The Lost Generation

Pontiac Firebird SD, Buick Grand National GNX, Mustang 5.0­—highlights of the muscle flexed in ’70s and ’80s Detroit

by Colin Comer

The American collectible car contingent has long argued over when the “real” cars stopped rolling out of Detroit. Collectible prices indicate Detroit’s muscle atrophied with astonishing speed after 1971. What followed was a period of wheezy darkness that included 165-hp Corvettes, and it didn’t fully recover until the horsepower wars of the 1990s.

Things were so bad by the late 1980s, that pavement-pounding ’60s muscle cars were sought by the younger crowd, which was my generation. But time marches on, and much to my chagrin, I am no longer part of the younger crowd. So what will Gen X be looking for if they aren’t nostalgic about true (pre-1972) muscle cars?

Slim pickings in post-’71 performance

The same forces that caused the demise of the muscle car also make for very slim pickings in post-1971 performance. Emissions and safety...