@qasimshah and alvis
sirs i dont mean to but in to your discussion but as an avid muscle car enthusiast since childhood ive noticed a few things..
first off the term "pony" car.. the challenger, the cuda, the mustang they are all pony cars, even the first gen camaros. this term simply refers to the short rear deck and long snout configuration the bodies were designed in.
secondly straight line performance vs handling.. for this one in my opinion you have to consider the class of muscle car.. no one expected the 1969.5 Road Runner or Coronet 440 Six Pack to run in corners but they were killer on the quarter mile. however Carrol Shelby's cars from any era were based of the concept of the original Cobra which was considered a sports car not a muscle car, it was built for Lemans etc and with its Daytona coupe variant was very dominant, similarly the GT350/Gt350R were built for competition in road races eventually spawning the Trans Am series in which not only they but factory backed Ford Mach 1s and 302 Bosses such as those run by Parnelli Jone's were very successful.
i also agree with Alvis that the corvette was a sports car not a muscle car, it was differentiated from the rest, if Chevy already had it as their muscle car why would they have needed to scramble to put the Camaro together to compete with the sales of the mustang?
ive read alot on the controversial lists of top muscle cars published by numerous magazines, all of them are different. there were so many options on each car, the interior options (weight), the differential gearing, the tranny's ratios and the engines them selves, finally the fuels they were raced on. some nascar spec hemis and ford 429's could run on anything but 110 octane but yet they were tested as street cars. finally different drivers and varied shifting methods, you simply cannot compile such a list. a huge debate occured on what was the fastest factory muscle car of 1970 it was between the LS6 Chevelle (454ci) and the Stage 1 Buick GSX (455ci) and the Hemi'cuda (426ci). I know that one race the GSx butchered the cuda, the owner packed it up (the mopar) and left with no second run. another race occurred in which the GSx lost. the fact is that we can never establish the best and what i love about this hobby is the ability to appreciate them all since all were flawed, all were crazy fast and as you've both said they all are individual and had a soul and presence that cannot be competed with. A plane jane 318 daily driver Coronet parked near a race spec 340 six pack Challenger T/A may draw just as much attention at a car show as they are different but yet they have so much in common. some times pedigree, even speed, doesn't matter. if it did so much i dont think anyone would build a project car, spending boat loads of time and money to get into even the 9sec range only to be out done by another car in a matter of minutes. there's more of a passion involved in this than handling or quarter mile times.
