In the second half of the 60s of the last century, America did not experience problems with gasoline supplies, so they began to actively try to introduce powerful engines for cars into ordinary cars. Affected by the general hobby for drifting and street racing among motorists, so folk craftsmen every now and then gave out specific models made in artisanal conditions. Soon, auto concerns also thought about creating a super-powerful “muscle” car, which were eager to surprise their customers.
Who was the inventor of the first official muscle car?
What was first muscle car ever made? According to official figures, the first muscle car is the Pontiac GTO, which was created by John DeLorean. Yes, yes, the one that much later will recreate in life an exact copy of the “time machine” from the beloved movie “Back to the Future.”
The discovery happened spontaneously – at the peak of the search for new ideas in 1964. It was decided to simply take the most powerful engine of that time and fit it into a new serial of the brand. They took a V8 engine with a volume of 6.4 liters as a basis and supplied them with a modest Pontiac Tempest, attaching a prefix to the GTO name.
Interesting to know! The GTO prefix could be called plagiarism today, because it was borrowed from Ferrari.
Later, the car was finished with another chassis and work began to transfer the car to a series, but that was not the case. Concern GM made sure that such engines were used only for large and expensive cars, and then some kind of mid-size coupe. However, DeLorean could no longer be stopped, together with his colleagues a way was found how to bypass strict laws and present his brainchild to the world. True, I had to give up the concept of a new model and pass it off as an additional option of a previously launched serial.
What happened next?
The package of this very GTO was chic, as for its price: high sensitivity of the steering system, dual exhaust pipes, premium rubber. DeLorean sincerely wanted to please a little quality car for those who did not have a lot of funds for a luxury car. For the year they wanted to release a short series of 5 thousand copies, but everything did not go according to plan. This car made a splash in the market. For the first year in the series, its sales exceeded the planned initial “circulation” by almost 7 times. The cars simply did not have time to leave the assembly line and immediately flew away.
In the second year of release, it was decided to slightly modify the design: the location of the headlights was changed, the air intakes began not only to decorate, but also to actually work. All of this has doubled sales from the first year.
In total, the world’s first muscle car was produced for 10 years, right up to the gasoline crisis, when all such “gluttonous” cars began to be written off. It was improved, refined, but the demand for the GTO only grew, despite the fact that competitors did not sleep and offered the market all new models of fresh “muscle” cars.