The North American Perspective on the Best Sports Cars - Part 1

They're all around us, but when did the first sports car find its roots on American soil?

The best sports cars that have defined the American way of "bigger is better" seem to come from several eras starting with the hot rods of the 30's. While most of these brute forces did not see their true potentials until the muscle car era of the 60's and 70's led to the birth of the "garage mechanic", the pure styling of a 1930's Ford or Chevy is plain and simple, yet sporty.

Some will argue that the first American sports car came from the 50's with either the 1953 Corvette or the 1954 T-bird(if you are talking to a Ford fanatic who pretends that Chevy doesn't even exist).

Without a doubt the 60's and early 70's(before the embargo did a number on sports cars) were a Golden Age of top sports cars, starting with the least likely of candidates - The Pontiac Tempest. No matter which muscle car is your favorite, maybe you're a Chevelle fan or you like the Charger or you are into the super muscle cars such as the Buick 442, Plymouth Superbird or Dodge Challenger, you can't argue that the first muscle car was the Pontiac GTO. Thanks to John DeLorean, the same mind behind the brand bearing his name(made famous in the Back To the Future movies), the muscle car was born from a plain old full-size American coupe, thus proving the American "bigger is better" motto. The engines themselves were all about "Cubes Are King" and the numbers were astounding- 396, 400, 426 and 454! Compare those to today's numbers such as the 350 of the C4 and C5 Corvette and it is staggering.

Detroit also brought some style worthy of the Louvre in the Shelby Cobra and the Ford GT40(as well as the Ford powered, Italian designed Detamaso Pantera) and a car that sits among the Top 10 most expensive in the much coveted, hand-built Shelby Daytona, of which only 6 were built!

The 70's and 80's were somewhat uneventful, with the exception of the aforementioned DeLorean, which was as close to "all show and no go" as you can get with its pedestrian GM sourced 3.4L 170hp engine powering the 4000+ lb stainless steel beast, it was a wonder that Marty McFly even outgunned the VW Minibus chasing him in the first movie. Despite this, the Corvette got a nice facelift and the roots of its eventual partner in crime, the Viper, were being planted.