Rev up your engines,
today's question comes from joe m and joe m says, what's up with muscle cars these days,
is it the death of the v8, I see all kinds of 6 cylinders going where they used to have
v8's what's up, well joey that's a very good question because
we're at a rather strange part in history when it comes to muscle cars, there are some
left with v8's with insane horsepower, but at the same time the v8s are really being
phased out in most cars, who knows it might be like in the road warrior movie, these could
be the last of the great v8s, the original muscle car was a pontiac gto and it put out
325 horsepower and it started out with a list price of $2,800, when I was young I knew guys
who had them and they were screaming cars, they were always doing burnouts, terrible
gas hogs and they handled like boats, I mean the handling was terrible, but they were really
fast in a straight line, now today you take a dodge challenger, that's got 797 horsepower,
it lists at $58,995 for that horsepower, kind of against the original idea of a muscle car
that was a car that young people could afford and then drive like maniacs, now both the
dodge and the gm engines, hey their still pushrod engines like the orginal muscle cars,
giant pushrod v8s, that do have a rather unique sound, but with modern technology going way
beyond this 68 cougar, most manufacturers are going for v6 design, take the original
muscle car, a 64 gto, that thing put out 325 horsepower with a v8, but take a modern v6
engine like in the nissan gt-r v6, in a vehicle that's much lighter than that big heavy gto
was, that's more than enough horsepower than any normal person needs, back in the day people
were driving big heavy vehicles, they put bigger engines so they could zoom around faster,
you could get a 4 cylinder engine today that would run circles around a gto, and with all
the government regulations all over the world about pollution, gas mileage, hey it was only
a matter of time that most of the v8 engines are going to start to be retired, because
their just not as efficient, and let's face it do you really need 797 horsepower, I've
driven a 2013 shelby cobra, it had like 667 horsepower and it was insane, that thing was
dangerous to be driving on the street, but I mean do you really need that kind of insane
massive horsepower for driving around in the street, years ago even the formula one race
cars, they went from v8s to v6s they have regulations, they want to make it look like
they care about the ecology of the planet so they don't want these big gas guzzling
v8s so their going to these v6s and the can of course sell that v6 engine idea to the
public and regular cars, which in itself is kind of a laugh because the v6 engines they
run in those race cars they really have nothing to do with the ones you buy on the street,
it's just a sales thing their pulling on that one,
and when it comes to modern muscle cars and v8 engines, their kind of like the top of
the mountain and going towards the bottom really fast, insane horsepower, more than
they ever had, but their in very expensive vehicles, that really the average kid isn't
going to be able to afford, and with the gas mileage that they get, most people kind of
just walk from something like that today, I mean there's always a market for any type
of car, it's a big planet you know, there's that guy koenigsegg and he makes cars that
cost millions of dollars and he claims their the fastest cars in the world, there's always
going to be a market for really rich people that want to buy one of those things, and
I'm sure there's plenty of guy my age who made millions over their decades of living
on the planet and working, they think oh I'm going to go buy a $120k corvette or I'll throw
down $50-60k for a hellcat engine that's got almost 800 horsepower, I'm sure there's always
going to be somewhat of a market for that, but for the public her their phasing in v6
engines, that's just the way that it's gonna be and I mean they do put out a lot of horsepower,
you get in one of those that's got a v6 engine with twin turbos I mean those things have
plenty enough power for anybody who wants to drive fast, and really the big v8 muscle
car engine, that's a dinosaur design, push rod engines, even the mustang v8's went to
overhead cam on their muscle car mustangs, they got away from push rod engines but if
your a purist and your into heavy duty muscle cars I mean you still got the dodge and the
gm big block v8 push rod engines, that can put out insane horsepower, but they certainly
aren't the muscle cars of the past, where anybody could buy one mod it and drive around
like a maniac, now they do handle a lot better let me tell you, back in the 60's I mean it's
amazing that guys like me are still alive, I know a lot of guys that didn't make it through,
the wrapped them around trees, especially up north where it snows in the winter and
you got this insane horsepower on the rear wheels with rear wheel drive and they spun
around all the time smashing into telephone poles, thinking about getting yourself a v8
muscle car and you got a lot of money, you can still buy a brand new one or you can go
the other way and go retro and go buy a 60's or 70's muscle car, and get one that' been
all done over and fixed up, a lot of guys do that now because they hold their value,
that's just how those things go, you buy a brand new one, their value especially the
dodges, they pullet quickly, but the old ones they don't, so besides the limited amount
of people that are going to afford a modern day v8 muscle car, it pretty much is the death
of the v8 muscle car as time goes on, and really for the safety of everybody driving
on the roads these days, that's probably a good thing,
and since this is the Thursday segment where I answer a viewers question, place your own
question on the YouTube comments below and I'll pick the best ones to make a single video
to answer your questions, and where else can you find a guy with 50 years experience of
fixing cars to answer your own question with a video,
so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring
that bell!
