As gearheads we sure have a lot of titles and classifications we use to distinguish groups of cars. We have hot rods, rat rods, muscle cars, imports, exotics and supercars. The most incredible part of our labels is how fiercely some will protect their genre of interest. For example, if I were to label this 1969 Ford Torino GT 428 Cobra Jet as a Supercar, I have no doubt there would be those that would call me various names for incorrectly classifying it. If we think about what really makes a supercar so super, it isn’t about origin (although that seems to be a major part of the label today), but about superior performance. Well if you ask me, this Torino performs far better than any standard street cars of the era, so wouldn’t that make it a super car? While looking at the listing here on eBay, I sure felt like I was looking at a supercar.

Now just to be clear, I was one of those people that use to argue that a muscle car was a muscle car and a supercar was an exotic. That was until I did my homework and discovered that at one time muscle cars were referred to as supercars. There were even a number of American cars that received SC logos in reference to their supercar status (SC/Rambler for example). So what happened? When did the motor world decide all American supercars built between 1960 and 1974 needed to be put into their own category? Most importantly how did people forget that at one time their beloved muscle car was a supercar? This isn’t meant to be a complaint about the division of the category, but a genuine question from someone who didn’t get the chance to see the muscle car era first hand. It is something that is rarely spoken of, as if the split was a nasty breakup that history simply wants to forget about.

Let’s get away from that rant for a minute to take a look at this Torino. It is in impressive condition, especially if the seller’s claims of originality turn out to be true. The R-Code means this is the top performing Torino, with the 428 Cobra Jet Ram Air and heavy duty suspension. With fresh cool air being stuffed down the intake, this V8 was good for 360 horsepower. The Cobra Jet made the Torino a completely different animal and allowed the car to pull high 13 second quarter miles. With the right upgrades, these were a drag racer’s dream. Sure they weren’t as fast as Superman, but they were dang close!

The interior of this one looks to be in fantastic condition, but isn’t as sporty as one would think. That is probably because of the strike that took place at Ford when the GT was first introduced in ’68. Originally Ford planned to put bucket seats in every Torino GT leaving the factory, but cost cutting as a result of the strike meant making the bench seat standard equipment. Since most owners never took their Torino around any curves, the bench seat proved to be more than adequate for typical use. Thankfully this one was at least optioned with the 4-speed manual toploader transmission.

This Torino looks to be in amazing condition and the seller claims it is ready to be driven. Production number estimates for the R-Code Torino are all over the place, but some say it is as low as just 500 cars for ’69, which would make this as rare as most “supercars”. This gets me back to my original question, when did muscle cars cease to be supercars? If you have any ideas, thought, or input to my question, I’d love to hear your thoughts!