Another day, another top five list, and this time we're not kidding around. Here's a question more important than "do you believe in God" to most of us: what are your top five muscle cars?
Obviously, in saying "top" we're not merely looking for the "best" or "fastest" or "most powerful." We think muscle cars should be judged based on what Wert calls "the three p's" of muscle cars — performance, price (meaning value) and panache. Here's our top five and why.
5. Yenko Chevy Nova II SS
The V8 Chevy Nova II SS is already a potent muscle car capable of making the most disinterested pedestrian turn their heads (and cover their ears). But few cars will turn heads quite like the Yenk Nova II SS, the result of dropping a Corvette 427 Chevy mill into the engine bay of what was actually an economy car.
4. AMC AMX
A peculiar breed of muscle car, the deceivingly unpalindromic AMC AMX was part muscle car, part GT. It had pretensions of being a sports car capable of competing with the Corvette, but a Super Stock AMX was far more focused on straight line hot rod performance than tossing itself around any track.
2. First Plymouth Roadrunner
Meep, Meep! That's the sound of our favorite cartoon-themed muscle car. As the animated namesake implies, when fitted with either the 440 Six Pack or 426 Hemi it was outrageously fast and powerful.
2. 1969/70 Boss 302
We could do a top five Mustang day and, we're guessing, the original Boss 302 would end up somewhere near the top. Though not as fast as all the Mustangs to follow, it's got the joie de vivre we look for in spades. Still, the original Boss had plenty of power to its name (around 300 HP before any mods) and was nimble enough to take to the the track.
1. Pontiac GTO
We've written plenty about the GTO, the original muscle car, the reason why we pine for Pontiac. It was a teacher's car with a big honking V8 for just a few hundred bucks extra. It started a trend we love and yet, even as the first, it still holds up to all the attempted improvements that follow it. Gas, tires, oil... nothing else to change.
Think you've got a better top five list? Let's see 'em — and remember to give us your reasoning along with each choice.
(QOTD is your chance to answer the day's most pressing automotive questions and experience the opinions of the insightful insiders, practicing pundits and gleeful gearheads that make up the Jalopnik commentariat. If you've got a suggestion for a good "Question Of The Day" send an email to tips at jalopnik dot com.)