F
or decades, despite their prestige and beaut y, North
American muscle cars were dismissed by automotive
pundits as nothing more than straight-line dragsters.
Machines that, while delivering bucketloads of raw power,
time and again fell short of the all-round performance and
engineering delivered by their European counterparts.
Critics would joke to boredom about the inabilit y to turn,
brake or even sur v ive for more than a few hours in
Mustangs and the like, ignoring these vehicles’ craft and
many strengths.
Of course, there was an element of truth to the critics’
claims – turning certainly hasn’t been a strong capabilit y of
muscle cars in the past – however, as of 2012, things have
radically changed. A new generation of muscle cars is
smashing through the walls of European supercardealerships and then leav ing their current offerings in the
dust, out-accelerating, out-manoeuv ring and out-gunning
prestige marques in ever y way that matters. Far from dumb
brutes, today’s muscle cars are some of the most
technologically refi ned and advanced vehicles on the
planet, not just giv ing big players like Ferraris, Porsches and
Jaguars a run for their money, but leav ing them in the
scorched remains of a horizon-busting burnout.
Letting this new breed of automotive beast take the
spotlight in this feature, we examine three of the most
iconic muscle cars currently in production. We reveal their
power, performance and – most importantly of all – the
technology that’s transforming them into some of the best
cars on Earth. So you might want to strap yourself in, as
you’re in store for one heck of a wild ride...We explore how the latest generation of North American
muscle cars is obliterating years of European engineering
with a bevy of sophisticated technology
Muscle cars
evolved
Be afraid, be very afraid...
The Shelby GT500 can even
outpace a Ferrari CaliforniaLAND