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Cory Rairigh Composition 1 10-4-02 page1 A New Family of Sports cars - Modern Horsepower Can you remember back to the days of the sixties and early seventies, when cars were purely about performance and horsepower? Lately in America, we seem to be experiencing some form of deja vu with some models of cars being produced. Within the past ten to twelve years, we are entering the fourth major car trend. The first big car craze started way back in the fifties, with consumer appeal, or looks, being the main focus of manufacturers. Chevrolet had the Bel air and the 210 models with their rounded design, and beginning fins. They also brought on the finless Corvette in the late fifties. From the Ford side of things, the Fairlane, and the famous T-bird with its futuristic looks. Now that we've had that little history lesson, I'll get to my main focus and objective here, along with a couple more history pieces. I was sitting there thinking about cars, and suddenly I realized that the automotive industry is making another major change. In the first era, the previously described fifties, the main goal was to have an elegant and classy look to the cars. The cars of this era were round, low to the ground, developed ever-growing fins, and had luxury-based interiors. Later, as the late fifties turned into the early sixties, several car companies, lead by General Motors, decided it would be a good idea to start putting engines with eight cylinders into their vehicles. This was the beginning stage of what came to be known as the muscle car era. it almost seemed as if there was some kind of competition to see how big of a motor they could put inside of a car. First, General Motors introduced the 283-cubic inch V-8, which would be built upon for years to come. Shortly after the 283, Ford beat it by six cubic inches, with the dawn of the short-lived 289, which was first found in the 65 Mustang. At about this time is when the muscle car era actually started. Companies started getting the idea to integrate horsepower into their whole big engine scheme. This was prevalent in the cars of the mid to late sixties, when Ford took the next step in engine development in creating the now famous 5.0 liter 302. several versions of mustangs included more and less tuned up versions of this engine such as the Boss 302, and the Bullit. The GT model of the mustang kept this engine all the way up until 1996. Performance on this engine was rated in the neighborhood of 250 horsepower. Of course, general motors was not to be outdone though, bringing out the 305, 5.0 liter engine in different versions of the Chevy Camaro, and the Pontiac Firebird. G.M.'s engine boosted the power up to about 285 horses, so now they were in the lead. As the engine and power battle went on for a while, Chrysler decided that it also wanted in on the now booming muscle car market. After a little bit of trial and error, Chrysler produced an engine that would change the rest of the musclecar future. This monster was called the hemi, which referred to the shape of it, hemispherical. The 426 hemi was quite possibly the best and most impactful powerplant ever created. It somehow generated an amazing 450 horses from those 426 cubic inches. This special engine was offered in a special version of the Dodge Dart, rightly named the Dart hemi, and also Plymouth Roadrunner and Cuda. Now I wont bore you with the rest of the play-by-play on the new engines and horsepower, because its really not important now that you have the general idea. This beautiful competition went on and on, sparking more different engines than you can shake a stick at, all the way up until GM took the final sportscar lead for this era sometime in the early seventies with a 454 cubic inch, 460 horsepower engine strategically placed in select models of the corvette and chevelle, and Pontiac's 455 H.O.(high output) in special Firebird Trans Ams and the GTO Judge.
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