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The Accord V6 Coupe Is the Last Real American Muscle Car This is not a joke.

17K views 85 replies 28 participants last post by  ethan2014 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
The Accord V6 Coupe Is the Last Real American Muscle Car :devil

The Accord V6 Coupe Is the Last Real American Muscle Car

This is not a joke.

Here's a question to occupy an evening at the cruise-in or the garage or the campground: Which car deserves the title of "first American muscle car"? Was it the 1949 Olsmobile Rocket 88, which also inspired the first rock-n'-roll song? The Chrysler 300? The Impala SS? Or was it the infamous 1964 Pontiac GTO, the first car to break the General Motors policy preventing big-bore V-8s in mid-size sedans? You can make a very solid argument for any of the above, not to mention several other legitimate contenders like the "Max Wedge" Dodge Dart.

Well, I don't claim to know what the first American muscle car was, but I can absolutely tell you what the last one currently for sale is. It's the 2017 Honda Accord Coupe EX-L V6 with the six-speed manual transmission. Save your angry letters and Facebook comments until the end, particularly if you don't know how to spell each and every one of the words you're planning to use, because I'm going to convince you beyond the shadow of a doubt on this topic.

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.

Even if you want to argue that the Charger is a family car and that therefore the Challenger should be included in the muscle car category, however, I'm going to shoot that down by stating that we are discussing American muscle cars. The Challenger Hellcat might be all-American in conception, design, and even engineering, but the engine comes from Mexico and the assembly is done in Ontario. At best, it's a North American muscle car.

When we consider the true high-volume family cars out there and their overpowered variants, we come up with a pretty short list. There's the Accord V6, the Camry V6, the Altima V6, and the Ford Fusion Sport. Everybody else uses a small-bore turbocharged four-cylinder engine for their upmarket models. You might get some decent acceleration numbers that way, but strictly speaking something like a Malibu Turbo is the descendant of the high-revving small-block Chevelles.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are back in the year 1964, driving to your local Pontiac dealer to order a GTO. On the way there, you get into a car crash and you spend the next fifty-three years in a coma, only to wake up and go muscle car shopping again. You know exactly what you want: a two-door sedan (yes, youngsters, that's a thing, and it's a more legitimate term than "four-door coupe") with a four-on-the-floor and the biggest engine you can get. That is a muscle car.

As painful as it may be to do so, therefore, I'm going to disqualify the Fusion Sport because it has four doors, all-wheel-drive, and a mandatory automatic transmission. Conceptually, the fast Ford is far closer to "budget Audi S4" than "modern Torino Cobra Jet." That leaves us with three American-made contenders. Two of them are only available as four-door automatics, which of course is also antithetical to the original GTO formula of two doors and four-on-the-floor transmission.

And that is how we get to the rather insane idea that the last American muscle car is, in fact, a Honda Accord. But the numbers and the driving experience help restore some sanity to the assertion. In EX-L V6 6MT trim, the Accord Coupe features the mighty J35Y3 V6. Dyno testing of a brand-new unit by the folks at Temple of VTEC suggests that its rated output of 270hp is conservative by thirty ponies or so. It's common for owners to break into the thirteens in the quarter-mile and trap well over 100mph, numbers that would have been perfectly respectable in the muscle car heyday of the late Sixties. My own 2014 Accord Coupe gets to 120mph about as quickly as my 1995 Porsche 993 under similar conditions, although the Porsche launches harder and it also steams away pretty quickly after 130 or so.

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.

Much of the interior is disturbingly cheap and fragile; I believe the same thing was true of every Plymouth Road Runner that ever left the line. It's easy to service and it will probably run forever, two characteristics that were common to most pre-smogged muscle cars. It is big enough for four adults but you'd never force anybody to sit in the back seat unless they were beholden to you by ties of blood or debt. I spent part of my youth in the back seat of a 403-powered Cutlass Supreme that was pretty much the same way.

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.

There will be another Accord, starting next year. Maybe even another Accord Coupe. There's no guarantee, however, that there will be anything in the showroom that resembles today's big-hearted, stick-shifted maximum wedge. If you want to experience the last American muscle car on your own terms, now's the time to start shopping. You can say that it's a dawn of a new turbo-powered era of efficiency, or you can say that it's 1968 all over again. But either way, it's closing time.
 
#4 ·
Well, he presented his case effectively. His definition of a muscle car is a family car with a “big” naturally aspirated engine under the hood and a manual transmission. Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers were never designed as family cars so therefore they can't be muscle cars……..okay. While Chargers are designed to be family cars with a big engine option, not enough of the car is made in American to be considered an American car. But apparently Hondas are American. (I understand the logic of his argument.)

So it looks like I drive a ‘Merican muscle car. Imagine that! You know if I squint my eyes really tight, I can sort of see a 1970 GTO or Cutlass 442….if it is very dark....or maybe not.


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#5 ·
Well, I have this:


And this:


And even this:


And this, as much as I absolutely love it, it isn't one of those:
 

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#27 ·
No problem. I figured someone might have beat me to it. Same here. It's tough growing up! I miss my 1998 Z28 LS1 some days. I mean, a sunroof is close to a t top right? And this Accord will still smoke tires. And it's better in the snow. And it is low maintenance. And it sips gas. Wait..nevermind. Muscle cars are excellent "second" cars for an August morning.
 
