The biggest question that arises when you think of the words “muscle car” is “what exactly is a muscle car?” Well the answers vary from one school of thought to another. The vaguest definition is “high-performance car.” For instance, Merriam-Webster defines it as “any of a group of USA-made 2-door sports cars with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving.”

However, we can’t stick with the definition given by some dictionary. We must dive deeper and pick the brains of the car enthusiasts. And that’s when things become a bit clearer. The whole point of a muscle car is to have a big, big engine in the front with all the power going to the rear wheels. The bigger the engine, the better. In fact, the name of the game was “horsepower” and “grunt” back in the days. As mentioned, the bigger, the better, the more (grunt), the merrier.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that in such a configuration of a car, the handling gets put in the back seat. There’s no handling in these cars. It’s just a glob of power given to you. There’s no subtlety in these cars. They scream power through and through. And don’t even mention fuel efficiency, for the creators will jump out of the screen and smack you for asking about that. “What fuel efficiency?”

It should be noted that we stuck with the car enthusiasts’ definition, except in a few cases, where it was deemed more appropriate to include them than not.

Ready?

20 MODERN: JAGUAR F-TYPE 400 SPORT

C/D.com

Of note, the newer models are missing that leaping-Jaguar logo on the hood. It simply isn’t there in the newer cars in the front, which is a bit less obtrusive, but I still think the original 3D logo looked better. Anyway, the F-Type is one mean-looking car. While the entire exterior is suave, particularly enticing are the wide rear haunches. The car is heavy, but the power is just huge at 400 horses. Other variants exist, but they don’t have nearly as much power as this one has. The front engine supplies power to all the wheels. This thing costs upward of $100K.

19 CLASSIC: AMC REBEL MACHINE

mecum.com

Some of the classic names are just rugged. Rebel Machine. That name implies the car is out of control, doesn’t care about anything but power. It’s a pretty cool name.

It was actually better known as “The Machine.”

Besides the name, the livery was just alive too. It was painted white and featured bold red stripes on the sides and blue stripes over the hood. It looks just way too cool. The hood speaks of the engine from obvious bulges. With all the flamboyant and patriotic colors, it must have been one beast of a car to go grocery shopping in.

18 MODERN: CHEVY CAMARO 2SS

autoweek.com

Here’s an amazing, everyday car. The Camaro is like the most accessible car for us. Just because of what it stands for and how it looks, you shouldn’t stereotypically assign this car to any one particular type of group, though. In other words, it’s not only young, hot-blooded teens and young adults who drive these cars. You will see middle-aged adults driving this car too, along with women. Some teens drive it carefully, while some middle-aged adults zoom through the highway roads recklessly. So don’t try to generalize it. The beast sports a gusty 6.2L V8 that produces a whopping 455 horses.

17 CLASSIC: CHEVY NOVA SS

opumo.com

This car was a little smaller than some contemporary muscle-cars, but it looked the part, which is what mattered.

It wasn’t actually meant to be a revolutionary concept or a big-time vehicle, but the lightweight, high functionality and tantalizing performance made the car one of the best muscle cars of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The “SS,” standing for super short, used to be a trim level, but evolved into one of the smallest muscle-cars in Detroit. The functionality and performance came from the heavy-duty suspension, awesome brakes, and a highly capable 5.7L V8 that churned out close to 300 horses (musclecarshq.com).

16 MODERN: MUSTANG GT FASTBACK

motor1.com

Cars like the Mustang GT are amazing pieces of work. The hood hides a Cayote 5L V8, which churns out 460 horses and 420 lb-ft of torque. The power output is five horses greater than that of the equivalent Camaro. That’s not a coincidence at all. These two kids have been in competition ever since their beginnings. One needs to constantly out-do the other, lest get drowned in the sea of mediocrity and eventually decadence, at which point there would be no way of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, because the word “light” would have lost all its meaning. Think Saturn here.

