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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

MUSCLE CARS / CLASSICS, CONCEPTS CARS & HORSEPOWER

The idea of muscle cars is tied to a culture of classic vehicles having extremely powerful engines and other enhancements that produce higher amounts of Horsepower. The more "horses" you have under the hood, then the more potent the car's engine is, enabling more torque and higher speeds - since the powerful engine forces the wheels to spin faster as the two horizontal axles of the drivetrain receive the rapid rotation commands. High Acceleration is a different issue, and even with a powerful V12 engine, a vehicle can still be slow to accelerate, if it is extremely heavy.

You can put a V12 engine in an "Optimus Prime mack-truck", but because of the heavy load it tows, you're still not going to be very fast; the weight of the drivetrain and the entire frame is just too much, so the V12s engine power is lost greatly before it is translated to the wheels. But if you put a V12 in light-framed Dodge Viper..... even the Ford police cars will stop and give you a salute - since there is no need for them to try and catch you once you're in 5th gear on an open road. 

If you are a fan of Vin Diesel and you watched the 5th installment of his 2009 movie franchise, titled Fast and Furious (the movie that featured Laz Alonso as Fenix the bad guy; and the same flick in which it was assumed that Vin's girlfriend Letty [played by Michelle Rodriguez] died), then you saw a muscle car in that movie, utilized by the main actor in the final chase scene. The car in that scene was a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro, a classic speeder.
And the yellow Camaro sports coupe shown above, "Bumblebee", is one of the most recognizable modern muscle cars in the world. In previous generations, the Chevy II Nova SS [mid-1960s] and the Pontiac GTO were two horsepower competitors. And towards the end of the 20th century, the Chevy Camaro, Dodge Plymouth and Ford Mustang were prominent muscle car brands in the United States.

Today we'll take a look at some muscle cars, both classic and modern.

  
  


The last image  in the second row on the right side is a vintage sports car from the 1930s - the Mercedes Benz Count Trossi SSK, and it predates World War II.

You may need to click on the link that says "Read More", to see the rest of the pics in this article! 

Note: Technically, the Dodge Viper is not a muscle car; its a modern sports car, like the Ford GT. There are also exotic sports cars, like the foreign Ferrari, Lamborghini or the Audi R8 [we showcased the Audi R10 concept car last month]. And there are "gas guzzling" luxury sports cars, like the Bugatti Veyron and the Cadillac Cien that both utilize V12 engines, which were presented previously HERE.

Muscle car designs have evolved dramatically over the decades. The "hot rod" car on the left below is an old school Vintage muscle car, probably from the 1920s - 1930s design era. While the car on the right is a ultra-modern Peugeot muscle car / sports car designed back in 2010, almost 90 years after the car on the left was made [which was considered cool by the critics back then.... and it still is].

  


Be sure to check out the fascinating Alfa Romeo Pandion Concept Car: HERE
And more Concept Motorbikes are over here: HERE