I have a question. It goes as follows… Do we still have muscle cars, as in the traditional recipe where you add a bunch of power and not much else? If so, are they still true muscle cars? The reason I bring this up is because the Ford Mustang is the best-selling sports car in the world. What happened there? The current Chevrolet Camaro is apparently a good sports car as well. Wtf? So that leaves the Challenger which, let’s be honest, is still very much a muscle car for the simple reason that it still goes fast in a straight line but gets silly when it sees a corner. So, is Dodge the only company to hold on to the physical idea of a muscle car? Seems like it.

Then we have the little problem that is the Corvette. From its launch till the C6 generation, it was considered to be a sports car. Right? Well, then the C6 ZR1 happened and it caused a bit of a scramble. Here you had an American car with a Supercharged V8 that had more power than a Ferrari Enzo. The Enzo is a super car. Does this make the Corvette a super car? Probably not but it does possibly put it into the category some petrolheads refer to as ‘Super Muscle’. It is not an official category and is only reserved for muscle cars with absurd power figures. The Dodge Challenger Demon comes to mind. As does the Hellcat and the Redeye. And the Hennessey Exorcist (pretty much anything made by Hennessey with their HPE1000 package).

Then the C7 rolled around and boy-oh-boy, the Z06 made as much power as the previous ZR1. Another problem. Do you put the Z06 into the super car category, or do you wait for the inevitable ZR1 and put that in instead, denoting the Z06 to stay with the sports cars? Difficult. The ZR1 did eventually roll out and it had a stupid amount of power. Again, super car or still just a sports car?

Chevrolet then went and made this whole situation worse by moving the engine placement of the C8 Corvette, making it even more of a supercar then before. And when the eventual Z06 and ZR1 versions come around in a few years’ time, they will no doubt be more supercar-ey than before. Hennessey has already revealed that they are making an HPE1200 package available for the C8 – which, as you guessed, gives it 1200bhp adding to the even more ‘all-over-the-place’ situation of the ‘Vette.

Speaking of the C8 ‘Vette, when it was first revealed, I thought it was ugly and over-styled. That central carbon-fibre vent thing that goes over the doors looks stupid and oversized. The rear lights, whilst distinctly Corvette, are not very pretty and the front end looks a bit off. The interior is very driver-focused and the steering-wheel is square and stupid and I don’t like it. There are many things that make me believe that the C7 looks better in every single way. However, if I ever get the opportunity to drive one, I’d gobble it up like a chocolate éclair and love every second of it (I’d probably end up wanting one as well).

So, to summarise this post… Dodge makes the only real muscle car and therefore wins the endless battle of the horsepowers, the Mustang and Camaro are in a completely new battle on their own and the Corvette is a muscle/sports/super car (whichever one you pick will probably be wrong).