Is a corvette a musclecar?

[PPPJJJFFF]

What do you think and why? I've had this debate with others. Any opinions?

Patrick

[MosportGreen66]

Corvette was never a muscle car because you could never bring your family/friends in it.
Muscle cars = 4 seats... What do you guys think?
I refer to our Corvettes as Classic Cars, never Muscle Cars.

[bilede]

Guess I always think of a muscle car as more the standard passenger car with a corvette motor..

[Keith Tedford]

They always tended to be stuck in the sports car category but didn't fit. Corvettes and Cobras were in a class of their own. They didn't really fit in with the English or the European cars. Some sure had the muscle though. The new 427 is no exception. Anything that will run mid elevens on street tires is a musclecar in my books. Beare Motors sold an L88 Vette in '69. I heard it running and the car had MUSCLECAR written all over it. My old 427 sounded pretty tame by comparison.

[Salvatore]

Sports car. musclecar, just a fast car!

[PeteLeathersac]

Here's the Webster definition;

Main Entry: muscle car
Pronunciation: -"kär
Function: noun
: any of a group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving

[LS6 RAT]

I believe a Corvette that is fitted with the biggest, most powerful engine can be considered a musclecar. A 1971 ZQ3 engined Corvette would not be (350cid/270hp), but a 425hp/454cid) LS-6 engined 1971 Corvette definitely is.

Nobody here would say the standard 6cyl 1969 Camaro qualifies, but a COPO 427cid would.

I just gave examples of the least powerful and most powerful engines of each model.

[JQ]

I think from 65 to 70 I would consider them muscle cars. How did some of the big block camaro's match up to the corvettes back in the day?... Any first hand experiences.

[69hurstSC]

whenever the 2 seat debate comes up people tend to refer to them as sports cars. however, an AMX is also a 2 seater from 68-70 and it really isn't a sports car. i generally say that any vehicle built with high performance in mind is a musclecar. a 87 buick GNX is a modern musclecar. a 66 4 door hemi coronet is a musclecar. a 2001 Roush Stage III is modern musclecar. as is a 61 409 impala. now the real debate is whether a 350/300 70 nova is? we all know a 396/375 L89 is. where is the cut off?

[Dave Rifkin]

I think you'd almost have to come up with some sort of a power to weight ratio minimum. (Try to get everyone to agree on that one).
I think each era had their own musclecars of the day. In the late '70's early '80's a Trans Am was a musclecar even though it really wasn't that powerful or that fast.
It's a tough question with many different opinions.