The Death Of The Muscle Car - My First Case
How could muscle cars, the most powerful affordable cars the
world had seen, lose their oomph so quickly? What caused them to
disappear? I'm not a private eye, not remotely like one, but
this was one case I had to solve.
It happened back in the 70's, but the evidence was still there.
It was the case of the disappearing horsepower and this is what
happened.
In the era of the muscle car power was everything. It didn't
matter what it was, sports car, family car, pickup; it had the
biggest V-8 possible stuffed under the hood. Cubic inches were
king and advertised power was astronomical. These cars could
kick sand in the windscreens of anything else on the road.
But then horsepower seemed to disappear overnight!
Take my favourite muscle car, the Ford Mustang. The macho models
had V-8s, though meeker models came with an inline six. The
biggest six had 200 cubic inches and 155 hp in 1969/70.
What did the V-8s punch out? The most powerful 351 gave 300 hp
in 1970 and the 427 gave a massive 390 hp in 1968. But by 1973
the most powerful Mustang had a 351 V-8 with just 156 hp. Almost
half what it had in 1970, and only one horsepower more than the
200 cu in six of 1970! As for the Mustang II of 1974, we won't
even go there.
The story was similar with the other manufacturers. What was
going on? It just didn't add up. Could I trust the figures?
My detective mentor, Agatha Christie, taught me that when you're
solving a case you can't trust anyone. Murderers do lie. In this
case it wasn't murder though it was the death of the muscle car,
and it wasn't so much of an outright lie as not telling the
whole truth. And outside forces were at play.
I had to dig deeper. I had to find the facts. Why would
horsepower virtually halve?
It turned out there were a few reasons. Salesmanship was one.
Horsepower was everything so why not measure it in a salesman
friendly way? Gross SAE horsepower was used. Power was measured
at the flywheel with no power-hungry accessories attached. Only
the bare essentials were used.
In 1972 SAE Net measurements were phased in. Power was still
measured at the flywheel but all the accessories were installed
including the full exhaust system, emission controls, all pumps
and the alternator. SAE Net can't be compared exactly to SAE
Gross because there are just too many variations in measuring,
but it is down around 80%. So power ratings dropped. In 1973
horsepower ratings went down again as power sapping emission
controls were tightened.
Gross SAE horsepower had pushed the listed power up. So did the
advertised horsepower some car companies used. What's wrong with
a little rounding up of the numbers for the brochure? Surely
that would help sales too.
All this horsepower galloping around got noticed and not just by
young guys.
Safety legislators noticed, and so did insurance companies who
started charging more for insurance. The word on the street is
that in 1967 a young guy under 25 with a clean driving record
would have paid $700 a year for GTO coverage. Ouch! Some car
companies lowered their advertised horsepower ratings.
Muscles peaked in 1970, and by 1971 they were starting to get
flabbier. Engines were being detuned and within another year
bigger engines were being dropped.
In 1973 many muscle cars were a shadow of their former selves.
And they were finished off by the oil crisis of late '73. Long
lines at gas stations and soaring prices were a real shock, and
so was a 55 mph national speed limit. Gas guzzlers were
irresponsible, expensive and unwanted, it didn't matter how much
fun they were.
So there you have it. I now knew what had happened to all that
brute power. Some exaggeration had pushed listed horsepower up.
A fairer, more accurate measuring system brought it down.
Emission controls brought it down more, and soaring insurance
costs made ground-thumping power too expensive to own. The oil
crisis finished the muscle car off. This case was solved.