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The fifties were the time when big things were happening on the automotive scene. Corvette was being unveiled. The Nash Healy was on the list of things to buy and the era of the 50's hot rods was in full swing.

Aside from the sports cars, some of the other more popular hot rods were also coming out in full bore from the assembly lines. Popping off the assembly, along came the Mopar, all of which were typical 50's hot rods, from the 1954 Dodge that was the Indianapolis 500 Pace Car that year, up to the 1958 Plymouth Fury with its back fins reminiscent of the sharks that were also making the news that year.

The cars that were designed in the fifties were not quite street rods, but they weren't far off. Street rods were common, but they were spin offs, and the bigger more powerful cars of the fifties were nearly all hot rods. They were big and bold and a power of their own.

50's hot rods were power cars. Big and bold, sleek and clean, they had more power than most cars today and were not in any way shape or form considered to be compact. They were huge, and took up half the road quite easily. They were a force to be reckoned with t and they were definitely not environmentally designed. These guys were gas guzzlers, but the simple truth was that gas was cheap, the cars were no more than a couple thousand for a new one, and in an era when gas was about 25 cents a gallon so no one really cared if your use of it was excessive.

Chevy and Ford also had their answer to the hot rods that were the prevailing cars. The Chevy Nomad was one of the most wanted cars of the fifties, while Ford came back with their own version of the street rod and the 50's hot rods by offering their own bold new car to add to the fray. The Skyliner and the Fairlane were both bold and big and had a sleek sports car look and could literally fly with the power of their larger motors.

Each of the major car makers had their own version of the sports car and the 50's hot rods and each of them was sure that theirs was the best. In the end, all of them achieved a loyal following that lasts to this very day, with nearly every classic car fan wanting a fifties car of some variety or another.

Ian Pennington is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

To learn more about 50s hot rods [http://hotrodstoday.info/50s-hot-rods], please visit Hot Rods Today [http://hotrodstoday.info] for current articles and discussions.

The Muscle Car and the Tyrannosaurus Rex-a Study in Similarities

When you saw the headline you probably wondered, what is this guy smoking. Just think about it for a moment, neither one of them is still around but both are a big part of our culture. Who hasn't heard of the T-Rex(as he's better known as) or a GTO? I think by the end of this article you'll agree with me,at least a little bit, that there are at least some similarities.

First of all let's take a look at how T-Rex evolved could have evolved. I would imagine the 1st dinosaurs were fairly small, egg layers and most likely plant eaters. Suppose (you really have to use your imagination) there was a nest of newly hatched reptiles and as usually happens the most agressive got the most food and grew to be the biggest. Now suppose the mother wasn't able to bring any more food (for whatever reason) to the babies. They would probably start fighting over what ever scraps they could find and the largest one might take a bite out of one of the others. Finding he or she liked it he would eventually eat all the rest of them. By then be he would be big enough and bad enough to take on the world. Now suppose this same scenario happened close by but with one of the opposite sex. I think you can get the picture of how T-Rex evolved. Eventually some outside forces caused the T-Rex along with all the other dinosaurs to die out, exactly how is the center of much debate about the subject.

Now then we come to the muscle car evolution. Of course we know how the muscle car died out. It took the muscle car roughly 60-70 years to evolve in comparison to the millions for T-Rex, although the life span of our subjects compared to the overall span of existence could be similar. We know the muscle car existed for approximately 9 years or about 12% of the life span of the automobile up the end of the muscle car. It's possible the T-Rex was around for the same percentage of time.

When the automobile became more than just an idea, it was inconceivable to anyone that eventually it would become the fire-breathing monster machine called the muscle car. Let's examine how this happened. The first machines that qualified as an automobile car had less than 20 horsepower while the advertised horsepower of the most powerful production muscle car was 450 horsepower in the 1970 Chevy 454. Of course today you'll find modern cars with even more but we're talking about the classic car age.

