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Factory supercharging available as well.
The non-muscle American car thread (READ THE OP)
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Sure, but that's an Oldsmobile. Aaanyway, I really love more-door hardtops, of which this long Buick is a danged fine example.
Manufacturers like to brag about the number of golf bags you can fit in the trunk, but this one just might take a golf cart.
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- TexRex72
Ohhhh, heh. Oops. I know what happened now.
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Two-seater. There are other boxes to tick, of course, and the AMX does some, but that alone disqualifies it to my mind.
AMC's standard bearer for the muscle car segment was the Rebel. It was a mid-size two-door. It seated five. It shared a platform with a four-door and/or a wagon to which powerful V8s were available. The subsequent Matador might qualify, even if AMC was rather early to the Malaise game. By 1974, AMC was no longer in the muscle car business, but then the trend was winding down throughout the industry.
Consider that the Rebel was 77 inches wide and had a 114-inch wheelbase. The Javelin pony car--upon which the AMX was based--was six inches narrower and had a wheelbase that was five inches shorter. The AMX's wheelbase was an additional foot shorter.
I may have posted it there had I posted here recently enough prior, and it probably wouldn't have raised any eyebrows, but I'd be hard-pressed to call it a muscle car. AMC called it a sports car, and that's a bit of a stretch, but I think pony car works well enough.
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I've always felt like every pony car is a muscle car, but not every muscle car is a pony car. But that's just my own personal interpretation and I am by no means expecting everyone else to feel the same way. Nor do I want to be a gatekeeper telling people what they can and cannot post in a thread that isn't even mine. I made that comment mostly for my own clarification.
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A couple more fine Motor Wheel Spyder applications.
The Deuce is one of 175 "baby" Yenko Novas equipped with the 360-horse LT-1 350 (compared to just 38 SC427s the previous year).
The Dart is a '74 Sport 360 (originally rated at 275hp), and it's a pity that it's not fitted with the "up and over" side and roof stripe package made available for '73-4 cars.
Here's one with it.
They changed it slightly for '75, going from a single fat stripe with a pinstripe above and below to four stripes of graduated widths.
My favorite Darts, however, are the Sports equipped with the 'Hang 10' package.
The outside is nice and all, but the inside of these things is something else entirely.
The 'Mod Top' is tame by comparison.
The Deuce is one of 175 "baby" Yenko Novas equipped with the 360-horse LT-1 350 (compared to just 38 SC427s the previous year).
The Dart is a '74 Sport 360 (originally rated at 275hp), and it's a pity that it's not fitted with the "up and over" side and roof stripe package made available for '73-4 cars.
Here's one with it.
They changed it slightly for '75, going from a single fat stripe with a pinstripe above and below to four stripes of graduated widths.
My favorite Darts, however, are the Sports equipped with the 'Hang 10' package.
The outside is nice and all, but the inside of these things is something else entirely.
The 'Mod Top' is tame by comparison.
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There's a thread for rare factory options, and I thought about posting it there as the Hang 10 was an option package on top of another option package on top of another option package--the Dart Sport Convertriple--and only something like 500 of the surfer-inspired Darts were produced. But I posted it here as being tangential to the topic of Darts. Also convenience.
Convertriple literature:
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The Checker A8 through A12 Taxi was the classic American taxi from the 1950s through as late as the 1990s, despite going out of production in 1982. The Marathon was a civilian version sold from 1960 through 1982. It could be had as either a 4-door sedan or wagon.
Checker Marathon sedan
Checker Marathon station wagon
Less well remembered are the Aerobus airport shuttles. Available as 6-door or 8-door sedans and wagons, they ran on immense wheelbases of 154.5 and 189 inches respectively. I was in the Air Force in the 1980s, doing combat munitions handling training at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong CA, and we were transported around the enormous facility in army 8-door Aerobus wagons. I always thought it would be great to own one. It would be an amazing party car.
Checker Aerobus 6-door sedan
Checker Aerobus 6-door station wagon
Checker Aerobus 8-door sedan
Checker Aerobus 8-door station wagon
Checker Marathon sedan
Checker Marathon station wagon
Less well remembered are the Aerobus airport shuttles. Available as 6-door or 8-door sedans and wagons, they ran on immense wheelbases of 154.5 and 189 inches respectively. I was in the Air Force in the 1980s, doing combat munitions handling training at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong CA, and we were transported around the enormous facility in army 8-door Aerobus wagons. I always thought it would be great to own one. It would be an amazing party car.
Checker Aerobus 6-door sedan
Checker Aerobus 6-door station wagon
Checker Aerobus 8-door sedan
Checker Aerobus 8-door station wagon
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Some cars from the GM heritage center collection
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The Slant 6 may be affectionately referred to as "the leaning tower of power", but at no greater than 225 cubic inches and 165hp, is it really muscle car fare?
I wouldn't call an E-body a muscle car anyway, as the platform was only used for coupes and convertibles with no four door and/or wagon application. It's also got a wheelbase of 108 (like the earliest of production Mustangs) or 110 inches, while the B-body of that period (think Charger) came in 5-10 inches longer depending on application. It's certainly not a small car by today's standards, and there were smaller cars then, but that was actually "compact" (the vehicle classification) territory.
Maybe it's not such a big deal that it's posted here. I know the OP says "no this or that" but even that is pretty arbitrarily justified.
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- wheelmansteve
OMFG. Can you imagine a Checker Marathon wagon with an LT5 and some suspension work? Hotrodwagonheaven...
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Wanna tell us more about it?
(Just in case it's not apparent, that question is actually a link to another thread.)
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I've always had a soft spot for the second-generation Hudson Hornet. It really wasn't a Hudson any more, seeing as it was now built on the big Nash platform and used the AMC V8, but it was attractive in it's own right, especially the '56 model with the metal bar and V-shaped kink in the chrome spear on the rear quarter panel.
1955 Hudson Hornet
1956 Hudson Hornet
1957 Hudson Hornet
1955 Hudson Hornet
1956 Hudson Hornet
1957 Hudson Hornet
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