CLASSIC MUSCLE

High performance American cars with rear-wheel drive and big V8s, often from the 1964-1973 model years, these cars are best known for straight-line drag racing.  The 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 is considered to be the first true muscle car because it combined a 303 cubic inch V8 with a smaller, lighter body.  Although there has been a resurgence in recent years, the peak of the muscle car era was the late-1960s, before the Clean Air Act of 1970, the 1973 oil crisis, and higher insurance premiums quickly made muscle cars unaffordable and impractical.