That's what I did. For example a stock 312 on a Tbird (small 3200 to 3300 Lbs light weight for ford)  intermediate custom 300 some what larger and the larger Fairlane weighing more of course. Stock dynoed 370 to 380 as opposed to the 300 rating used by ford. This has already been verified on Frank Rice's engine etcs. The race engines on the other hand were producing 450 to 500 with super chargers according to race car legends Banjo Matthews and others. All the cars mentioned are muscle cars in my opinion.


-Gary Burnette-

Comparing a Race prepped engine to a street factory engine  is not a vary  fair comparison Why not  compare a race engine to a race engine or a Factory stock engine to a factory stock engine1  Not a race engine to a stocker! 

 
 One thing  to keep in mind with the power rating of the Rambler the hp of the engine was 288 as installed in the Ambassador
 When it was installed in the Rebel it had compression increase  from 8.5 to 9.5 and the cam was changed from juice  lifters to solid
It don't take much speculation  to say that the power had to be up from the  Ambassador engine but the rating stayed the same!

A muscle car is defined as a high  performance   big engine  in a  intermediate car  A Chrysler 300 was not a intermediate!
The olds  and  Hudson hornet would have fit the  bill though so I would say the 1949 Olds was the  first Muscle car! 

Some of this info is out of Motor Trend April 1957 and it shows the Rambler Rebel 327 Bendix eletronic fuel injection rated at 288 bhp which is a little above the Golden Hawk but not by much.


-Gary Burnette-

The 1957 Golden Hawk with the super charged 289 produced 275 bhp. This is about 100 hp less than the super charged fords in 1957. About 10 hp less than the 283 injected scruby.  Remember Ford wasn't telling the truth about their hp ratings assuming it was for insurance ratings so people could afford to buy their cars. Stock fords with the SC were dyno'd in the 370 to 382 hp range and Frank Rice's 57 super charged custom 300 proved this out as did Holme & Moody's Race Shop.


-Gary Burnette-

What about the 1957 Golden Hawks? There was a Studebaker dealer in this town who sold a lot of supercharged Hawks and those Hawks kicked everybody's butt.

Like I said, the 1957 factory super charged fords were some of the first to approach 400hp ( Holme & Moody ) Check out a small wright up Titled The fastest 1957 debate rolls on- Auto Roundup and it talks a little more about the insight on the rebel, corvette and T-bird. I owned a 292 for some odd reason that outran the 360 hp solid lifter 352 ford and it also out performed the 1961 375 hp 390 as well and it was stock which just ran exceptionally well and I never knew why. The fords had a lot more hp than what was displayed on their hoods in 1956 and 57 in Nascar Racing and there were some sponsored super charged T-birds in late 1956 as well. I used to talk to these guys that run these engines such as Banjo Matthews, Tom Ingram and a few others that are now gone but their info really help me really  appreciate y-blocks and the real power they put out for their time.


-Gary Burnette-

When Ford introduced their first real High Performance package in 1960, they did it right.  The HiPo 360 HP 352" came with solid lifters,  high flowing cast iron headers, HD brakes, bigger 15" wheels and HD stiffer suspension. 

Paul J. - '57 E Code

Thanks Charlie.

Durham Missouri