Ford's Boring Taxi-Looking Sedan Was The Original Muscle Car

The story of the “muscle car” doesn’t start with the Pontiac GTO after all. While the GTO is credited with defining the category, the article points to earlier performance experiments—especially in Ford’s 1961 Fairlane 500. Though it looked more like a taxi or police car, the right powertrain could turn it into a street-ready hot rod. The piece explains how Pontiac built the GTO’s reputation through marketing and FIA-style credibility, using a 6.4-liter V8, dual exhaust, and a package that cost $295 in 1964. It sold far beyond Pontiac’s 5,000 expectation. The takeaway: Detroit was already chasing big power before the term stuck.