9 muscle cars we'd miss

As Detroit downsizes with a mandate to make greener cars, Motown's hot rods may not be around much longer. A fond tribute to an endangered species.

1 of 9
BACKNEXT
Pontiac GTO
Pontiac GTO
1964 Pontiac GTO
In 1964, Pontiac offered the first true muscle car as a racy options package on its unremarkable Tempest. For a couple hundred dollars extra, you could get a full-size V-8 engine and a European nickname that engineer John DeLorean borrowed from Ferrari: GTO, short for gran turismo omologato. The car that inspired "Little GTO" by Ronny and the Daytonas had signature hood scoops and a high-performance engine.

The GTO was revived in 2004, manufactured in Australia, but had disappointing sales and production was halted in 2006. Another high-powered, Australian-made Pontiac, the G8, has been well-reviewed -- but with GM scrapping the Pontiac nameplate, the original home of the muscle car will produce no more.
NEXT: Ford Mustang
Last updated June 18 2009: 2:33 PM ET
Email | Print | Share  |  RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
New GM cars coming, bankruptcy or not Chapter 11 isn't stopping General Motors from launching a summertime product assault. More
Bankruptcy baby: Camaro coupeThe new Chevy has some appeal for Camaro enthusiats and very little for the rest of us. More
GM's junk heap Over its history General Motors has made its share of bad products. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.