How it all started.....

A lot of people will tell you that the 1964 Pontiac GTO started the musclecar craze, but they don't know the reasons why.  Here's how it all started. Way back in 1956 Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen took over Pontiac, which was in sixth place in sales. Pontiac had a staid image of big sedans-i.e.- your grand father's car. Knudsen's motto was "You can sell a young man's car to an old man, but you can't sell an old man's car to a young man."  He told his engineers to build sporty, fast, good looking cars. Fortunately, in 1955 both Chevrolet and Pontiac introduced modern V8s. By modern I mean OHV design, not flatheads like Ford had used since the '30's, and with free-breathing combustion chambers, not like the "Nailhead" V8 that Buick was using or the "Rocket" Oldsmobiles that dated back to 1949.  The Chevys were 265 cubic inches and the Pontiacs were 287. We all know the small-block Chevy is still in use to this day, and that the Pontiac design lasted until 1979. Anyway, Pontiac increased the displacement every year to 317 inches in '56, and to 347 in 1957. Chevrolet only increased theirs to 283 inches in '57 Corvettes and Impalas and Bel Airs.  The Fuel-Injected 1957 Bonneville that paced the Daytona 500 was Knudsen's first great achievement. In 1958 Pontiac bumped displacement to 370 inches and introduced Tri-Power- 3-2bbl carbs on one manifold. In 1959 they stepped up to 389 Cubic inches, and Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts won a bunch of NASCAR races. In this time, Pontiac had climbed from sixth to third in U.S. Auto sales. This is where the motto "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" came from. Chevrolet and Ford and Chrysler competed too. A guy named Lee Petty  and his son Richard won a bunch of races in Chryslers. Mickey Thompson, and Arnie Beswick ran stock class drag racers successfully. Chevrolet hot-rodded their truck motor and the famous "409" was born. Chrysler bumped displacement of their big V8 to from 361 to 413 cubic inches. Ford dropped the ancient 292 and 312 "Y-Block" design and introduced the 352, the 390 and the 406 inch "FE" series of V8 engines. Not to be outdone, Pontiac bumped displacement again to 421 cubic inches and offered single 4bbl, 3-2bbl, and 2-4bbl induction systems on the "Super Duty" 389 and 421 engines. Mickey Thompson and driver Hayden Proffit blew everyone away at the 1961 NHRA drag championships in a 421 Catalina. The Pettys were still winning in Nascar with Dodge, and the Wood Brothers and the Allison brothers had some success for Ford, and a guy named Junior Johnson had some success for Chevrolet, but Smokey Yunick and Fireball Roberts were virtually unstoppable in their fire-breathing Pontiacs. Roberts won 22 races in 1961 and 1962. In 1963, Chrysler increased displacement to 426 cubic engines. Chevrolet introduced the 427 inch "Daytona Mystery motor" which we all know became the legendary big-block Chevy that's still in use today. The cars that these legendary motors were raced in were full-size cars. Impalas, Catalinas, Ford Galaxies, Plymouth Belvederes. Then 4 things happened. GM sent down their famous ban on racing in late 1963. Not even "back door" help to NASCAR teams, no more racing period. However, Ford and Chrysler had no such ban. Chrysler was developing the 426 Hemi and Ford was working on a semi-hemi 427 to race NASCAR and be drag-raced.  GM brass knew that without winning a lot races, they's lose performance car buyers to Ford and Chrysler. Knudsen got promoted to President of Chevrolet. His replacement was John DeLorean. DeLorean did not want to lose Pontiac's number three sales position behind Chevrolet and Ford. He knew the performance image was a big part of that. He asked his top engineer Pete Estes, "What if we didn't build a race car, what if we built a high-performance street car?"  "A Factory Hot Rod."  The new A-body intermediates were being introduced for 1964-the Pontiac Lemans, the Chevy Chevelle, the Buick Skylark and the Olds Cutlass. GM said none of these cars could have a standard engine over 330 cubic inches. That was the unwritten rule-big cars got big engines, small cars got small engines. Olds engineers angered DelOrean by putting the "Little Car" 330 V8 in the Delta 88 and lowering the price-this car was a direct competitor of the Pontiac Catalina and the Chevrolet Impala. Estes said-"What if we took a 389 out of the Catalina / Bonneville line, and put it in the LeMans?"  Delorean cited GMs rule. Estes replied-"It says no STANDARD engine over 330 inches." "We make the 389 an OPTIONAL package."  Delorean liked the idea. They hpoed to sell 10,000 units. The GTO sold 32,450 units as a mid-year option package, and the buff magazines raved about it's blistering performance. Olds quickly released the 442 package on the Cutlass. The 442 moniker stood for "4 barrel carb, 4-speed trans, and dual exhaust. Even though it came out later than the GTO, and only had the 330 inch V8 the first year, the 442 sold well. The other GM divisions, especially Chevrolet, cried foul, and demanded the Pontiac and Olds models be scrapped. In 1965, Pontiac sold 75,000 GTOs. Oldsmobile upped the ante by offering the big 400 cube V8 in the 442 to compete with the GTO. GM didn't argue with sales success and said the GTO and 442 were here to stay. Chevrolet quickly built some 396 Chevelles in 1965, but only 201 were made. In 1966, the SS396 package was introduced. However, even though Chevrolet had a dealer network twice the size of Pontiacs, they only sold 77,000 SS396 Chevelles, while Pontiac sold nearly 100,000 GTOs. After the phenomenal success of the Mustang, GM introduced the Camaro and Firebird for 1967. And you could get a Camaro with a 396 or a Firebird with a 400. The largest engine available in a Mustang was a 289. Ford quickly shoehorned the 390 into the Mustang to combat this. Even though the Plymouth GTX and the Dodge Charger could be had with the new for 1967 440 V8, they were still full-size cars. Chrysler had to do something about this or just let GM and Ford own the performance car market. Thus the Barracuda was given a much swoopier body and the 340 and 383 V8s were available, and the Road Runner and the Super Bee were launched in 1968. They also wanted a "Camaro fighter" for 1969, but the new E-bodies ( Challenger / Cuda ) didn't make production until August 1969 as 1970 Models. The rest-the Judge, the Hurst / Olds, LS6 Chevelles, Hemi Cudas, is history.  Mastermind