Muscle Car Trivia
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This muscle car quiz has 116 free questions with answers and runs from the 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 through the Pontiac GTO, the winged Mopar aero cars, the Hemi 'Cuda and the LS6 Chevelle, on to the insurance surcharges, the Clean Air Act and the oil embargo that ended the first era, and finally the retro revival that gave us the 707 hp Hellcat and the 1,025 hp Demon 170. It is written for people who know the difference between a Road Runner and a Super Bee, and for movie fans who know the General Lee, the Bullitt Mustang and Kowalski's white Challenger. Questions range from easy nameplate history to expert-level production numbers. Every answer was checked against the relevant Wikipedia article and its cited sources before publication, so the numbers, dates and horsepower figures are the documented ones rather than bench-racing legend.
30 of 116 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1949 Rocket 88, seen by some as the first muscle car, was built by which GM division?
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile's Rocket 88 was the car to beat in early NASCAR, and it inspired 'Rocket 88', one of the earliest rock and roll records.
Q 02Which 1979 film follows a highway cop who hunts a biker gang in a black V8 Interceptor?
Mad Max
Mad Max gave Mel Gibson his breakout role, launching the career that made him an action hero.
Q 03The Pontiac GTO's name was inspired by a 250 GTO built by which carmaker?
Ferrari
Ferrari's 250 GTO inspired the name, and fans soon added an A and rearranged the letters to nickname Pontiac's car the Goat.
Q 04In 1964, the GTO was an option package on which Pontiac model?
LeMans
LeMans buyers got the big engine only as an option, a loophole because GM's limit on engine size covered base engines, not options.
Q 05Which Pontiac chief engineer, who later started his own car company, led the team behind the 1964 GTO?
John DeLorean
John DeLorean's GTO success made him Pontiac's general manager at 40, the youngest division head in GM history.
Q 06The 1969 GTO 'The Judge' took its name from a recurring comedy routine on which TV show?
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In supplied the catchphrase, and the Judge, planned as a stripped-down rival to the Road Runner, ended up costing more than a regular GTO.
Q 07The 2004 GTO revival was a rebadged version of which car?
Holden Monaro
The Holden Monaro began as a concept at the 1998 Sydney motor show, and the strong public response pushed Holden to build it.
Q 08The 1955 Chrysler C-300, first of the letter-series cars, was named for what?
Its power output
Its power output of 300 horsepower gave the car its name, and it was built largely from existing parts, with an Imperial grille on a New Yorker hardtop.
Q 09Which 1960s band's customised car, built by Dean Jeffries, was a 1966 Pontiac GTO?
The Monkees
The Monkees rode in a GTO because Pontiac ad man Jim Wangers saw the show as a promotional opportunity and struck a deal.
Q 10The Ford Mustang was officially introduced on April 17, 1964, at which event?
The World's Fair
Three days before the World's Fair debut, airline pilot Stanley Tucker talked a dealer in St. John's, Newfoundland, into selling him one.
Q 11The first-generation Mustang shared its platform with which humble Ford compact?
Falcon
Borrowing the Falcon's proven parts let Ford advertise the Mustang hardtop at just $2,368.
Q 12Which Ford executive championed the original 1964 Mustang?
Lee Iacocca
Lee Iacocca was fired by Henry Ford II in 1978 despite hits like the Mustang, and he went on to rescue Chrysler.
Q 13On the 1968 Shelby GT500KR, what did the letters 'KR' stand for?
King of the Road
King of the Road was a name Shelby reportedly grabbed after hearing Chevrolet wanted it and learning nobody had claimed it.
Q 21In 1964, the 4-4-2 name stood for a four-barrel carburetor, a four-speed manual and what?
Dual exhausts
Dual exhausts stayed in the recipe for 1965, when an automatic joined the options and a 4 now stood for a 400-cubic-inch engine.
Q 22Which performance company lent its name to special versions of the 4-4-2 and Cutlass?
Hurst
Hurst, the floor-shifter maker, also created the Jaws of Life rescue tool.
Q 23Which federal fuel-saving measure became law in January 1974, a few months after the Arab oil embargo began?
A 55 mph speed limit
A 55 mph speed limit outlived the crisis, since backers credited it with fewer traffic deaths, and Congress kept it until 1995.
Q 14In 1966, which rental company offered Shelby GT350 Mustangs to customers as 'Rent-a-Racers'?
Hertz
Hertz bought about 1,000 of the cars, and legends still circulate of renters racing them on weekends and returning them on Monday.
Q 15Which 1969 Mustang was built mainly to homologate a new engine for NASCAR?
Boss 429
The Boss 429 existed to qualify Ford's engine for NASCAR, yet the engine raced in Torinos, and Mustang front ends had to be reworked to fit it.
Q 16Chevrolet claimed 'Camaro' was a slang word for 'friend' in which language?
French
French was Chevrolet's answer, and the name also kept its run of model names starting with C, like the Corvair.
Q 17Why did Chevrolet size the 1967 Camaro Z/28's V8 at exactly 302 cubic inches?
To fit a racing class limit
To fit a racing class limit of 305 cubic inches, Chevrolet paired a 327 block with a 283 crankshaft to make a 302.
Q 18Chevrolet's aluminum-block 1969 COPO ZL1 Camaro was built mainly for which kind of racing?
Quarter-mile racing
Quarter-mile racing was the aim, pushed by drag racer Dick Harrell and Fred Gibb Chevrolet, and the engine package alone cost over $4,000 a car.
Q 19Yenko Chevrolet, famous for stuffing 427s into Camaros, was in Canonsburg in which state?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania dealer Don Yenko used GM's fleet-ordering system, COPO, to get factory 427 Camaros instead of swapping engines himself.
Q 20The 450-horsepower LS6 454 V8 went into which Super Sport model?
Chevelle SS
The Chevelle SS could take the 454 once GM dropped its 400-cubic-inch cap on midsize cars for 1970, and Pontiac and Buick got 455s too.
Q 24The first 4-4-2 of 1964 grew out of an option package meant for what kind of car?
Police cars
Police cars were the package's stated target, yet it was also a hasty answer to Pontiac's hit GTO.
Q 25Beginning in 1971, the Alabama Highway Patrol used which AMC coupe for pursuit and high-speed calls?
Javelin
The Javelin got the job because Alabama faced a budget shortfall in 1971 and could not afford the big sedans its troopers usually drove.
Q 26Besides the 1968–70 AMX, which car was the only other US-built two-seater of its day?
Corvette
The Corvette gained the AMX as a rival because the AMX's maker wanted a youthful, performance-minded image.
Q 27Pontiac's 1969 Firebird Trans Am package borrowed its name from what?
An SCCA racing series
An SCCA racing series gave the name, and Pontiac ended up paying the SCCA for every Trans Am it sold.
Q 28In Smokey and the Bandit (1977), the Bandit runs blocker for a truck smuggling 400 cases of which beer?
Coors
Coors was the cargo in a bet to haul the beer from Texarkana, Texas, back to Atlanta within 28 hours.
Q 29What colour were the two Mustang GTs used in Bullitt (1968)?
Highland Green
Highland Green covered both cars, and in 1974 a New Jersey man bought the hero car through a magazine ad to drive as the family car.
Q 30The Bullitt stunt Mustang, long thought scrapped, turned up decades later in which country?
Mexico
Mexico was where it surfaced as a rough project car, until an expert's VIN check revealed the lost stunt Mustang.