They’re the same thing. Pony car is just a sub class of muscle car. It’s not really size, it’s more the engine sizes that define it. Mustangs marketed themselves for younger people and had a small engine variant and a small block v8. With a few true muscle car variants. Now you have challengers, Camaros and mustangs fitting under both categories.
If a rocket goes straight and a jet engine goes straight and does turns... To your logic, a rocket that goes to the moon is the same as a jet engine. Muscle cars are just that. Pony cars are modern day track muscle... You guys can blame Ford for that. Talk shit on Ford all you want, Ford is the only one that truly earned their GT badge.
Pony cars are legitimately just smaller muscle cars. Pony car examples being: obv the mustang, cougar, camaro, firebird, challenger, and the Cuda. Muscle car examples being: Galaxie, Fairlane, impala, gto, charger, and polara. Notice how every single car I mentioned came with an optional big block, as well as a small block except for the firebird. They actually never had a big block option. And absolutely none of them are known whatsoever for turning until their 90s iterations if they made it that far and that only goes for some of them. The appeal of the pony car was that it was smaller, lighter, but had all the big engines the bigger cars had. Everybody back in the 60s and 70s were speed freaks and really only cared about stop light racing. Thats actually how the gto was born.
I like pony cars because, if a 4 cylinder can move it at highway speeds, a v8 is gonna absolutely rip in it. My 82 camaro weighs 3098lbs without a driver, unibody, makes for a pretty fun driving experience.
You mean that one they somehow managed to de tune to 165hp? The one that’s like a wet fart? I’m pretty sure the only reason those jalopies sold was the crack epidemic of the 80s lol
@@blitzwing870 They were still faster than the previous generation with the 350's, it's easy to fix that by swapping in a 350 or just swapping the early model pistons with late model pistons then change the cam. Reason it makes 165hp is because it runs at 8.5:1 compression stock with a really crappy camshaft
@@ProdigyAutomotive everything I can find says it added a second to the 0-60 but whatever your car is faster with 140 hp just like a Honda Civic is a “drag monster” when you cut the muffler off
@@blitzwing870 Lol 81 Camaro z28 350 0-60 is 8.9 seconds, 82 Camaro z28 305 does 0-60 in 7.4 seconds. It's not hard to bump the compression up and add a cam to make that 305 have as much power as the low compression 350's with hardly any valve duration. But yeah u don't really know what ur talking about lol. Nobody's saying a 305 is fast, just saying *those camaros* with the 305's at the end of the day are still faster than it's predecessors with larger engines. Ur uneducated and I'll gap anything you own lol
@@micharel937 a small block engine refers to an engine with a smaller block architecture and generally is 6 liters or smaller. A big block is an engine that has a large architecture and a displacement of 400 plus cubic inches. Examples of big blocks are the ford 427,428 and 429 cobra jet, GMs 454 and chyrslers 440 and 426 street Hemi
Mustangs and Camaros used to come with big blocks, so this “they only came with small blocks is dumb,” also lots of mid and full sized muscle cars came with small blocks
the thing you are slightly wrong about, is that muscle cars are really actually not that big, the whole idea was that they’d take the smallest chassis they had in their lineup and stuff their biggest v8 into it, they may be comparatively large when side by side to newer cars, but compared to the other cars available at the time they were small. also they were commonly used in all forms of racing not just straight line speed
We need a better definition for V6 Muscle cars!? Pony cars is a lame fazed out term. But lite version of muscle is pretty neat! Luscle Cars lmfao 😂 or Muscle Lite’s hahaha
I never got why people felt weird to call their car a pony car… like pony cars are better the heck “German muscle” typically just a pony car (I want a M5 CS so bad)
I personally say: V8 = muscle (for camaros, challengers, mustangs) and V6 or less = pony car. Unless we're talking 3/4th gen camaros or Equalivent for mustangs/challenger/chargers (idr if it's an 80s charger or challenger) then it's pony.
You know the 65 gto was considered the first muscles car and had a 389 which is a small block so either your disregarding that lots of muscles cars have small block or you don't know the difference between small and big blocks
I'd like to get either a AC Shelby Cobra 427, 69 Charger 440, Chevelle SS 396, El Camino SS 396 , or a Monte Carlo for straight line speed or just to have fun on the highway, and if I go for more handling and less straightline speed I'd go either 67 Mustang Fastback 351, 69 Camaro SS 396, 77 Trans Am Ram Air 455, 87 Trans Am, or an 87 Buick Regal Grand National GNX
My definition of a muscle car is a sedan/coupe with a supercharged v8. The TRX would be a muscle truck and the track hawk/durango would be muscle SUVs. Pony cars are n/a V8s with more aerodynamics.
I think for the modern era of American power that this kind of classification is appropriate, since it's only obvious that American muscle has evolved with the technology applied to them. Good call.
Really, since when? How many racing titles has Mustang won over the decades? Are you referring specifically to the street models, because even then it's been doing pretty good since the eighties?
@@americanosbadassius9292 no I'm just referring to the young owners who end up over steering while showing off. It's a well balanced car but the young owners give it a bad rep 😂
@@shehryaraamir2608 I couldn't agree more. It's almost to the point that I think performance courses should go along with all performance cars, so that each individual can learn the operating parameters of their chosen vehicle.
You got this wrong 😂 muscle car:" a group of American-made two-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving" it could have a w16 and still be a muscle car "Pony cars are stylish, affordable, American cars that were generally built with mass production parts. They have two doors, four seats, and are “performance-oriented”, if not flat-out sporty. Engines varied, of course, but pony cars often carried small-blocks with eight cylinders or even six-cylinders under the hood."
I like how he said the top 3, like he's only missing the charger in the equation...no other brand makes muscle cars anymore. Now if he was making this video in the 60s, through the 90s, then ok its cool because just about any and every brand had several muscle cars
It's easier to know the difference in classic cars from the mid 60's to early 70's. Muscle cars of that era were intermediate sized cars and at least here in America only the 2 door hardtop/ 2 door sedan with a high powered small block or big block were considered true "muscle cars". Sorry but no your 1968 charger with a economy 318 motor was not considered a muscle car back then despite looking like one, they really needed to have a high powered motor from factory. Pony cars back then were easier to identify because there's only like 7 of them lol, the Camaro, Firebird, Mustang, Cougar, Challenger, Barracuda, and Javelin. In theory these cars are physically smaller than muscle cars of that era (Torino, Chevelle, Roadrunner etc.) and were only two door coupe body styled cars. A high powered motor does not matter when it comes to pony cars, it could be a 1967 mustang with a 6 cylinder economy motor and it is still a pony car. High powered pony cars are muscle cars, even if they are the more road racing oriented version rather than the straight line performance car. that being said the definitions above are very old school and don't matter anymore. If you paid attention there's actually many classic cars that are sort of left out if we only go by these definitions such as the compact performance cars (Falcon, Nova, Duster, Dart) and the full sized cars (Impala, Galaxie, Fury)
@@corbanswan1561 you're Aussie muscle was designed to go slow , you would not have Holden without us Yanks you bloody tampon. So show some facken respect .
