Most people think that the first muscle car where produced in the late sixties. But I beg to differ, and many with me. I vote for the fact that with the “Letter Series” from Chrysler, they produced the first muscle cars already in the fifties.
The “Letter Series”
The “Letter Series” saw the dawn in 1955 with the Chrysler C-300. In 1956 the 300-B came, and every year from there on and up to 1965 they changed the letter, ending up with 300L in 1965.
Then Chrysler had a very long brake in the production of this series. The series resurfaced in the year1999 with the 300M. This was a luxurious front wheel driven family car, but with no muscle car tendencies at all.
Then came the year 2005, and now we see the 300C enter the market. This car actually felt more like a muscle car and gave the feeling of the fifties and sixties all over again. The 2005 300C had rear wheel drive, an SRT-8 as its biggest engine which delivered 425 hp. In other words a powerful beast, and a tribute to its comrades in the fifties and sixties.
1961 Chrysler 300G
This car represent something of an end of an era, the finned car era that is. This was the last cars produced with the ever popular tail fins that Exner designs. The number of 1961 Chrysler 300G produced was approximately 1280 hardtops and 337 convertibles.
The engine in the 300G, was a 413 cid with 375 hp had two four barreled carburetors and an intake manifold with 30″ long tubes of aluminum, which helped give a better mix of air and fuel delivery to the engine, which in turn gave better engine performance at the middle range rpm’s.
As an option, you could get this engine with 400 hp, but then the only option for a transmission was a manual transmission.