Many auto buffs out there remember the famous models that were part of the muscle car craze of the 1960s: Pontiac GTO, Oldsmobile 442, Mercury Cyclone, Chevrolet Chevelle SS, Plymouth Roadrunner, and so on. These high performance machines helped define one of the most exciting chapters of automotive history. However, relatively few people remember the predecessors to these tire smoking , quarter-mile eaters. I’d like to correct that situation with a little drag race down memory lane.

Before I start, however, I need to explain that you won’t see references to "sports" cars such as the Corvette and 2-seat Thunderbird in this article. These cars were certainly high performance models in their day, but I’m more interested in the roots of what would eventually become muscle cars; more or less mundane sedans and coupes with high performance powertrains and suspensions.

In my opinion, muscle cars can trace their lineage back to one particular car, the 1932 Ford with the "flathead" V8. This old-timer met the three main requirements that define a vehicle as a muscle car in my book: it was noticeably fast (for the time), readily available off the local dealer’s showroom floor, and it was affordable to the proverbial common man. Without a doubt, there were some very fast cars produced before the Ford V8, but virtually all of them were priced completely out of range for the average working stiff and many of them were built on a custom basis in limited numbers. Only the very wealthy could afford a supercharged Duesenberg SSJ, a short wheelbase Marmon V-16, or any of the other speedy "exotics" of the time.

The Ford V8 brought eye-popping performance into the realm of affordable cars. For about the same price as a humdrum Chevy or Plymouth six (around 650 depression dollars), one could drive away in a Ford V8 which would stomp the stuffing out of almost anything else on the road in sheer acceleration ability. Oh sure, members of the tails & topcoat set could probably outrun a Ford V8 with their Cadillac V16 "sportster" or a well tuned Packard 12, given a long enough stretch of blacktop, but there’s no way they could have dusted the little Ford in an unseemly drag race up to 60 MPH or so. "Speed for the masses" would have made a very appropriate sales slogan for this early hotrod; that is if the ad agency whizzes could have gotten away with it.

Fords (and the slightly heavier & larger-engined Mercurys) of the ‘30s and ‘40s more or less ruled the roost in everyday performance, until Oldsmobile and Cadillac introduced their new high compression, high RPM, overhead valve V8s for the 1949 model year. The Olds V8 could churn out 135 horsepower from 303 cubic inches (5.0L) in its inaugural year. The 331 cubic inch Caddy (5.4L) was rated at 160 horsepower. The flathead Fords & Mercurys were running at 95 and 100 horsepower respectively.

All of a sudden, the performance tables were turned. At the last minute, the normally conservative head honchos at GM made the fateful decision to drop these new engines into the lightest weight models in their respective lines, and the soon to be famous Olds "Rocket" 88 and more obscure Cadillac Series 61 were born. Contemporary road tests of these vehicles show both were capable of 0-60 MPH blasts in the 13 to 14 second range, and top speeds were in excess of 100 MPH--very impressive for the time. In comparison, a well-tuned Mercury flathead V8 of the same period, with stick shift & stump-pulling rear axle gearing, could hit 60 MPH in around 16 seconds, and would be very lucky to top 95 MPH.

Almost overnight, the Olds & Caddies began cleaning up on the nation’s stock car tracks (and in close encounters at the nation’s traffic lights!). The superior breathing of these engines, coupled with the high compression ratios allowed by their overhead valve design, made them the performance champs as the 1950s dawned.

Two carmakers challenged the performance supremacy of Oldsmobile and Cadillac in 1951: Chrysler, with its revolutionary "hemi head", 331 cubic inch V8, and Hudson, with a new model called the Hornet . To me, the Hornet is the more interesting of the two, even though Chrysler left a more lasting impression with the famous Hemi. Hudson was one of the last independent manufacturers outside of the "big 3" to still be producing cars in the 1950s. Its development budget was much smaller than GM, Ford, or Chrysler, but it brought forth one of the hottest performing cars of the early 1950s with the Hornet.

The Hornet’s engine was a huge, long-stroked flathead 6-banger displacing 308 cubic inches (5.1L). While it didn’t have much in the way of rev-ability, it made up for this shortcoming with GOBS of low-RPM torque. Hudsons also featured a very low center of gravity for the time, along with a rugged suspension which allowed for good handling. The combination of superb handling and a never-ending supply of torque made the Hornets unbeatable on the stock car tracks, where they dominated through 1954. The Hornet, when equipped with the right goodies from the factory, could churn up 160 horsepower (or 170, after 1951) and hit 60 MPH in about 13 seconds, while the ’51 Chrysler Saratoga with the 180 horsepower, made the same sprint in around 11 seconds. This was top performance in 1951, folks.

