What makes a "Muscle Car"?

[OzJavelin]

My rough rough definition of a MuscleCar is an American "intermediate" - eg:
* GM A-body: Chevelle, Tempest (GTO), etc
* Ford Fairlane(?), Torino, etc
* Mopar B-body: Satellite, Charger, etc
... with 6L+ V8 (383cid in the base RoadRunner was "too small") typically with a list of drag-racing-like options (eg. LSD, traction bars, etc), but no significant handling or stopping options ... supposedly one of the best "handling" Musclecars was the Buick GSX??!!

Most of these cars came from the era of about 1964 when the GTO first showed up to 1974 when the last of the big-blocks was available as regular order. There were many exemptions to the years and the definitions:
* Early sixties "full-sized" 409 BelAirs, 413/426 Max Wedge Mopars, 406/427 Galaxies, etc
* Shelby 427 Cobra's
* Ponycars on steroids: Boss429 Mustang, SCJ 428 Mustang, 426 Hemi Cuda/Challenger, COPO Camaros, etc ..
* '76 455 Pontiac TransAm .. one of the last "musclecars"

To me Australian MuscleCars kind of got associated with American MuscleCars after the fact. In hindsight we realised our smallblock powered GT/GTS/GTR/E38/E49s were like American musclecars but with one significant difference .. our cars were tuned for roadracing not drag racing.