Most iconic American car?
 

What do you think is the most iconic American car? I would have to say it comes down to either the Corvette or the Mustang. The Vette has been around longer, but the Mustang is cheaper and thus available to more people. I think if I had to put it in order though I would say:

1) Corvette
2) Mustang
3) Camaro

This should open up a nice can of worms :pot_stir:

Personally i say the Mustang But then again i drive one.

Corvette followed very closely by Mustang.
Remember I'm a FORD guy.

But Cadillac would be world wide---I bet.:judge:

Mustang. I like Vettes but I say Mustang because Corvette is more of a refined car - more of something you'd expect from Europe. Mustang is cheap quality and powerful - something American cars are known for. The design is clearly American, whereas the Corvettes seem to have more European influenced design (at least, from what I see).

It's a reasonable point. The basis of the Vette is clearly European, starting with servicemen returning from WWII who brough little roadsters with them etc., there was no such thing in the US. The C1 body was modeled in principle on a Jaguar from the era (don't remember the model). The great Zora Arkus Duntov, peace be upon him, was an old school European engineer and race driver. So you're right from that point.

HOWEVER, the Corvette was never more than a middle to upper middle class car. Refined in the European since would make most Europeans chuckle as they compare the engine to a truck and the suspension to an ox cart. Of course they don't laugh quite as hard when they get their balls handed to them, but that's a different story.

Still, I'd actually go with the Mustang after thinking about it, almost opposite of Glenn's POV. I'm a Corvette guy, but think the Mustang is more "iconically" American. It was inexpensive and broadly available, based on an entirely American platform and concept, yet able to be built up to very high levels of performance.

There is that. But, when you talk to people from other countries (I have, bet you have too) Cadillac is usually mentioned first then Corvette.

Now in America, you have a good point for the Mustang..

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think that's going to depend quite a bit according to age. Clearly in the olden days, Cadillac was trully and properly a marque of world class quality. However, until very recently, it was a rolling turd and regarded as such by them foreigners.

You may be right, age may be the issue.:rolleyes:

This is the #5 result when you Google search "most iconic american car" http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-139393332.html...

... and this thread is the #3 result. lol

After reviewing all your posts, I'm changing my answer to the Mustang.

I would say the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega. Its a tie. :huh:

"ASK ANYBODY who knows nothing about cars to name an American car and nine times out of ten they will say the Ford Mustang.

The Mustang is as American as apple pie, the 4th of July and Baseball."

Ok, you guys win.:smack::thumbs_up:

No Model T love?

Voted Mustang

Bob

Mustang I am a Chevy guy but mustangs are a dime a dozen everyone has one or has had one or knows someone who currently has one. Also on a side note I saw on top gear last night that the F-150 is the most popular car they sell over a hundred an hour in north America.:judge:

The Model T is one of the most recognizable cars in the world. Ford made good cars untill 1936 or so, then ..................

..they got GREAT!:lmfao:

After the new century maybe.

Hemi-Cuda.

I'm for the Rustang. The Corvette is ment to be a little harder to obtain and therefore doesn't move the units like a mustang. I will like to point out that ever since the C5 Z06 and now witht he C6 Z06 and Zr1 the Corvette is getting a lot of recognition and media attetion for it's performance.














P.S. Fuck hondas:crutches:.

1. That's not nice.
2. Hondas aren't American.
3. Their purpose is not performance. Judging by what the masses really think by how they vote with their wallets over decades now, they seem to do something needful.
4. Aren't those little CRXs with B18s a pretty decent poor man's track car?

But I obviously totally agree about the Vette. :) Even JC of Top Gear, who was notorious for his hatred of Corvettes, practically jizzed himself over the ZR1.

Amen, brother.

I still maintain that Honda makes some great cars. Now if you're talking pure performance that's obviously not really their arena, but in no way is Honda a bad company.

Re: Honda

First, Civics are not sports cars. So if you compare them to sports cars, of course you're not going to like them. Compare them to Corollas.

