King of the Muscle Cars

[bigsixman]

I think that if you take it from the dealership to the track, the 69 1/2 A12 Mopars were the strongest that I ever ran across. The ZL-1, L-78 and LS-6 cars had bad tires, shifters, suspensions and the smog tuning held them back.

I believe that time and memories have been kind to the stage 1 Buicks as they never ran that hard when new. Go back and look at the old road tests and they will confirm my thoughts. I had friends with a new 70 stage 1 Buick and another with a 70 1/2 Z/28 and the Z/28 won in 2 straight by 2 lengths. In fairness to each, the Z/28 had 3.73 gears and a 4 spd and the Buick had 3.42s and a T-400 and both had the F-60 x 15" tires. They even went at it for top end by hitting it at a 80 mph roll and the Z/28 won that one too.

The Muscle Car Review shootout article in the mid 80s between a hemi Roadrunner and a 70 Stage 1 Buick changed the thoughts on Stage 1 Buicks for a lot of people. I had the opportunity to talk to a passenger who rode to Gainesville in the Stage 1 for the shootout, and he made it very plain to me that the Buick was far from stock.

The hemi cars usually never ran that good on the street either until 1970 when they went to the hydraulic cam and 60 series tires. The earlier hemi cars on the street were usually out of tune and most had poor gearing.

Most of the early muscle cars usually had a poor ignition system which held them back until the plugs were changed out for fresh ones. This would make a huge difference on how the car ran, it usually depended on how fresh the tune was on the car.

The other factor was the ability of the drivers. I watched a lot of cars get beat because the driver did not have the ability of the other driver in the other lane.

This controversy will never end, but my money would be on the A12 Mopars because of assembly line tires, suspension, gearing, exhaust system and the overall combination flat worked on the street. I am not a Mopar fan, but I think they won the stock production title of "King of the Muscle Cars".