulgent muscle car gave way to the fuel-efficient, front-wheel-drive snoozemobiles of the Eighties. But as the century ends, the American manufacturers who created the original cars are reawakening the raw thrill of pedal-to-the-metal. Ford, Pontiac and Chevrolet have introduced Mustang Cobra, Trans Am Firehawk and Camaro SS models that do everything but ease on down the road. You can't buy a 600-hp Nascar coupe that's street legal from your local dealer, but these rear-wheel-drive babies are the next best thing.