Students of automotive history know that zero to sixty times entered the dark ages in 1972 when smog regulations strangled engines.
I talked about five examples from 1975 in the last MyStar Five for Friday, so this time things skip ahead twenty years to 1995 with five more examples of period-correct muscle.
Jerry Sutherland
The first one is the 1995 Mustang.

Fox-body Mustangs are like the Chevy Bel Airs of the 50s and 60s because they’re cheap, popular and easily built to high performance specs.
The key to this discussion is a simple question. How did a stock 1995 Mustang perform when it was brand new? The 5.0L 16-valve V-8 pumped out decent horsepower (215) and these cars were relatively light, so a stock 1995 Mustang could do 0-60 in 7.5 seconds. That’s a triumph in technology because a small block ’66 Mustang did it in around 9 seconds.
The next car is the 1995 Firebird.

This car ran a 350 small block with 275 horsepower, so it was a far cry from the big block T/A monsters of the early 1970s.
Nevertheless, this Firebird had newer technology, so it punched far above its weight in 0-60 tests. This was a legitimate 6.5-second, 0-60 car so it would leave a 1975 Trans Am in the dust—and easily run with a ’64 GTO. Thank you, 90s technology.

The third car is a first cousin of the GTO—the ’95 Camaro.

This Camaro came with the same 350 as the Firebird and it had the same specs. As expected, it was very close in the 0-60 time at 6.4 seconds—a virtual tie.
That number puts this car in good company, because the ’68 Z28 Camaro was a 6.7 second zero-to-sixty car. Better yet, the ’95 Camaro delivered an easy 20 miles per gallon.
The fourth car is the 1995 Corvette.

Vettes started acting like Vettes again in 1995 because technology and their light weight added up to a performance car. Twenty years ago, the ’75 Vette was a dog in Vette clothing, but the 1995 Vette brought back the legendary performance of an earlier era.
The 1995 Vette ran a 5.2 second 0-60 time—a number that put it in the same range as classic 60s and 70s muscle. Combine that with a car that could outhandle a vintage Ferrari and you had a supercar.
The last car was the 1995 Dodge Viper.

The Viper brought the flex back to Mopar because it had an 8-liter V-10 monster under the hood with 400 horsepower to answer any challenge. 400 horsepower isn’t a big number in 2025 but in 1995 it was a high-end number. Chrysler was back in the muscle game, and it showed because this lightweight car did 0-60 in 4.7 seconds. Those are 426 hemi statistics, so the Viper became an instant Mopar legend.
The biggest lesson from all five of these cars is that the fun factor returned –thanks to new tech that could meet regulations.
This set off some serious horsepower wars in the 21st century, so the world became a better place.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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