61 Impala - muscle car?

[Blk61409]

For me the "muscle car" thing started with multiple carbs (56) and 4 speeds (58-one only).

Cecil is correct!

Duntov began all this. First for Chevrolet solid lifters, 4bbl carb 195HP engine that eventually went in the 55 Corvette.
Fortunately, I have serial number 00001.

Next came the 56 with 2x4’s and then the famous 57 FI, 283/283 1 Hp per cu in.

Lots of people like to claim the Muscle car began with the 64 GTO.
What’s actually true like Cecil said, it began 9 years prior. Probably the advertising initiative that took place.
I was really confused when Chev got out of racing in Feb 1963, but all this Hipo stuff was in development already.

 

[real61ss]

No question the Muscle Car Era was in full swing by the mid fifties, they just hadn't coined the phrase yet. They were just cars with big motors. As Cecil and Pat pointed out Chevrolet had high performance engines as far back as 1955 and 56. So did Chrysler and Ford and even Studebaker. But don't forget Chief Pontiac, the Super Duty program that was so dominate in the early to mid sixties actually started in the mid fifties. In 1956 Pontiac had a 2x4 engine that was rated at 285 horses. By 1959 they had the 389 up to 345 hp and in 1960 the 425a came along with an optional over the counter kit that bumped it to 368 hp. The 1961 425a motor is basically the same motor that was installed in the first GTO. You can go on and on but anyone that thinks the GTO started it either wasn't around then or doesn't know their history. Even after the GTO had been around for a couple of years the big old 66 Pontiac Catalina 2+2 would out run a 66 GTO.

 

[55Brodie]

49 Olds Rocket 88 maybe?

 

[heddrik]

My dad had a 51 Olds 88, He told me it ran like a rocket

 

[Blk61409]

I had a 51 Olds 98 Holiday coupe, 303, 4bbl. Great engine, however with the 4 speed Hydramatic it would hardly move that heavy beast

 

[61 tripps]

To sum it up, Muscle Car was a term coined when they put a 389 in a Lemans. It was also for marketing purposes for those to follow; Chevelle SS, Road runner, Mustang Boss, Pontiac Trans Am, etc. You can also go back too include the aforementioned rulers of the road.