 Muscle Talk |
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One of leading the contributors to the demise of the American Musclecar during the first era was high insurance
rates. Basically, they played the "race card", as in, we're not insuring your "race car". If you had a big engine, fat tires
and stripes you were almost considered public enemy number one by your insurance carrier because you must be racing.
Fast forward 40 years and now they sing a different tune. If you look at today's car ads every new safety feature from traction control to anti-lock brakes to dual sideview mirrors are "racing inspired" and, get this, you can get lower premiums for them. These compact cars are boasting about their dual overhead cam 4-valve per cylinder engines, their 0-60 times, their cornering abilities and the list goes on and on. Now, back in the day, the Musclecars had better handling packages, bigger brakes, tighter steering ratios, dual sideview mirrors and things like that too, but they were considered the Devil's chariot because of the performance numbers. The funny thing is, all of that stuff was just as "race inspired" as any of the safty items that you see on today's cars. OK, I understand that these cars were seen as, basically, quarter horses but as the Musclecar movement progressed you started seeing things like improved master brake cylinders, power brakes and disc brakes for better stopping, anti-sway bars, better shocks, wider rims and tires for better handling and tighter ratio steering boxes for better road manners on winding roads. My father wanted me to drive the performance model of the cars I liked for just that reason. I could tell by driving them on any back road that my GTS was a better driving and safer car than a regular Dart and my 4-4-2 was head and shoulders over a garden variety Cutless. Even a basic sport coupe Camaro gave you a sports car feel that wasn't typical for the day. The bottom line is simply this, the average Musclecar (or Supercar as some were called) was a safer car to drive than most but the high torque and big inch engines made it fairly easy to overdrive the car. When all is said and done, the insurance companies are starting to see the benefits of race inspired equipment as a means of safer driving and even how a car with strong acceleration can make for safer merging and hill climbing in traffic, but if you come to them with an American car that says SS, R/T or GT on it, don't be surprised if your trusty insurance agent plays the "race car(d)"! - Dan Davis |