15 CLASSIC: FORD TORINO COBRA

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While Ford had the all-time famous Mustang back in the day, it also had the Torino Cobra. The Torino and Fairlane were warriors that were present, but never fully committed to the muscle-car game until the ‘70s. That’s when Ford equipped it with thin-wall construction and canted-valve head engine that made the Tornio Cobra famous. The exterior styling of the car featured exposed headlamps and bulging hood, along with some other muscle-car features (musclecars.howstuffworks.com). However, the success didn’t last too long, and Ford moved on to the bigger and heavier Gran Torino by 1972. Nonetheless, this was a rad car.

14 MODERN: MB-AMG C63 S COUPE

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While you might have associated MB more with luxury than crass, raw power, you better start changing your views. While sedan, coupe and convertible are all possibilities, get the coupe and start suffocating that throttle to get a sense of what it is like to have 503 horses in a German luxury car. You essentially enter time warps intermittently, especially when you consider all that power goes to the rear wheels. And the beast is not without its charms. It’s a beautiful car that wears one of the best exterior stylings. And boy, if you thought the exterior was beautiful, wait until you check out the interior.

13 CLASSIC: PLYMOUTH ROAD RUNNER

themotorhood.com

This was a pretty brutal muscle-car. Unlike most of its contemporaries, this one didn’t know the definition of amenities. The creators had a vision, and they created what they had wanted to, and that’s what the Road Runner was, a pure muscle-car.

That was because despite not having much in the cabin, the car had big engines. This was the late ‘60s, so everything was either a V8, or another V8.

No, sometimes they changed things up and made it a Hemi…V8. And yes, the logo is adapted from the cartoon, and the car manufacturer paid money to have the privilege to use the cartoon character and name.

12 MODERN: CHEVY CAMARO ZL1

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Here we are with the Camaro again, although with a trim that’s top shelf. Cars like the ZL1 don’t come around that often. These things are special, so they take a lot of time to be done properly. There are two different layers that need to be considered.

First, high-performance cars like the ZL1 take more time than average cars to be made.

Second, that time goes into perfecting the performance details, as opposed to, say, making sure the defrost works properly. But it does pay off at the end, namely in the form of 650 horses coming from a 6.2L V8.

11 CLASSIC: OLDSMOBILE 442

mecum.com

This thing was just an option package for the F-85 and Cutlass models, but the success of the car forced makers to create its own lineup, until it reverted back to the former mode of being sold at a later point. The engine was in the front, and the power went all the way to the rear wheels. The car looks nice. The front hood has a little bulge, while the sides have the classic shape of coupes of the ‘60s. The split front-grille says “442” (pronounced: “4-4-2”). Because of a large V8 under the hood, this bad boy was an easy winner of drag races.

10 MODERN: FORD MUSTANG SHELBY GT350R

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Ford is ruling the auto world with its GT350R. The beast—and I mean that, just look at how troublesome and demonic that car looks—comes equipped with a 5.2L V8 that churns out a whopping 526 horses and 429 lb-ft of torque. “Top speed?” you might ask. It’s 175 mph, but I know you might have just said to yourself, “that’s not that impressive.”

The impressive part comes from the 3.7-second 0-60 time. But just because it’s a racetrack-oriented vehicle, Ford didn’t cut corners in cornering stability. The handling is improved and much better in non-track use too. The entire thing costs $63K.

9 CLASSIC: BUICK GSX

mecum.com

The Gran Sport name was given to various high-performance cars built by Buick during the ‘60s. While things are a bit different now, back then, Buick actually mattered. It was the second-best car in GM’s hierarchy in terms of luxury and comfort, beaten by only Cadillac, but not really, because Cadillac didn’t produce any performance variants. Not wanting to fall behind in the muscle-cars war, Buick went ahead and designed the Buick GSX, an enhanced version of the already existing Regal. The equipped engine produced 510 lb-ft of torque, which was the most powerful in its category until the Viper beat it in 2003.

8 MODERN: CADILLAC CTS-V

hennesseyperformance.com

This is one sneaky car. And just because it’s a four-door sedan, doesn’t make it one bit less of a pony car. The styling of these things is simple yet majestic. The exterior is calm and soothing, but very powerful, thanks to the 6.2L supercharged V8.

How powerful? 640 horses and 630 lb-ft of torque powerful. The front harbors the powerplant, while the rear wheels get all the power.

