by Cory Trevor

Created on: June 17, 2009   Last Updated: July 09, 2009

Ok, most people generally consider 8 cylinders as the benchmark for muscle cars. This isn't necessarily the case, as I think I can plead a strong case for a lot of the 6 cylinder cars out there. Sure you have your 429 Boss Mustangs, V-12 Ferraris, V-10 Vipers and so on, but what about the 333 bhp in a 2002 Bmw m3? Or the 230 bhp in an '87 Toyota Supra?(naturally aspirated as well as turbocharged) There's the 240 bhp Honda S-2000, a 4 cylinder, as well.That's 60 horses per cylinder, right up there with a Boss 429's 62.5 per cylinder.

The average Trans Am with a super duty 455 gets about 55 a cylinder...a twin turbo 1997 Supra gets roughly 53 unmodified..if you break down the horsepower per cylinder, you get a more accurate picture of how much muscle a car has..it makes the number of cylinders irrelevant, and I even go so far as to say that it renders the old adage "there's no replacement for displacement" as simply untrue. The '87 supra displaces 3.0 litres, where a '93 Camaro can displace 5.7 litres, and the Supra has more get up and go to me. And some cars just have muscle when they don't seem to have any right to.

A Dodge Neon SR/T, for example, is craziness on 4 wheels. The same applies to a Subaru Impreza WR-X. Then there are those that are a major disappointment, such as the DeLorean. In it's defense, the 70's and 80's were the earlier days of the catalytic converter and the things would seriously cut down a car's performance numbers. Catalytic converters cost the DeLorean about 40 ponies. Nowadays, the diesel engine can compete with the gasoline engine in terms of performance, due to major advances in engines, glow plugs, fuel and emissions technology. The onboard computers of a vehicle are also more complex now, and you can purchase performance enhancing software for them, especially for turbo diesels. It is now a very attainable goal to have a diesel that can embarrass a small block V-8. In short, it's reached a point where you don't need a V-8 under the hood to have a high performing vehicle, you don't even need to have a gasoline engine anymore, so I propose that the school of thought on how muscle cars are defined may finally be getting a tad archaic.

Like many things, the diehard enthusiasts will be slow to warm to the concept, but will in time. When this does happen, I think a whole new world of performance motoring will be blown wide open and that the diehards like myself will be much better for it. I've accepted this revolution of sorts, and now think the possibilities are endless.

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