[masraum]

the reality was muscle was never really a thing.

i mean go back and read/watch some old car reviews. most muscle cars were slow AF. 14-16 second quarter miles, etc etc. SAE gross power, simply made up power figures ... like lots of shens going on there. but the performance was never really there. no one could jump an apple with their front tires, no one couldnt touch the dash ... etc etc. none of this was real.

It's all relative, right. Back in 1970, the "muscle" cars were fast as sheiße compared to the pedestrian cars. I'm sure that to someone driving a 1970 chevelle with a 155hp, 250ci straight 6 and a 2 speed powerglide automatic, the 450hp, 454ci car running either a TH-400 or a Muncie M22 seemed REALLY DAMN FAST. A '70 Chevelle LS6 was a bit faster than 14, but not a ton. Of course, that was on stock, street tires. Better tires would have changed that a bit.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/1601-flashback-road-test-of-a-1970-chevrolet-chevelle-ls6

The best quarter-mile time was accomplished at Irwindale Raceway by John Dianna, who has a definite knack for this sort of thing. His low time of 13.44 seconds was followed by two other runs of 13.48 and 13.52, showing a consistent pattern. Shift points proved best at 6100-6200 rpm, and the maximum engine speed for coming off the line was 900 rpm. After some shock changes, the initial engine speed still couldn’t be higher than 900, which is idle speed. There is so much bottom end on this car that it is impossible to use all of it effectively with street tires. These happened to be F70-14 Firestone Wide Ovals, with best pressure settings at 30 psi on the left rear and 28 psi on the right. Any throttle stabbing off the line would cause the tires to go up in smoke, and the car generally wanted to get sideways as a result. A decent set of drag slicks would naturally get more bite to the ground, but the immense amount of torque going through the drive line would just as naturally start breaking parts. Better to cool it and not have to walk home. If this were our car, we’d invest in a big 9 3/4-inch ring gear carrier and housing, with a good traction bar setup. Traction bars are a good recommendation for stock rear steups. The 10.5-inch-diameter, bent-finger, single-disc clutch didn’t even hint at giving up, even after thirty runs. We did get rid of some of the disc facing, increasing free-board length, but that’s merely an adjustment job. The pilot bearing got a little noisy after many back-to-back runs, and while an owner of such a car as this has the gearbox out to install a formidable scattershield, it will pay him to replace the throwout if the car has already logged a few thousand miles. The installation of a blast shield is mandatory for this car.

Our better quarter-mile times were made when the air-filter element was removed and the engine was fairly warm, just a shade under the 195° mark. The warm motor killed a bit of the bottom end, making it easier to get the car moving. After a full cool-down, low-end torque was so tremendous that there was no way the car would leave smoothly. It either bogged or it cranked the rear wheels into the outer limits. Torque isn’t a passing phase in this 454. No matter what the shift point, the rear tires always spun off a bit of elapsed time with each upshift.

I'd say that the muscle thing is still a thing, it's just a different thing than it was. I think there are or have been in recent history muscle cars (camaro, mustang, charger/challenger). Some of the current crop of EVs cater to some extent to the muscle crowd (I'm sure there are some old boomers that enjoy punching it in a Tesla or whatever.

To be a muscle car these days, you need 600+hp, a 0-60 <4secs, and a smokin fast ¼ mile.

Power production and tires and suspension has changed just a little bit since 1965-1970.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/5-quickest-muscle-cars-over-the-quarter-mile-during-the-1970-model-year-242821.html

With its 370-hp Ram Air IV, the 1970 GTO ran the quarter mile in 13.6 seconds at 104.5 mph (168.1 kph) during a test published by Super Stock & Drag Illustrated in the magazine's June 1970 issue.

With this powerful engine under the hood, the 1970 Gran Sport and its new, more flamboyant-looking GSX sibling could run the quarter mile in
13.38 seconds at 105.5 mph (169.8 kph), according to Motortrend.

Nevertheless, when equipped with the range-topping HEMI, which transformed it from a budget-friendly muscle car into a quite expensive one, the 1970 Road Runner was able to run the quarter mile in 13.34 seconds at 107.5 mph (173 kph), according to the December 1969 issue of Super Stock & Drag Illustrated magazine.

In its November 1969 issue, Car Craft magazine revealed that an LS6-equipped Chevelle SS managed to 13.12-second quarter-mile run at 107 mph (172.2 kph).

According to a test published by Car Craft magazine in its November 1969 issue, the HEMI 'Cuda could run the quarter mile in 13.10 seconds at 107.1 mph (172.36 kph), which made it the quarter mile king among 1970 muscle cars.