[Hal Copple]

Well, being one of the old Farts who had a Muscle car back then, i have an opionion on their speed and power. In '69, bought a new 440 engined Dodge Charger R/T. Moved up from an MGB for that one. I still think they were about the most handsome muscle car of all, although i liked the 65 GTO too. Many of my friends had Super Duty 421's, Judges, 442's, W 31 Olds, etc.

They had a lot of torque, i could spin my tires at will with the Torqueflight. Had loads of fun with it in Germany on the Autobahn, as long as i did not have to use the brakes to stop the car.

But i agree "off the floor" they were not really all that fast in the quarter mile. They felt fast, but that was because everything else was so relatively slow. My "fast" TR-4 was 10 sec in the 0-60 sprint, and it was plenty fast. It would go all of 101 mph on the interstate, too. Which was good, as my MGB would only do 98 mph, flat out in Nebraska.

The magazine test cars were usually cheaters, the Car and Driver GTO had a 421 motor in it. The Famous 4.2 seconds to sixty in the Big Poncho was not timed. The magazine said they had to way to actually measure such a speed/time, they just put a french curve on the start and quarter mile, and drew a line which put it at 4.2 seconds. Typical 0-60 times were low 7's.

But when your dad's car took 13 seconds, it felt plenty fast. They also got about 8-9 mpg, too.

By the way, the 426 Hemi was a $770 option on my Charger. The car cost me $3275, so the engine upgrade was about a quarter of the cost of the car. Like buying a Lingenfelter Corvette. Of course, making $330 a month as a 2nd Lt. kept me from spending about two months pay just for a Hemi.

God Bless, and thanks to our military for their heroism and valor.

Ah, but they were good times, indeed.