By Craig Sparkes

We were having a typical Wild About Cars Now Automotive History Preservation Society) staff BS session the other day and the subject of the current crop of “Muscle Car” magazines came up. A universal gripe was that these magazines have lost the very essence of what made the muscle car era magazines so popular to read. Our most popular feature on Wild About Cars Now Automotive History Preservation Society) is the Back in the Day series which reproduces road tests of the actual cars in the day with the tires they had back then as well? Speaking for myself – and it is my blog – I really don’t give a fig about “rotisserie” restored cars or how somebody “claims” to have an original less than 200 miles 1966 whatever or a “Day 2” car, or a “survivor” or any of these “investor” categories.

What I want to know is – How well would a new Camaro LS7 stack up with a 1966-69 Camaro with a 427 or 454 big block swapped in and current wheels and tires? Or a new Mustang Boss 302 against a 1969 428 Mach 1 ram air with current technology. Or a new Hemi Challenger against anything from Mopar in the 1960s with a Hemi. Our staff room BS felt that the current muscle cars would beat the “Back in the Day” cars – but not by much !! The biggest limiting factor of the 60’s muscle cars was tires. When you could run low 12s with 7″ wide “cheater slicks” What could you run today with today’s tires and wheels? Interesting thought !!

So why don’t these muscle car mags find some “Back in the Day” cars – not priceless “numbers matching” one-of-one cars (these are for coin collectors and other investors) but cars like we all know someone who has – Low buck model that has been “upgraded” with a big fat motor and go fast parts. As our esteemed operations chief said – “Horsepower is horsepower it’s how you get it to the ground” – and he has a 2001 Mustang GT with a swapped-in Aussie 5.4 liter “Boss 290” AND a 1968 Oldsmobile 442 Ram air W30 conversion car. An engine swapper and hot rodder for sure. My 1972 Scarab Z has a smoking Gen 1 small block Chevy 350 and it will run.

So drop a line to these mags and tell them to get a “shoot out” going so that we can see the best muscle cars from today and yesterday – side by side. Let the tire smoke begin !!