I would say the horsepower race really started in 1955 likely due to the rivalry between Ford and Chevrolet, even thought Oldsmobile had an overhead V8 clear back in 1949. In 1954 Ford came out with an overhead valve engine followed by Chevrolet in 1955 and Mopar in 1956. Chevy's was larger than Fords and Mopar's bigger still and away went the horsepower race. Even though the horsepower was starting to climb at a dizzying rate,the engines were still being put in the standard configuration of the bigger the car the bigger the engine.

1959-1960 was when the compact car made an appearance (and set the stage for the muscle car along with the bigger engines) with the Big 3 all having them. The American public had a taste of horsepower and now they were asked to go back to little 6 cylinder engines. Needless to say it was a tough sell for the compacts, but their day was coming.

Things were pretty static for the next few years with the horsepower wars marching along. Chevrolet had the 348 CI engine in 1958 and then made it into the 409 in 1961. In 1962 it was the first production engine to hit 1 horsepower per 1 cubic inch. They got to a 396 CI in 1965 and the 427 in 1966. In 1970 they were up to 454 CI.

Ford engines were kind of lagging behind until 1961 when they came out with the 390 CI and then a 406 CI engine in 1962. In 1963 they were up to 427 CI and 428 CI in 1966. The biggest one, the 429 CI came in 1969.

Mopars were up to the 392 Hemi in 1958 and the 413 Wedge replaced the Hemi in 1959. In 1966 they came out with a 426 Hemi and in 1967 a all new 440 CI monster. 1971 was the last year for these engines.

Meanwhile Oldsmobile jumped into the horsepower race with a 330 CI engine in 1964 and a 400 CI in 1965. In 1970 they came out with their biggest at 455 CI. Buick pretty well stayed out of the race until 1963 when they came out with a 401 and 425 CI. In 1967 the 430 replaced the 425 CI.Their huge 455 CI debuted in 1970. Pontiac brought out the 389 CI in 1961 with a 400 and a 428 CI coming out in 1967. Their big 455 CI came out in 1970.

During all of this engine one-ups-manship the boys at Pontiac used a GM technicality to their advantage and stuffed a 389 CI into a Tempest. Although this was reported as the first muscle car the Olds had the 442 and a number of other models had bigger engines for 1964 and earlier years.

Looking back,because GM dropped their engine cubic inch restrictions in 1970 most of the cars increased the cubes to even bigger sizes. I imagine this is one reason the insurance companies put huge premiums on the muscle cars. 1970 was also the goverment passed the Clean Air Act. Those two things started the demise of the muscle car and then the oil crisis finished them off. By 1972 all the manufacturers except Pontiac hhad thrown in the towel and that was the real end of the muscle car era. The Pontiac TransAm came out as a muscle car in 1973 and 1974 but it was a fairly toothless T-Rex.

If you follow the auctions or keep up with the prices of muscle cars you'll see that they are getting their revenge for being killed off in the prices they're bringing nowadays.

Hopefully no one will take this article too seriously and challenge me on my suppositions and treatment of history. I think the engine and car facts are correct but if not don't get too bent out of shape over it. It's intended to be entertaining rather than a treatise of history.

Just like the T-Rex the muscle car had a brief but illustrious life in the overall scheme of history. They both packed a lot of dynamics into the short time they were on earth and will both forever be a part of history that is engrained in our hearts and minds.

About the Author

Don Levy has a 60 year love affair with all classic cars, muscle cars and hotrods. He lived through the times that he writes about and witnessed evolution of the automobile first hand. His website at http://classic-car-hunter.com has over a thousand classic cars and trucks, muscle cars, hotrods, street rods and assorted cars for sale along with an area to list your car for sale.
This and other articles about the classic car hobby appear in his blog at http://classic-car-hunter.blogspot.com

Huffman car show set at DQ
LEETONIA- The Leetonia Dairy Queen will host its second annual Dustin Huffman Memorial Scholarship Car Show on Aug 1. The show is from noon to 5 p.m., with registration one hour prior.

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