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First muscle car?

Buick used the body from its smallest, lightest car the Special and installed its biggest most powerful engine, a 320 cubic inch 120 horsepower straight eight. That must be the formula for a muscle car. The result was a car that could genuinely cruise at 100mph; hence the name Century. I would guess the only reason the Century might not be classed as a muscle car, was Buick needed to extend the wheelbase slightly to accomodate the bigger engine, and also offered a full range of body styles, and four-door sedans never seem very muscular.

In your history of Oldsmobile you mentioned the steam cars R E Olds built before he founded Oldsmobile. One of these steam cars was the first American car ever to be exported. It was purchased by a British procurement company on behalf of an Indian prince. On the way to India the ship carrying the steam car sank, and the car was lost. Supposedly Olds was quite pleased about this because the car was extremely unreliable, and he was concerned it might damage his reputation as an engineer. He only sold the car because he was desperate for money.

Mel Atkinson
Worcester