Why aren't more muscle cars in the UK?
This is my first article on Car Throttle, so uh.. wish me luck..
I have been wandering this for many years now, and frankly, I still haven’t come up with an answer that makes any sense to the average human: Why has the UK has been a no-go zone for muscle cars?
Ever since Ford announced that they would be releasing their Mustang in RHD and fully legal for the UK last year, I have since been pondering continuously over why other major Muscle Car manufacturers such as Dodge and Chevrolet haven’t followed suit with letting the fish and chip eating and tea drinking nation have a go of their brash, V8 powered speed machines.
“But they’ll cost too much to run..”
No, they won’t. In this country we have plenty of gas-guzzling vehicles, such as the BMW M5 and the V8 Range Rover. If Muscle cars were introduced to the UK, they wouldn’t be much more money to run than an F-Type on steroids.
“They’ll look stupid and out of place”
NOOO! They simply will not. We live in an age of neon coloured cars that you can see coming for literally years, and stupidly highly lifted Land Rovers that are only used in a city! Put a Dodge Hellcat next to one of these and you’ll be called the normal one.
This will remain a mystery to me for many years to come. Why don’t they just DO IT? We all know tea tastes best with a side portion of ‘Murica right?
Thanks for getting this far and let me know what you guys think below!
Comments
As an american, I’d figured it was because of emissions, cost of running, or the fact that maybe people overseas just don’t like muscle cars. Top Gear seemed to love muscle cars when they were actually driving them. Then again, Top Gear always had a field day making fun of the cars the US makes and especially the ones we try to sell to the UK and Europe. Maybe CT should take a poll to see why muscle cars don’t sell well overseas
Yeah I guess, emissions and cost of running could be a problem but saying that, Ford made it possible to bring the Mustang over here. I think if manufacturers tried to sell them here in the UK, it would serve as a cheap alternative to a fast BMW or Mercedes, which I think would end up being very popular.
I think it’s a few things. First, in the UK the roads are smaller and with a lot more turns, so there isn’t a whole lot of areas where these big American muscle to do the fast straights that they are great at. If you’ve ever tired to corner in a old muscle car at speed you know how nail biting it can be.
Second, the safety and emissions requirements are different in European countries. Yes, Euro cars do come in v8 and even v10s or v12, but in terms of displacement they are smaller engines. The v10 BMW engines do have more cylinders, but its only has 5 liters of displacement, whereas an LS 1 block has 5.7 liters. US muscle cars rely on displacement rather than forced induction (although as we see with the hellcat that could soon change). As we see with the UK mustang, there was a lot that was changed to conform with safety standards.
3rd, its more tradition. At the height of the pony car era, importing and exporting cars was no where near as popular. Other than higher end cars, and import meant driving a VW. Muscle cars primarily stayed in the US. Other countries never got these cars in bulk, meaning the public never got a thirst for big blocks and the attitude of the cars like those in the US. Americans grew up with big, loud, and powerful muscle cars and Europeans grew up on more refined, smaller, classy cars. There really isn’t a market, so there’s no point to send product.
Yeah I guess a lot of that makes sense. There would obviously be many different attitudes to muscle cars in Europe and the US and the market for them in the UK may be a little unstable, but I still think that Muscle Cars would be a lot of fun in England, even if you couldn’t often use them to their full potential.