While all that satisfies that car’s ability to be considered a muscle car, I think the most impressive feature comes from the $86K CTS-V being able to achieve 200 mph. Now that’s astronomical.

7 CLASSIC: CHEVY CHEVELLE SS

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Chevy was kind of taken off guard when muscle cars became a thing in 1964. Other manufacturers had some big engines, and were able to essentially modify the exterior of some existing models and sell the big engines in the name of muscle cars. After all, that’s what this war was about. “There’s no replacement for displacement” was the motto. So Chevy got its act together and created the SS, which boasted a V8, in either 250 or 300 horses. The car looks all classic; a total of 76K units of the SS were made in the first year.

6 MODERN: BMW M5

motor1.com

While the styling may be too tame for some, I think that is the key quality of the M5. The 4,370-lb vehicle does 0-60 in a Viper-smoking 3.2 seconds.

Naturally, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it produces a whopping 600 horses and 553 lb-ft of torque.

Just because the car has a truckload of ponies and torque available, doesn’t mean that it has forgotten how to corner; the driving behaviors are excellent. The interior of this car is well-designed too. And being that it’s an M-Series, the interior has some of the nicest technologies. Overall, the price tag of $100K is worth it.

5 CLASSIC: DODGE CHARGER

autowise.com

What started as a show car in 1964 became a success story later down the road. During the first few years, the Dodge-Coronet-inspired Chargers were sold with limited success. However, 1967 was successful, after the dismissal sales of the outgoing model year. The new “Coke bottle” outlook gave the Charger one of the best looks in the muscle-car territory, ever. (The car resembles the curves of classic, glass Coke bottles.)

The car gave a top-notch performance and all that really helped create its image as one of the best muscle-cars of its era. Engine options were abundant, including a 426 Hemi (allpar.com).

4 MODERN: EQUUS BASS 770

thearsenale.com

The exterior is inspired from Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger and Charger, Ford Mustang, Plymouth Barracuda, AMC Marlin and Pontiac GTO.

The powerplant is a Corvette-ZR1-inspired 6.2L supercharged V8. The numbers are just amazing at a whopping 640 horses and 605 lb-ft of torque.

It’s an Equus Bass, Equus Bass 770. The car looks like a total beast. The front fascia reminds you of the Challenger, while various other angles draw from other cars. The car is equipped with some top-notch features and has excellent handling. However, the base price-tag of $250K is also astonishingly high, so not everyone can afford this car.

3 CLASSIC: PLYMOUTH SUPERBIRD

supercars.net

This one was actually a race car in the past, despite its modern categorization as a muscle car. It’s one beast of a car, although its production was short-lived, having been made in only 1970. Its main rival was the Ford Torino Talladega, although the main reason for the production of this car was to entice Richard Petty back to Plymouth. The car has a sharp nose and classy rear wing.

Of note, John Cena owns one of these cars. On another note, one Plymouth Superbird was formerly owned by the EPA, which had kept it for emissions testing. That car was auctioned off back in 2012.

2 MODERN: DODGE CHALLENGER SRT HELLCAT

moparconnectionmagazine.com

This is a dream-come-true car for horsepower junkies. I don’t even know what you’d want to do with 707 horses in a car that has a curb weight of 4,448 lbs. It’s like a solid mass on four wheels with an absurd amount of power. Not a lot of sports cars have that much of power. This thing probably wins every drag-racing event. The one thing that you’d have to worry about in this car is the tire, because you’ll keep winning and winning with so much power in your hands. The best part is, the car can be had for like $85K.

1 CLASSIC: PONTIAC GTO

hiconsumption.com

Here we are, face to face with the very car that created this whole muscle-car world. While Pontiac also produced this car relatively recently from 2004-2006—which by the way, had a 400-HP, 6L V8 engine—the main years were 1964-1974. It was a nice, good-looking car. Part of the reason for the development of this car was the ban by GM for any of its divisions from becoming involved in auto racing. You might, then, wonder why the Pontiac division started making high-performance cars. Well, it started looking into street performance, as opposed to official racing. The name of the car was inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO.

Sources: autowise.com; maxim.com; popularmechanics.com