The Ford Mustang Is Not A Muscle Car.
Let’s clear this up once and for all. The Ford Mustang is not a muscle car and it’s about time people stopped referring to it as such.
It was a pony car. It was indeed… the original pony car. If you don’t already know this, the first hit on a Google search will tell you:
Let’s clear this up once and for all. The Ford Mustang is not a muscle car and it’s about time people stopped referring to it as such.
It was a pony car. It was indeed… the original pony car. If you don’t already know this, the first hit on a Google search will tell you:
Pony car is an American class of automobile launched and inspired by the Ford Mustang in 1964. The term describes an affordable, compact, highly styled car with a sporty or performance-oriented image.
It wasn’t a muscle car.
The muscle car was uncompromisingly designed for power and straight line speed.
It did not have a sophisticated chassis or clever engineering in anything but the engine - let alone have the sleek styling of European performance cars.
The muscle car was the blue collar car guys car. Inexpensive. Any cost or money spent went to straight line power. It was a light-to-light racer. It could also be a cruiser, a road tripper eating up the miles… or a frantic cross country racer chased by the cops driven by the lone driver, the last American hero, the electric centaur, the demi-god, the super driver of the golden west!
Over the years, you could get away with calling the Mustang a muscle car as the lines blurred out of the seventies and into the eighties and nineties. Then even when it was remodelled and brought back to life most recently though, it still had a live rear axle which made the handling suck.
If it made the handling suck, “Why would they keep it?” I hear you ask.
Well, firstly crap rear suspension helps the Mustang lose control and fly into crowds of onlookers if you believe the memes… but most importantly it’s cheaper - which fits with the pony or muscle car ethos.
However in 2015 Ford switched the Mustang over to independent rear suspension.
“What’s a live rear axle?” “What’s independent suspension mean?” I hear some of you ask?
Well, let’s allow Jason from Engineering Explained tell you because he is better at it and I can’t be bothered to type an explanation…
So, where were we?
Right.
Ford switched to independent rear suspension. Awesome. Welcome to the 21st century and going round corners and stuff!
To the point it’s as much fun to drive a canyon as it is to nail it in a straight line.
Yes. The new Mustang is a full bloodied sports car - and a very good one. I had the pleasure of driving one up and down a long canyon road for a day and it was great. Fast, sure footed… fun. I’m originally from Europe and if you had de-badged it completely and sat me inside having not been in one before; I would have sworn it was a European sports car.
It cares as much now about it’s handling as it does it’s power.
The Ford Mustang is not a muscle car. It never really was, and from 2015 onwards it certainly isn’t.
Oh, and neither is the new Camaro.
The only genuine muscle car in production right now is arguably the Dodge Challenger.
#blogpost
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Comments
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Correct. The GT350R is more of a sports/supercar these days, and the EcoBoost is just a sports car in a pony car dress.
Oh boy, an article laying out the facts based on opinion and internet research…. I think i would like to see an article that uses first person sources. What if someone actually talked to people who were there when these cars ruled the streets and the track? Am I crazy or would that be a more reputable resource?
I’ve spoken to a few old schoolers, read a bunch of books, driven a few. It’s mainly off the top of my head from that. The only online research there is the quote pulled for pony car. Hence its presented as a quote.
That is like saying that the miata is not always the answer
I need a car that seats four people.
No. Wait.
The answer is two Miatas.
Your point stands.
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I would argue that this is a matter of size, layout and arguably heritage. The mustang is certainly a pony car. Its not a muscle car because it is simply too small. The Ford Torino is the muscle car because it was indeed a bigger car and had a bigger available engine most of the time. The only exception to that is a Mustang Boss 494 but that’s not really a production car. For a vehicle to be either a muscke or pony car. It must be front engine rwd, and have 4-6 seats. That should cool the argument that by being a 2 door American sports car, makes all Corvettes, GT40s, Saleen S7, etc muscle cars also because they’re obviously not. Id argue that a sports car has to be a 2 door, 2 seater. And if it’s a sport coupé it must have a sedan varient. Albeit a lot of muscle cars had 4 door varients so I’ll argue the difference is which style comes standard. I also bring up heritage because the Challenger is a boat and the charger is a 4 door.
The title is correct, it’s a murderer.
Heres the deal, the term muscle car is always one that can be interpreted differently, muscle cars used to be 2-door or 4-door cars that were small(ish) that were the base models of many companies with a big V-8 dropped into it. It was made to be reasonably priced, and offer a lot of power. Sports cars used to be small, lightweight, 2-door vehicles whose engines never exceeded 6-cylinders. By now, things have changed dramatically, going by old intentiins and definitions, anything with a V-8 and is reasonably priced is a muscle car, and anything with a smaller engine and 2-doors is a sports car? This is obviously not true, since so many cars have crossed so many boundaries, its hard to say what is what anymore. Now, the mustang has engine options that are smaller tham a V-8 and also offers one, and if it has a V-8 people generally call it a muscle car, but with a smaller engine, it doesnt really count as a muscle car, that would be classed as a sports car. but now you have sports cars that have bigger engines, than muscle cars? The difference is the price and the speed, because anything that breaks 200 MPH is a super car, so if you make a mustang that does 200, it can be called a super car. The mustang can fall into a number of catagories because of the options it has, its just a matter of opinion which catagory someone associates it with. Personally, if it has the V-8, i would say its a muscle car, but if it has the smaller engines, i would say a sports car. It was originally made to be a pony car years ago, but it was brought into the muscle car arena when they started making it to compete with them, so while the old definition would say otherwise, it has evolved into being a muscle car, and it can be a sports car, because by the definition of the article, that means the Mercedes C63 AMG is a muscle car (if price was not a factor). Many cars today can be many things, I believe that the mustang can be either a muscle car or a sports car depending on the engine and why someone bought it.
I wholly agree with you there
You’re right that the Mustang was never a muscle car. Neither was the Camaro, the Challenger. (Also the first ponycar was the Plymouth Barracuda, launched about a week before the 1964.5 Mustang).
But in the end the pony cars got ever bigger engines and started to beat true muscle cars for outright speed. At the end of the 1970’s the big muscle cars disappeared, and the former pony cars took their place.
So you could now say that the three ponycars have been elevated to muscle car status in the absence of their bigger brothers. Though I will admit that the new Mustang is not far off from being a true sportscar.
A Ford Mustang isn’t a muscle car, but a C63 AMG is?? Hmmmmm
Thats going by the Article Def. Which I dont agree with, which is why i made that comparison, because the C63 isnt a muscle car. The mustang with the V-8 option in my opinion is a muscle car, but with the smaller engines, is not.