Second, NSXs and S2000s are cool. Just down on power, but so are most stock cars. Mustangs are good platforms, but they're all slow as shit. Always have been. Need some underhood loving to make them fun. Slap a turbo on an S2000, it'll make even you smile C6.

PS, you wouldn't fu*k with a CBR on a mountain road.

In 1957, Ford outsold Chevy 2-1. When is the last time you saw a 57 Ford? 57 Chevys command big bucks, whilst 57 Fords, well, you know, ...........:smack:

Using your logic, the number one American car might be the Checker cab. Years of production of the same model without change.:smack:
BTW, it was made on the GM platform.:D

Mustang. It has been the star in so many movies. I agree they are cheaper thus having more exposure than the Corvette but not by much. I think the thing about the mustang is for the most part it has always remained a "muscle car" and that is what people IMO think of when they think american "sports" cars.

NSX = Slow Joke
S2000 = Slow Joke that has an unusuall attraction to concrete barriers
CBR = Slow Joke on 2 wheels. I love the work you've done on your vette, but comments like I wouldn't fuck with a CBR on a mountain road really show that you have zero racing expience. Bikes may have rulled back in the day, but now not so much.

Really?! You're telling me you can 'fu*k on' a CBR 1000? I guess I'm less surprised after watching that video.

PS, I do have zero racing experience. But I've never been ashamed of that. My car was built a street car, day one. Never put anything over 91 in it. Never bought slicks for it. Street only.

I've had my fair share of mountain road racing and experience countersteering, but always on the street. Street street street street street.

^^^^^^^
I know you built a solid roller D-1 sc 383 for the "street". Reminds me of Ron's caged, big block, bottle fed chevelle that he built as a daily driver:lmfao:.

Less than staright line bike rule, but everywhere else they have been dethroned. Button willow, Willow Springs, PIR, and California Speedway my times on The R888s are usally faster than the bike times that I have seen. On the freeway I've been able to hang with most bikes that come my way and have flat out beat a few of them. Actually one of my videos on Motorgen against a 636 Ninja 1/4 mile. He was .4 sec faster, but I was on run flats. They don't make 30,000 mile tires for bikes. So every time you race a bike from a dig it's like racing a car on slicks. I ran a 12.2 at 120 pedaling the car past the 330'. With DRs I can go flat in first. Huge difference in ET and MPH.

Comparing bikes and cars doesn't really work anyway. They're just different vehicles.

That being said, at the highest levels of racing
F1 is much faster lap time than MotoGP (though a GP bike resembles a high end street bike)
Top Fuel Dragsters are much faster than the fastest drag bikes

In both cases, that's mostly because of the realities of traction related to aerodynamics and simply holding onto the damn thing.

Off Road, forget it, bikes are faster. I think they've won Baja 1000 (overall) ever year except one. (Going on memory).

Bang for buck, forget it. $6k will get you into a nice used GSXR750 and you can head out to the track for some seriously fast running. You can't do dick with cars for $6k.

Also just $15k new will get you state of the art liter bikes. If you can ride well, you'll be faster than 99.99% of cars on the road, twisties or straight. Put the same money into a ZX14 and you're running mid 9s around 145mph . . . out of the box.

Also, the feeling of riding a bike is a completely different kind of exhilaration than driving a car. It's different being completely exposed to the road not strapped into anything and having the wind TRYING to pull you off than being neatly strapped into a car with air bags etc. If you want to get up close and personal with a performance machine, a purely mechanical bike is about as close as you're going to get.

No question performance cars and what's available to make cars better performers has considerably closed the gap.

Hydraulic roller, and it runs on 91 with a full interior and sound system. Rons... does not, has not and will not. He trailers his car to the track. I've considered using my car to tow my boat. Mine is a street car. You can compare my car to his Cobra if you want, not the Chevelle.

For most of my driving life it was my DD, a large portion of that time it had the same heads and cam it does now.

I knew I was going to get a reaction for that one. I'm surprised Ron hasn't chimed in yet.