The Accord V6 Coupe Is the Last Real American Muscle Car
Cant make this shit up. I mean he uses rational thought to back up his claim but I dont agree you can call it a muscle car.
Read, discuss.
Some cliffs:
Cant make this shit up. I mean he uses rational thought to back up his claim but I dont agree you can call it a muscle car.
Read, discuss.
Some cliffs:
Let's get the easy stuff out of the way. The original Pontiac GTO formula calls for the unnecessary insertion of a big-bore engine into a plain-Jane family car. Right away this excludes the Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger, the holy trinity of modern "muscle cars", because all three of these vehicles have traditionally been specialty cars, not family cars. The last time any of these cars was even distantly related to a mid-size family car was probably when the Fox Mustang shared a platform with the Fairmont/Granada/LTD thirty years ago. The Dodge Charger plays in the "large-car" space now, as does the outgoing Chevy SS that shares the bones of the Camaro.
After forty-eight thousand miles with my V6 6MT coupe, I can tell you that it has many other characteristics of a traditional muscle car. It's not exactly a stellar handler, although around most road courses it can dispatch Miatas and the like just on the strength of the motor–that is, until the brakes utterly vanish, which usually occurs around Lap Five. Thanks to its FWD layout, the Accord is severely traction-limited and can spin the wheels on the roll in second gear. It will "chirp third" with reckless abandon; that was once considered to be the sign of an authentic muscle car.
Most critically, however, the V6 Accord is the very definition of a "sleeper". Nobody can ever believe that it's going to drop them from a light the way it does. In a freeway "40 roll" the V6 is wickedly effective at breaking the hearts of stock Evolution and STI owners. Let's not even talk about GTIs and other "hot hatches;" they are easy meat for the big-but-light Honda even if they get a jump in it. Late last year, I found out that my personal car can also keep pace with a Focus RS in those situations. In places where Accords are thick on the ground, such as Southern California and central Ohio, the big-bore coupes are absolutely invisible to the police.
In addition to the above virtues, the six-cylinder Accord is dirt-cheap, with transaction prices in the $28,000 range. It averages 31mpg on the freeway and 26mpg in commuting use, even with a heavy throttle foot. Insurance is not a problem. There are performance parts aplenty. With a "J-pipe" and a quick tune, it's easy to add another thirty horsepower to the dyno chart, at which point you have nearly the power-to-weight ratio of a BMW M2.
In the end, it's that combination of affordability, space, anonymity, and reliability that makes the Accord V6 Coupe the true successor to that 1964 GTO. Honda is a Japanese company, but the Accord is an American car. Much of it was designed and engineered in the United States. It's assembled in Marysville, Ohio by people who earn a living wage, in a community where kids still play out in the streets and hang out at the pizza places in the summer evenings.
