Muscle car - when did this term originate?

[Guest KingElvis]

Another Ebay discovery was an Aussie magazine called "SUPERCAR," which published far into the eighties. This title was more like our HOT ROD in content - mostly about people's modded up rods. So it appears that in Australia the word supercar was also used in the '70s like we use 'musclecar' today.

Here's a special edition from the editors of another Aussie magazine called Sports Car World - this is from 1974, but has road tests of sixties Aussie cars like the Holden Monaro (red car in the background).

Will get more into the particular provenance of musclecar - including the blurring line between the supercar/musclecar word in the eighties, but I wanted to show how established was the convention that musclecar was a synonym for supercar all through the 1970's.

[Guest KingElvis]

In the attempt to nail down the provenance of 'musclecar' I found Martyn Schorr! Emailed him and then called him up! An exceedingly gracious man. I don't want to get too specific at this point because I am going to have him review my final story on this all important and all consuming topic!

However, I think I can report a few details with no ambiguity: he did say that he remembers saying "pony car" in reference to all Mustang imitators and they never called them 'supercar' even if it was a Boss 429 or Hemi Cuda.

He said he also thought of 'muscle car' as being more of an all around term - much as today we might call a 32 valve Mercury Marauder and Ford Mustang GT both 'musclecars.' He remembers 'super car' being more of a term of distinction specific to the 'intermediate' GTO and its imitators.

He was also unambiguous in shooting down one of my pet theories, namely that "muscle car" was a pejorative or put down used by lovers of European cars. He said it never had any negative tint in his view.

[Guest]

Before you and Mr. Schorr finalize a opinion why not have him get a hold of Jim Wangers for more discussion. Jim held the advertising account with Pontiac with Pontiac division from 59-69. Jim used to supply Marty with most of Pontiac's press vehicles and I understand they are friends. Jim has some very good insight into the muscle car world that he helped promote and create during those years. Jim was if not near, but I think THE first along with Pontiac General Manager Bunkie Knudsen together to form a factory link with a dealership to promote racing which started in 1959 and that dealership was Royal Pontiac of Royal Oak Mi. and a little while later dealers who wanted to participate all over the country. Jim was also a drag racer himself and won many races in Royal Pontiac's cars in A/ stock, Super Stock and B/FX.

Jim is one of the nicest guys on the planet.

Don

[Guest KingElvis]

After a brief vacation, I'm back on the case! I found this very tantalizing story in the July 1965 ROD AND CUSTOM magazine. It takes us back to that prime suspect in the supercar and musclecar quest: Roger Huntington, the paraplegic who wrote for a number of magazines at the same time - which was unusual then as it is now.

Feast your eyes, AACA brethren, upon what appears to be a reformulation of the CAR LIFE definition that now includes the Plymouth Barracuda Formula S.

Behold, the "Super Compact."

It's not such a strange formula if you consider that for Buick, Olds and Pontiac, the A body really was the smallest car. The F85, Special and Tempest were indeed 'compacts' when introduced and continued as such at least nominally. However, he also includes the 375hp "Z-16" Malibu SS, despite the existence of the Chevy II and Corvair 'compacts' in the Chevrolet stable.

Notice in this definition, we are getting a new prerequisite that was notably absent from the one in the May '65 CAR LIFE: The car must be a 'package' deal that includes some kind of marketable image.

Curiouser and curiouser that Huntington keeps trying to define the species of the "GTO-type car." It makes you wonder if he was the driving force behind the CAR LIFE definition of May '65.

Edited November 8, 2011 by KingElvis (see edit history)

[X-Frame]

I think you will find as many answers as questions. To me if the '64 GTO was considered the first, this would sort of indicate a mass produced street legal car that had a racing type engine (lots of HP) that can also be used as a grocery getter. That may be too simple and also opens a lot of debates but in essence this is how I see the term being used. I never heard the term until the 1970s and used a lot with Chrysler products so I am sure the HEMI played into this. But the HEMI goes back a ways... 1951.

Eric

[Guest KingElvis]

This is our old friend Martyn Schorr again. This is from very late in '66 - September issue, so this is long after the first mention of the word in Sept '65 Popular Science. What interested me here was the similarity to the Roger Huntington definition from July '65 Rod and Custom - namely that which would distinguish this "GTO type" car is a marketing image.

He actually calls the super car market the "image car sweepstakes" at one point.

