Even if you don’t want to admit it, you probably wanted a burly muscle car at least at one point in your life. These cool machines have been around since the 1940s and experienced a golden era in the 1960s and 1970s. Beloved Mustangs, powerful Pontiac GTOs, and badass Chargers are just some of the amazing muscle cars we've yearned for over the years. But in a history of greatness, there were also a few stumbles along the way.

Not every stumble was actually bad, and the same can be said of the muscle car genre. This is a list of 10 rather goodif not greatmuscle cars. And believe me, there are quite a few flopped muscle cars out there. But they flopped. Why did they flop? Well, that’s going to come down to a myriad of reasons. Poor sales figures, lack of power and performance, poor styling that didn’t catch on, and so on.

So, without further ado, here are 10 great muscle cars that sadly flopped rather miserably.

10 1979 Ford Mustang Cobra

via Bloomberg

The Ford Mustang Cobra has to go down as one of the most stunning looking examples of a Mustang ever. Sadly, however, the late 1970s versions flopped, 1979 in particular.

via Barrett-Jackson

Despite being a fundamentally good car, it lacked satisfying performance. What let the higher performance Cobra down was its rather disappointing 2.3-liter four-cylinder turbo. This led to a rather low max output figure of 122 hp.

9 Chevrolet Chevelle Heavy Chevy

via Collectors Car World

There is no denying how gorgeous the Chevelle Heavy Chevy is, and when we hear that name, we expect a big, beefy V8 performance. It certainly delivered as it was indeed powered by an LS3, 402 Ci 300 HP V8 engine.

via American Car Collector

Loud, powerful, and fast. So, what let it down? Despite being a budget model, only 16,000 examples sold over two years.

8 Studebaker Avanti R2

via Mecum

Looking at this car, you might wonder what’s wrong with it. It is certainly a cool enough looking car. It had a supercharged V8 that produced 240 hp and came with manual and automatic gearbox options.

via Mecum

So, what went wrong? Well, much like the Chevelle Heavy Chevy, it was simply sales figures. Only 1,200 were built in 1962 and fewer than 4,600 were produced in the following year. Instead of pulling Studebaker out of financial troubles, it only served to make things worse.

7 Dodge Charger 500

via Road And Track

The Dodge Charger is a recipe for successExcept not with the Dodge Charger 500. Good looks? Check. Powerful 426 Hemi engine? Check. So, what happened? Aerodynamic efficiency.

via Hot Rod

And in an era when cars like this competed in NASCAR, that was a problem. It didn’t achieve the Stock Car racing success that Dodge had hoped for, and thus the Daytona quickly put the ‘500 into the history books.

6 1978 Oldsmobile 442

via Hagerty

The Oldsmobile 442 was widely considered to be one of the best muscle cars to ever grace the planet. So when another model rolled out in 1978, it’s only natural to expect the same quality again, right?

via Car Domain

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case.. This 442 became the sole option on the Cutlass range. And as the late ‘70s wore on, sales figures plummeted.

RELATED: 1965-70 Oldsmobile 4-4-2: Profile Of A Muscle Car

5 1974 Pontiac GTO

via Hagerty

The 1974 Pontiac GTO was a great muscle car. While the GTO in general is often regarded as one of the finest muscle cars ever produced, 1974 was a rather bad year for the beloved nameplate.

via Car Collector World

Here’s why the 1974 GTO didn’t do so hot on the market at the time: it became just a one-trip option for that year's Pontiac Ventura. And with the Ventura itself being the brand's main focus of development, the GTO was something of an afterthought and therefore, moved aside by many.

4 Ford Mustang King Cobra

via Pinterest

The Ford Mustang King Cobra has to join the Cobra we saw earlier as one of the most awesome looking Mustang types to ever be built. But as you will know for yourselves, looks are not all you need to make a great car. I’ll cut to the chase.

via Cruisin Classics

The King Cobra was let down by its 140 hp 5.0-liter V8 engine when other cars from the likes of Dodge were pushing 300 hp. The exterior was flash, but the performance was not.

3 AMC Gremlin GT

via Barn Finds

It’s normal to do a double-take over the Gremlin GT’s status as a muscle car. Not only was it one, but it did well—sort of. The Gremlin perhaps helped the AMC brand get through the 1970s recession, and it was constantly tweaked, modified, and updated over the years.

via Pinterest

But like a lot of the cars here, despite being a good car, the 304 V8 with just 120 hp just didn’t please everyone. Simply put, it wasn’t the big and shouty muscle car that many consumers wanted.

2 2004 Pontiac GTO

via Which Car AU

It’s perfectly rational to wonder how this Pontiac GTO got here. Well, hear us out. While it doesn’t look that outlandish, it was a good car underneath the exterior.

2004 Pontiac GTO
via Hot Rod

The fifth-generation GTO was powerful. The LS2 variant produced 400 hp. That is plenty of muscle car power. It was a two-door car, came with a 4-speed automatic or 6-speed manual gearbox, and its top speed was a very good 180 mph. So, what went wrong? Only 40,000 were sold, and it never clicked with the public. Why? The sadly underwhelming design.

1 Chevrolet Corvette C3

via Autocar

Finally, we come to the Chevrolet Corvette C3. And before the Corvette saw an upward revival for its fortunes, it went through some rough times. What made the C3 a letdown was its platform that was effective from the 1970s.

via Turbo Squid

And in the 1980s, that didn’t cut it. A 180-hp engine didn’t help matters. It sold well enough, but it’s not remembered as the best Corvette ever produced.

Sources: Autocar, Which Car AU, Pinterest, Road And Track, Bloomberg

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