#10 ·
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.
Disagree. Those were some of the original muscle cars. There may have been family sedans with big engines, but they were still family sedans. Also, they left out Corvette. :angel
 
#12 ·
There is a used 9th gen 6-6 at a dealership near me. Part of me wants to go grab it instead of buying out my lease. The other part of me knows I can't live without 4 doors :(
 
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#13 ·
There are people who use a Civic as a family car, so why is the Civic Type R not a muscle car? It clearly out performs the 6,6.


As was stated above, one can restrict parameters to arrive at a fore gone conclusion. But, no. The 6,6 is not a muscle car any more than a Q50 3.0 or a BMW 340 is. But Wait!! A muscle car must be had for less than $33,000, right?
 
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#17 ·
...a two-door sedan with a four-on-the-floor and the biggest engine you can get. That is a muscle car.
Then just about every Honda Accord competitor on the market can be a muscle car, too. Oh wait, they conveniently ruled out four cylinders even if they're the same or faster than an Accord V6...(The '11 Sonata Sport 2.0 T had a 274-hp 2.0-liter direct-injected four cylinder with a twin-scroll turbo.) They conveniently say "biggest engine you can get" so they don't ruin their own argument by saying "V8". I guess the 4 cylinder turbo Mustang is less of a muscle car than a Honda Accord.

I like how they leave out that the car they're comparing the Accord to came with 325 horsepower V8 from the factory in 1964. You could order one with a 348 HP one if you really wanted it.

Wikipedia says: "The muscle car term generally refers to rear wheel drive mid-size cars with powerful V8 engines, manufactured in the U.S. Some definitions limit it to two-door vehicles; however, others include four-door body style versions"

The Accord is not RWD, not a mid-size car, and does not have a V8 engine variant at all. A muscle car is a sports car by standard industry definitions. And we've already had the argument on whether or not the Accord is a sports car.

Not all sports cars are muscle cars, but all muscle cars are sports cars.

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
What is a "specialty car"? All three of these are mentioned by name in the Wikipedia page for "muscle car". They don't mention the Accord in there, though...

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.
A 2017 M2 has 365 HP and weighs 3,450 lbs. A 2017 V6 Accord Touring has 278 HP and weighs 3,554 to 3,605 lbs. 30 HP gain isn't "nearly" the same amount of power. But again, they're comparing apples to oranges.

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.
lawl
 
#23 ·
I've owned muscle cars such as a V8 LS1 Z28 as well as a 5.0 mustang (never again) the Accord surprisingly does give you some of that muscle car feeling in a coupe format with the 3.5 L V6 and a stick. It has a great exhaust note. Close to 300 hp stock. It'll burn tire in gears 1-2 stock no problem with traction control off. It's built using US labour. It sits 4 people. If a 2006 impala SS with the V8 (fwd) is a muscle car, so is the accord v6 coupe. I personally consider it more of a fwd GT/sleeper but the author is not entirely wrong!
 
#25 ·
This is sort of off topic, but can you imagine a 6-6 with a Pontiac G8 GT/GXP body kit? Add a borla exhaust and it would turn some heads for sure. But that would also ruin the sleeper aspect that drew me to the car to begin with. Can't get the idea out of my head though after my uncle mentioned the similarities in proportions.
 

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#31 ·
Muscle cars have V8 engines. My stock V6 Camaro is not a muscle car. I get hate from OTHER CAMARO OWNERS for having a V6. I get called other expletives when they find out I also have a Honda.

I wonder what would happen if someone showed up to a muscle car-oriented cruise-in, driving a brand new unmodified Accord, and parked between a Yenko Camaro and a Boss Mustang.
 
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#39 ·
I made the mistake of talking about my new Accord Coupe 6-6 on the Chevelle board where I'm a moderator. The "BUY 'MERICAN!" cronies came out of the woodwork. Funny thing I enjoyed sharing with them (which they ignored) is that my Accord has more American content than their Chevy or Ford and is made in America which can't always be said about their vehicles. I love my Chevelles, they are a gem from a distant era but they are what they are and so is my Honda. I love CARS not just one make or model. I have my favorites, but cars are great in any shape or form. Never fully understood the undying love or hate for one make or another.
 
#45 ·
My only beef with V6 muscle car owners is the ones who overcompensate by straight piping them or acting like they are really fast.

That is unless of course, they do supercharge/turbo them or even crazier yet, do a hardcore all motor V6 build. I give those guys a lot of credit.
 
#46 ·
My Camaro has a very mod-able 3800-II V6 :devil But right now he's just stock and slow. 205 HP if the internet can be believed; never had it on a dyno. I'm actually trying to figure out how to get a better exhaust onto it without having to keep that awful, gigantic muffler that sticks out the back of the fake dual exhaust and also not make it sound like a jet engine.
 
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#49 ·
On the topic of muscle cars, I recall seeing this monster.

Electric Mustang

Crap on it all you want, it will smoke almost anything out there.

Seriously, though, I don't like how quiet electric motors are. I really like the moderately loud V8, V10 or rotary.
 
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