American Muscle

November 13, 2015 – February 28, 2016

The beginning of the muscle car era evolved from the late 1940s and 50s with cars such as the 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88, 1955 Chrysler 300, and 1958 Chevrolet Impala. By the early sixties, powerful big block engines were coming off assembly lines. The race was on to see who could build the biggest engine with the most horsepower mounted in the lightest weight car. In 1964, with the release of the Pontiac Tempest GTO, the muscle car era was officially underway.

Detroit’s “Big Three” opted to validate the power and handling of their popular muscle cars by entering the cars in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Trans-Am Championship race series and NASCAR. The remarkable aspect of the early Trans Am race series was the fact that each model raced was quite literally a show room car, other than the roll cage, seat harness, and a few minor engine modifications; you could watch the races then go buy the cars from your local dealer. This provided a unique marketing angle for American manufacturers to show off their increasingly popular high performance cars.

This exhibit featured several cars from GM, Ford, and Chrysler, all models sold to the public in limited numbers, specifically to meet the homologation or certification requirements in stock car racing.  Each vehicle demonstrates the ferocity of the 1960’s muscle car era before its descent following the oil crisis and implementation of more stringent vehicle emissions standards in the early 1970