John DeLorean became the father of the muscle car when he took the workaday 1964 Pontiac Tempest and transformed it into the GTO, stuffing a 389-cubic-inch V8 into its engine bay and adding hood scoops, dual exhaust pipes, redline tires, and GTO badging to the exterior. The muscle car wars were on. Brands clamored for bragging rights, boasting of high horsepower and low quarter-mile times.
The muscle car wars came to a grinding halt with the oil crisis of the early 1970s, only to be revived with the introduction of the fifth-generation Ford Mustang as a 2005 model. The Retrofuturist vehicle sparked a revival of 1960s automotive style, and improved technology and fuel efficiency made high-horsepower cars attractive again. Today, a wide range of automakers build cars that we’d categorize as muscle cars based on their performance and appearance. We've selected the 10 best-looking muscle cars, listed alphabetically.