“By 1977, I realized that they were never going to build cars like this again.” That statement, by the original owner of a 1967 GTO, could sum up the impetus for the muscle car collector movement that first began to gain steam in the early 1980s. If you were around during the ’80s, and you had any interest in cars, you didn’t need anyone to explain what made the cars of the original muscle era appealing.
Brand-new cars circa 1980, at least from American manufacturers, were mostly terrible. Consumers of the day seemed to recognize that these vehicles were the result of multiple layers of compromise, and the various issues being faced during the ’70s (energy crises, crash standards, inflation…) had worn those buyers down, conditioning many to accept what…