Lincoln became a legitimate performance contender for 1952 with the introduction of a new, lighter-weight body and chassis, along with a completely new OHV V8 displacing 317 cubic inches (5.2L). In its first year out, the Lincoln V8 developed 160 horsepower. This was increased to 205 for 1953 & ’54. Over these 3 years, Lincolns gained fame for their performance and durability in the grueling Pan-American road races.

With one major exception, not much happened during 1953 and 1954 in terms of performance. Dodge introduced a smaller version of the hemi for 1953 (DeSoto had done the same in ’52). Ford and Mercury gained new OHV V8s for ‘54, modeled after the very successful Lincoln V8 of ’52. Chrysler’s hemi went from 180 to 235 horsepower for ’54. But all of these paled in comparison to the bomb Buick dropped for 1954 when it re-introduced the hot Century model, a name which had been absent since 1942.

Buick performed the classic muscle car trick: they took the lightest weight chassis they had available and into it, they shoved the most powerful engine they could develop. The result was the 322 cubic inch, 195 horsepower Century. This car developed the reputation as being almost unbeatable in a drag race during 1954 and into 1955 (when the power was upped to 236). These things could run from 0-60 in a little over 10 seconds--very impressive performance for that time (and that size of car!).

1955 was the year that all hell broke loose in automotive performance. Most of the U.S. manufacturers had an OHV V8, at least as an option on certain models. Probably the most significant, and best remembered performance car of the year was Chevrolet. The famous "small block" OHV V8 was introduced for ’55, with its revolutionary light-weight valve train mechanism and incredible ability to rev up to previously unheard of RPMs. The new 265 cubic inch (4.4L) V8 was rated at 162 horsepower, or 180 with the optional "power pack". A 195 horsepower "Corvette" version was apparently available around mid-year.

In true muscle-car fashion, Chevrolet’s new V8 was available even on the cheapest & lightest models. Also available was a 3-speed stick tranny with overdrive, and a pavement-rippling 4.11:1 final drive ratio. This combination, stuffed into a lightweight stripper 150 2-door sedan made for a very quick car indeed. Zero to 60 times were in the 9.5 second range and Chevrolets soon began to dominate all kinds of drag racing events, be they officially sanctioned or the stop light-to-stop light variety.

As mentioned, most makes had OHV V8s available for 1955, so listing them all would take up a lot of space. Suffice it to say that performance was a key selling point for every auto manufacturer in ’55. However, I think that one other car besides the hot new Chevy deserves special mention: the ’55 Mercury. Ford had cooked up new OHV V8s for both Mercury and Ford for ’54, but they were not overwhelming performers in their first year out. For ’55, the Merc’s V8 was punched out from 256 to 292 cubic inches, resulting in a horsepower rating of 188 or 198, depending on transmission choice. All Mercurys ran with 4-barrel carburetors in ’55, by the way. A stick/overdrive transmission-equipped Merc was capable of blazing acceleration, and if that wasn’t enough, the Merc’s suspension was a virtual carbon-copy of that used underneath the ’52 - ’54 Lincolns which had cleaned up in the Pan-American road races. This engine/suspension combo made the ’55 Mercury a fine all-around performer.

Chrysler introduced its limited production C-300 model during 1955. This was a large Chrysler 2-door with a spiced-up 331 hemi under the hood (rated at 300 horsepower; hence the "300" moniker). The suspension of the 300 model was stiffened to emphasize handling over ride. These cars soon proved to be terrors on the stock car tracks and flying mile events; they were probably the fastest cars money could buy for 1955. They were also quite expensive and produced in limited quantities, thus they stray a bit from my definition of a muscle car.

Things heated up even more for 1956. All the manufacturers were scrambling for more performance. Even Ford, which tried with limited success to promote safety in its marketing of the ’56 models, was caught up in the horsepower race. A larger 312 cubic inch (5.1L) V8, now standard on Mercurys, became available early in the model year on all Ford lines. This engine provided substantially better acceleration than the earlier 292 V8.

Chevrolet, which proved to be the car to beat in 1955, used the slogan "The Hot One’s even Hotter" in ad campaigns for the ’56 models. Horsepower of the year-old 265 V8 jumped to 205 with the "power pack" option, or 225 with two 4-barrel carbs doing the breathing. One test showed a 0-60 time of 8.9 seconds for a basic coupe equipped with this engine & stick shift tranny. Very quick.

