The American classic muscle car era kicked off in the mid-1960s. While the exact origins of the muscle car as a whole are contested, most folks agree that the first definitive muscle car was the 1964 Pontiac GTO. It was the first purpose-built model to really nail down the recipe with a big V8 shoehorned into a light, mid-size car. Once the GTO hit the market, nearly every other automaker rushed to create their own high-performance mid-size car to compete with it, thus giving birth to the coveted classic muscle car era as we know it.
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