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The Ford Mustang is America’s First “Pony Car”. This was one of the first-ever affordable sports cars to hit the market. With Corvettes and other high-end muscle monsters on the market, this offered the common man the ability to modify their vehicle and give it some power.

1964: Mustang The First Pony Car

When Ford revealed the first-ever Pony Car, it turned heads everywhere. The sleek, stylized power-house was the exact requirement that sports car enthusiasts wanted. It came in a V6 or a V8 and the long hood made it possible to get inside the car and add components to it.

The Pony Is Unleashed

Since the inception of the Mustang, many other companies came onto the scene with their own version. The Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger and other just to name a few became the hot new take on sports cars, pushing out the more eccentric European sports market in favor of raw power.

Pony Car Moves to Muscle

During the time between the late ’60s to early ’70s, the Pony car moved to more powerful engines. The new and improved V8 engine would go on to replace the smaller V6. With greater technology came greater amounts of power. The large hood meant more room for cubic inches. Although many V6 engines were modified to pump out tons of force, new V8 engines could do it better. Cars like the Dodge Challenger and the Chevy Camaro moved into the V8 engine to create massive amounts of power. A tricked out Camaro could easily smoke any other car on the market in a drag race.

Muscle Takes Over and Phases Out

All of a sudden, there was a huge push for bigger block engines. Raw powerhouse cars would take to the streets. Pontiac Firebirds, Plymouth Dusters, and many others would take over as the new sports car. Unfortunately, as soon as they came in, the gas crisis of the ’70s pushed them out. Many car enthusiasts moved away from the massive block engines, to more compact and fuel effective cars. Although for a time, the Muscle car faded from the mind of many, it came back in the early 2000s to revive the spirit that once was.