Hot Rods Hard to believe..America’s first “Muscle Car” turns 70!

Ok, ok....happy Birthday, 50 Olds!

 

X2

 

I'd like to see an article printed before 1964 that uses the term Muscle Car.

in the real world the 1964 GTO is the first muscle car.

Motor Trend clocked the 1950 88 at 18.9 @74.2 MPH. my old Datsun ran 17.7 @ 77 MPH.

great cars! I almost bought one for my first car.

 

the only body parts that would interchange between Olds and Chevrolet was the roof. door skins would be the same (other than trim holes) but maybe not the inner panels. not sure about trunk lids but it would make sense if they were the same.

 

First US muscle car for me would be a supercharged Duisenberg

 

I always thought the Hudson Jet was the first muscle car . It had the small body and big cubic in flat six with two carbs .

 

America’s First Muscle Car.....this says it all....

1950 Carrera Panamericana

“The winner, Hershel McGriff drove an Oldsmobile 88 at an average speed of 88 mph! It’s almost unbelievable anyone could average 88 mph on those rough roads that were crowded with people at every turn. Eighty-eight mph in a brand new Rocket 88! Now that’s a movie .....

High Noon

 

@anthony myrick I thought about going there too, and certainly before the superchargers. However, the way we think about this we surely have to give props to the Olds as the beginning of such thinking. Even though Cadillac also had a 'monkey motion' engine starting in 49 that division wasn't pushing the get up n go the olds 88 was.

Ok, someone's gonna say "WTF is a monkey motion engine?" 500 bonus points for the 1st one with right answer (although I don't know if the points get you anything)

 

Pushrods and rocket arms?

I have always considered the SJs America’s first muscle car. However it’s timing with the depression then WW2 overshadows this.

 

AKA, sprinkler system ...

 

500 bonus points for anthony!

Look at the rocker arms and valves in this view:


And this monkey's arms...


Dear ol Dad and his usual suspects always called em that.

 

I might be a little biased, but '37 Buick Century's are pretty cool!

I thought the buick dual carb intakes were only '40-'41?

 

I'm sure a lot of the mentioned cars were fast but as a kid getting my first ride in a brand new Olds rocket, I can tell you from experience, that riding in a '50 Olds with the hydro shifting from 1 to 2, at full throttle was an experience never to be forgotten.

 

A revolutionary engine/drivetrain in a very pretty package I will agree, however the Oldsmobile 88 is still a full sized car. The fact that it was fast does not make it a "muscle car" in my opinion. Granted, "muscle car" is really a slang term with no real governing body to define it, but if that's all it takes, there's a lot of earlier cars that would fit the bill as well.

 

Just biding its time . . . .

 

Powerful maybe... Muscle car...NOT
That belongs to thee '64 GTO

 

So...the HAMB not only possesses the rights to the term "hot rod" and "kustom" but now we own "muscle car" as well? Cool! Good to be us! How much did I drink last night?

 

Small version..........

 

Nice model...

 

........Thanks.

 

Your welcome!....

 

That’s a good looking 50, it even has the dealer show hood on it.

 

Damn, this is a 'muscle car ' site now...?

 

Yes! I was thinking of the same thing when reading this thread. I was going to go out to the 'tube to find it, you saved me from having to do that. Great jump blues song. And since we're talking firsts here, this song is often credited with being one of the first, or earliest songs leading to what eventually became known as Rock & Roll. Rock & Roll came out of the blues, and this song was part of that transition.

 

I think a little different. Just because a manufacturer took a stock engine from a bigger model and put it in a smaller one doesn’t make it a muscle car.
I believe it started in 1956 when many manufacturers offered performance packages with dual quads. I don’t care that a 49-50 Olds performed so much better than earlier models, it was the factory adding items you check off buying or go to the parts counter at the dealer and buy.
Vic Edelbrock has a lot to do with this and may have actually made some for the factories; so did Isky with camshafts.
So to me 1956 was the beginning of the muscle car era.

 

Opinions are like small block chevys. Everybody has one.

 

and the first Rock & Roll song was written about it by Ike Turner......

 

you took off hard the whole car raised up, probably got more tire bite.