Quote Originally Posted by wbute View Post
Hi Absinth, the race A9X was certainly a muscle car but most of them were GMP&A but the road car was a bit tamer. Every thing but the donk. I reckon the A9X is the nicest looking car built in Australia and its race history will never be denied. In my opinion I have always wondered why the phase 3 is held in higher regard really. I think if all of them had been released to the public with the L34 they would have been the number one muscle car in Australia now.

Even in standard guise the A9X would still fit into the true muscle car definition, A9X was a special vehicle option available on SS 5.0 and SL/R5000 only. The A9X differered from the standard SS 5.0 and SL/R5000 with much improved steering, suspension and handling. The A9X had the later UC rear floor pan allowing the fittment of a Salisbury diff, wheels were 14" Rally II rims with modified offset over the standard 13" rims. The SS A9X Hatchback in particular being a two door fits right in to the American muscle car definition of a compact 2 door with the largest available V8 shoehorned into it.

Technically, a XW - XY GT Falcon is not a true muscle car .... but a XY GT HO is along with the XW GT HO phase 1 and 2 although argument can be made that they are not 2 door cars..... HK GTS 327 Monaro and HT, HG, HQ GTS 350 Monaro coupe are......

LC and LJ XU1 while only 6cyl did have the largest available engine in them and it was high performance.....The Chargers are not technically muscle cars as they were only 6cyl and were available with V8.

Falcon XC Cobra with option 97 is a muscle car.... I don't think the XA-XB GT's qualify.

US muscle cars are strictly 2 door cars so some of ours don't fit their definition.... but we as Australians accept some 4 dr cars to be true muscle cars...

Sandman's aren't muscle cars.... while they were a special vehicle option package it wasn't a handling and high performance option package. They are a very unique vehicle though and very much a part of Ausralian culture from the 70's.