Edited November 2, 2011 by KingElvis (see edit history)

[Guest KingElvis]

Almost by a process of elimination, I think I'm ready to come full circle. One of the first things I found - the reference by Popular Science's Jan P. Norbye of "Musclecar" in the September 1965 issue - might just be the 'smoking gun.'

I'm more inclined to ignore the reference made by McCahill to the T-Bird sports tourer in '62.

In this June '65 scan of a test of sports cars Tom seems to make reference to GTO type cars. See for yourself and interpret, but McCahill's class of "hot prestige seekers" would include the GTO - and he's saying these aren't 'sports cars.' He refers to HPS as being introduced by nearly all the makers in the past 'year or two' and that would certainly include the GTO.

McCahill's June '65 "Hot prestige seekers" and Huntingtons' "Super Compact" formulation of July '65 makes me think that neither McCahill or Huntington 'coined' the term musclecar, since they were written, literally within three months of Jan P. Norbye's 'coinage' of musclecar to explicitly refer to the "GM musclecars" of '65.

So get used to it. Until we can find an earlier published reference to 'muscle car' it would seem the evidence points directly to Jan P. Norbye.

[Guest KingElvis]

Discovered mustangtek - wonderful archive of Motor Trend Car and Driver and Car Life. This occupied me for most of the weekend!

I found this fascinating ad introducing the SS396. This was in the November '65 Car and Driver. Very early on Musclecar was indeed almost a term of distinction or 'technical' term since here it's already being acknowledged by the manufacturer. This is a very important clue in the musclecar quest.

I find it interesting that, rhetorically, Chevy is already on the defensive - saying that the 396 is an all around balanced performer and not just strip stormer.

Very important as well, the only known quantity "muscle cars" being referred to were all GM cars at the time when the ad was conceived. This conforms with Jan P. Norbye's formulation "GM musclecars" from Sept '65 Popular Science.

This should get the testy Mopar guys even testier, since not only was GTO the first 'supercar' but even the word 'musclecar' was early on associated with GM by Jan P. Norbye - and in this case, actually used by GM first to refer to the breed.

UPDATE: Put the first page on just so the ad is complete* - and you can read Chevy's line about the SS396 being 'balanced.'

*same ad appears in November '65 Motor Trend.

Edited November 8, 2011 by KingElvis (see edit history)

[trimacar]

OK, so it appears that we have an answer on the first documented use of the words muscle car to describe the beast......lots of good comments and information on this thread.....

I'd sum it up by saying that cars that fit the description of a "muscle car" existed decades before the term itself was coined, and then put into general usage, starting in September of 1965.....

[padgett]

Ah yes, Jan Norbye and his stopwatch. Porsche was still avoiding mention in advts of the '90s.

In the early '60s Pontiac was trying to emulate Ferrari with the "Get Those Orders" and actually homologated the 64 with the FIA as a Grand Touring Car - I recall seeing the homologation papwerwork while a GMI student.

Edited November 7, 2011 by padgett (see edit history)

[Guest KingElvis]

Ah yes, Jan Norbye and his stopwatch. Porsche was still avoiding mention in advts of the '90s.

What was it they weren't mentioning?

In my rooting around, I discovered a Jan P Norbye article entitled "KING KONG" in reference to the '64 426 engine that was sold only to competition buyers - this was in Car and Driver - so he wasn't only a Popular Science man.

I'm still curious if we could actually find any reference to "GM musclecars" in a GM press release - maybe someone at GM itself was behind popularizing the word? I actually re-read the Wangers book "Glory Days" looking for some clues, but he certainly never says "I coined the word musclecar." If someone associated with GM would have made it up, it would probably be him - that's the kind of thing you would remember too.

Still, since the earliest written evidence we have so far is the Sept '65 PS Jan P Norbye article, I guess he's getting credit until another 'smoking gun' can be dredged up.

BTW, I want to reiterate that I've come very close to what I would call the "process of elimination" with this. I've read just about every jpeg scan of supercar tests from 1965 that the net has to offer (again, another shout out mustangtek!) and NOBODY is saying musclecar. I was especially focused on Tom McCahill because of the May '62 reference in the T-Bird article, but he does not use the word in reference to the '65 442 - and as in the article a few posts up, he seems to indicate a GTO type vehicle was, in '65 known as a "hot prestige seeker" within Mechanix Illustrated.

