[Toyaholic]

Originally Posted by bobscogin

The "sports car" or "muscle car" label as applied to the Camaro is arguable. I started driving in 1965 and followed the development of "muscle cars" closely. By the definition we understood then, the Camaro is not a muscle car. In the early 60's manufacturers began producing intermediate size cars with smaller V8 engines. GM, in particular, had a policy that limited V8 engine size to 327 (plus or minus cubic inches), hence the 326 in the Tempest, 330 in the Cutlass, the 327 in the Chevelle, etc. GM did this to keep the intermediate size car sales from cutting into the more expensive full size car sales. If you wanted a 389 or 421 Pontiac, you had to step up to a full size, because before GTO the largest you could get in a Tempest was a 326. It was Pontiac's John DeLorean that first did an end run around the engine size limit policy by installing the 389 from the full size Pontiac into the Tempest, thus creating the GTO. All the other GM divisions soon developed their own intermediates with engine from their full size models. Thus, a "muscle car" was an intermediate size body given additional "muscle" by installation of a large displacement engine previously offered only in full size models. Obviously, much has changed since then, and the Camaro doesn't fit that category, so call it what you will but it ain't a "mucle car" in the classic sense.

Bob

That's how I understood it.

Kinda like this----