Plymouth joined the fray in mid year with the limited edition Fury. This car was a limited-production specialty model, along the lines of its bigger brothers, the Chrysler 300 and DeSoto Adventurer. The Fury’s engine was a 303 cubic inch (5.0L) V8 which had been doing truck duty in Canada before it was breathed on by Chrysler engineers to power Plymouth’s new screamer. The Fury was quite a bit lighter (and less expensive) than the 300, so its acceleration ability was similar. The sprint to 60 MPH could be done in 9 seconds, and top speed was close to 130 MPH. It would only get better from here.

Studebaker hatched the Hawk model for 1956. The top of the line "Golden Hawk" packed a 352 cubic inch (5.8L), Packard-built V8 rated at 275 horsepower. This relatively light weight car had fabulous performance potential, but it was hampered by the inadequate Packard Ultramatic auto transmission which tended to disintegrate after a few attempts at full-throttle acceleration (NOTE: Some Studebaker experts have challenged me on my opinion of the Ultramatic transmission, saying that it was very rugged--I guess I'm willing to concede that, but many of the car magazines of the time commented on the relative "fragility" of this transmission so I'm going on that bit of info. Stay tuned for further details...). This car would have been a top performer if a stick-shift tranny had been available. As it was, Golden Hawks could hit 60 MPH in 8.5 seconds, about as fast as anything available in ’56.

Dodge introduced the first of its soon-to-be-famous D500 models for 1956. The D500 was an engine option available on any model in the line up (except station wagons, presumably). The engine was a 315 cubic inch (5.2L) hemi-head V8, equipped with two 4-barrel carbs and high lift camshaft. The first D500 was conservatively rated at 260 horsepower; enough oomph to shoot a large Dodge sedan to 60 MPH in 8.8 seconds. Top speed was over 130 MPH with these engines, which quickly became favorites of the California Highway Patrol.

It should be noted that Chevrolet was not the first U.S. car company to offer an engine featuring one horsepower per cubic inch. This distinction goes to Chrysler. Optional on the 1956 300B was a 354 cubic inch (5.8L) hemi head V8 rated at 355 horsepower. Chevrolet made the claim for ’57 with their fuel-injected V8, but Chrysler beat them to the brag by one year.

If 1956 was a hot year for cars, 1957 was absolutely scalding. Even Rambler got into the act with a new model called the Rebel. This was an innocuous-looking 4-door car that could outdrag almost anything else built in ’57, except for the fuel-injected Corvette. The Rebel came equipped with a 255 horsepower, 327 V8 developed by AMC (absolutely no relationship to the later 327 V8 from Chevy). With a 4.11 rear axle ratio, the demure looking Rambler could scorch up to 60 MPH in 7.5 seconds. At the time, this was unheard of acceleration, especially from a family sedan.

Plymouth pulled out all the stops for ’57, too. Available on all lines, and showcased in the limited-production Fury model, was a 318 cubic inch, 290 horsepower V8 (a bored-out version of the ’56 Fury engine). When coupled to the new precise-shifting Torqueflite automatic tranny, this engine would help Plymouths out-accelerate any normally-aspirated sedan from Chevy or Ford. There were a very few supercharged Fords and fuel-injected Chevies floating around the streets that could potentially best the Plymouth’s 8.3 second time to 60 MPH, but these cars would have been very rare indeed.

Pontiac became a major contender in ’57, too, with a 347 cubic inch (5.7L) V8, a bored & stroked version of the 316 cubic inch (5.2L) engine used in ‘56. Pontiacs could finally keep pace with the Furys and D500 Dodges at the drag strips. In fact, Pontiac would go on to dominate drag racing events into the early 1960s, as their engine options kept growing in size and power. 1957 was the first year for the "tri-power" option on Pontiacs and "J-3" setup on Oldsmobiles, which featured three 2-barrel carburetors; an impressive sight for anyone lucky enough to peer under the hood of a car equipped with this setup.

Chevrolet introduced fuel injection as an option on the new 283 (4.7L) V8 for ’57. As mentioned earlier, this allowed the "small block" to achieve that magical one horsepower per cubic inch of displacement. A full sized Chevy with this engine could hit 60 MPH in a little over 8 seconds--very quick.

Ford’s top engine for ’57 was a 275 horsepower, 312 cubic inch (5.1L) V8. Some full-sized Fords were produced with a supercharged version of this engine rated at 300+ horsepower, but I have never been able to uncover any performance figures for such a beast. I would guess that they could have blasted to 60 MPH in 8 seconds or less, making them among the hottest of the hot in ’57.

U.S. cars kept gaining power in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. They also gained size and weight, but in many cases, performance improved anyway. I will provide a summary of these years in the next installment of this "Muscle Car Ancestory" series.