[Guest]

I'm still curious if we could actually find any reference to "GM musclecars" in a GM press release - maybe someone at GM itself was behind popularizing the word? I actually re-read the Wangers book "Glory Days" looking for some clues, but he certainly never says "I coined the word musclecar." If someone associated with GM would have made it up, it would probably be him - that's the kind of thing you would remember too.

_________________________________________________________________

I wouldn't think Jim would have, after all Jim was concerned and busy with promoting Pontiac as Wide Track Tigers especially with GTO until 1967. If you read that book you know how that tiger theme ended with another Corporate blunder of meddling in a divisions realm of expertise. Another case where corporate just didn't get it.

Don

[Guest KingElvis]

Ah yes, Jan Norbye and his stopwatch. Porsche was still avoiding mention in advts of the '90s.

In the early '60s Pontiac was trying to emulate Ferrari with the "Get Those Orders" and actually homologated the 64 with the FIA as a Grand Touring Car - I recall seeing the homologation papwerwork while a GMI student.

I ran across something that we could be able to 'prove wrong.'

Notice this July '65 ROAD TEST article comparing "GM's Three Things." Gran Sport, 442, and GTO. ("Musclecar" is not used BTW).

Either padgett or ROAD TEST is a liar! Notice they make a great noise about how chicken Pontiac never did homologate the GTO with FIA. This is one of those things that should be easily proven either right or wrong somehow.

[trimacar]

Making a statement that one believes to be true does not make one a liar, but rather it makes one appear to be misinformed...........if, in fact, the statement turns out to be incorrect.....

and I learned a new word today, I've never heard the term "homologate"........

[trimacar]

and my friend Mr. Google has educated me further...even if the GTO was not homologated by the FIA, the initials implies that it is/was....GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato, or, translated, Grand Touring, Homologated.

I'll let a race fan determine if the GTO was ever truly homologated......

[Guest KingElvis]

and my friend Mr. Google has educated me further...even if the GTO was not homologated by the FIA, the initials implies that it is/was....GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato, or, translated, Grand Touring, Homologated.

I'll let a race fan determine if the GTO was ever truly homologated......

Not meant that seriously, Trimacar. Meant in jest. I actually am thinking Road Test got it wrong. I'm going to see if that can be looked up and another dispute settled. I would love them to be wrong since you can see they go on and on in the story heaping abuse on good ol' Pontiac.

[trimacar]

Got it, KE.....jest it is.....I'm still trying to figure out how I went 60 years, 47 of which had cars involved, and never heard the "racing" term homologated........although I did know Omologato, but never knew what it meant......

fun stuff....

[nzcarnerd]

If GM had homologated the GTO there would be examples racing today in European historic racing, which there are not as far as I know, just Falcons, Mustangs and maybe Comets.

My feeling is that muscle car is just another misused term with no specific definition, but perhaps not as badly misused as the word classic.

In Australia the word supercar is more often used I think - partly because that is the term used for the current crop of racing touring cars. In the supercar era of the late '60s, early '70s they - the Holden Bathurst Monaro and the Falcon GT HO amongst others - were built in order to homologate them for the annual Bathurst 500 mile touring car race which was for factory production models at that time. In 1974 when it was announced that the new Falcon GT HO Phase IV was to be capable of 160 mph in street trim there was such an outcry that Ford chose not to build it. Of course the V8 cars of today are faster than those cars were but nobody bats an eyelid. The race is still run today - over 1000km usually during the second weekend of October - but is now just one event of the V8Supercars touring car racing series. It is one of several endurance events held later in the season after the earlier sprint races. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathurst_1000

[Guest]

If GM had homologated the GTO there would be examples racing today in European historic racing, which there are not as far as I know, just Falcons, Mustangs and maybe Comets.

_________________________________________________________________

Actually not the corporation, but some privateers did and several were road raced in the early 70's Trans Am series. Some even race today.

http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/1964_Pontiac_GTO_Vintage_Road_Racing_Car_For_Sale_Front_1.jpg

http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/1964_Pontiac_Tempest_Gray_Ghost_GTO_Trans_Am_1971_Tillius_1.jpg

http://www.gtoroadracer.com/images/gto1221.JPG

Don

Edited November 9, 2011 by helfen (see edit history)

[nzcarnerd]

I meant homolgated with FIA. If that had happened I am sure there would be GTOs in European historic racing.