Dodge Magnum
The model name Magnum may sound familiar since Dodge used it on a successful line of station wagons produced from 2005 to 2008, but it truly dates as far back as 1978. The original Dodge Magnum was a luxury muscle car coupe produced for two years, 1978 and 1979. Back in the late ’70s, the American performance market was practically dead. The insurance companies and environmental and safety laws had killed the muscle car culture and new cars had embarrassingly low power (via Motor Trend).
The muscle car market wasn’t gone; there just weren’t any cars that could be bought that had performance numbers close to the models from the late ’60s. As one of the prominent muscle car companies, Dodge knew this and tried to introduce a model that would have some power in a luxury package to appeal to the broader audience. This is how the Magnum was born. It was a cool-looking coupe with all the right ingredients for the period: rear-wheel drive, a long hood, a short deck, and a thumping V8 in the front. The biggest engine was a 5.9-liter V8 with 195 HP. Of course, this is diminutive by today’s standards, but back in 1979, this guaranteed respect. Unfortunately, the high price didn’t help the sales, and Dodge Magnum didn’t return for the 1980 model year.