Before we dive into the hows and whys of our extinction event conundrum, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Chase Christensen, and I’m the new editor of LSX Magazine– an honor I am humbled by. I intend to keep bringing you the same great stories as always but with a greater focus on new tech, car features, and awesome builds.

Growing up, I was enamored with musclecars. Big, brutal, American-made cars were my jam, and no one could tell me any different. I spent countless hours scouring the internet for minuscule details on every make, model, and year until I could tell you what year most Corvettes were just by looking at the wheels. I spent the rest of my time pouring through online forums, reading HowStuffWorks.com and watching American Muscle Car on the Speed Channel— remember that? Speed Channel?

My father’s 1989 Camaro IROC-Z with only slightly over 40,000 original miles.

I became preoccupied with understanding how anything mechanical worked and obsessed about learning everything there was to know about a car. Luckily for me, and as far as I was aware, the internet had always existed and was a fountain of information catering to my every whim. However, I have to give credit to my dad who showed me the automotive fundamentals — he brought me up to speed on all things pre-’70s. And let’s face it, you can read the internet all you want but it pays to have someone who knows what he’s doing when you’re rebuilding a Quadrajet carburetor for the first time. His passion for cars fueled mine and cemented my love for anything that rolled out of the General’s factories.

The 2000 Camaro SS I owned in college. When I found it, it had been burned from the B-pillars back in a garage fire. I replaced almost everything and got it back on the road.

It wasn’t always an easy process when it came to the more complex components though. I vividly remember sitting in front of a computer trying to teach myself how an automatic transmission worked until I was on the verge of tears because I couldn’t understand its operation. It’s a lot to take in as a 13-year-old kid, but it taught me a valuable lesson that every mechanic can attest to, persistence pays off.

The Fast And The Furious Phase

At that point in my life, most kids my age either didn’t care about cars at all yet, or they were just about to be launched into the “Fast And The Furious” frenzy (the film came out that very same year). The sport compact scene was the scourge of every conviction I had at that point in my life. Ignorantly, I spouted old adages and cliches such as “there’s no replacement for displacement” and “when in doubt, do a burnout.” Okay, I still believe in doing burnouts, but it was ignorant to believe that nothing but American muscle had what it took to go fast unless it was an exotic.

While this isn’t my ’86 Trans Am, CarDomain user SPturbo’s Pontiac looks identical to my old ride, right down to the body color and ’86-specific high-mount stop lamp.

I couldn’t help it, the musclecar bug bit me bad and only grew stronger when I took possession of my first car at the age of 14. It was a 1986 Pontiac Trans Am with a lowly 305 that my older brother had beaten on and then bequeathed to me when he moved away to college. I didn’t care, I was beyond stoked to have a V8-powered rear-wheel-drive fire chicken.

I had big plans for my T/A, too. I remember writing out parts lists in my binder while I should have been paying attention in school. I would write the horsepower each mod would give me in the margin and add them all up to tell me what that little 305 would be capable of. In my estimations, the car would put out 550-600 horses, easy. Yeah, remember that ignorance part I mentioned before? In reality, it would end up running fender-to-fender with stock LT1-powered F-bodies.

But it was the spirit of what I was doing that was far more important than how fast the car ever was. To me, building that car was harkening back to hot rodders from bygone eras, including my father. I would constantly lament to my dad that I was born in the wrong era, that I should have been born during the horsepower wars when cheap power abounded. Little did I know that a new era was dawning at that very moment.

My current ride; a 2002 Camaro SS with a six-speed T56. I’ve put more money into this car than I care to admit and it is nowhere near being done.

The New Era Of Horsepower Wars

I was mourning the horsepower wars just as the LS was taking the country by storm. Horsepower was back in a big way. The early 2000s saw power skyrocket along with fuel efficiency and reliability. Bone stock LS1-powered Corvettes and F-bodies were cracking high 12s right out of the box — a feat accomplished by relatively few musclecars from the ’60s and ’70s — and they were still getting 25 miles to the gallon on the freeway. Things have only escalated from there.

Today, we have 707 horsepower cars rolling off the factory lines every day. Ten-second passes — a feat that used to define when a street car was insanely quick — are now being accomplished by four-door sedans with a few mods. There are videos out there of bone-stock Corvette Z06s going mid-10s. Needless to say, the horsepower wars are back, and then some. It’s enough to make me want to time travel back to 2001, punch my 13-year-old self in the face, and tell him to just LS swap his Trans Am.

Is The End Near?

But just like the horsepower wars of yesteryear, are we headed for an extinction event? Can horsepower keep climbing like it has been? Doesn’t there have to be some sort of limit to all this madness? My heart wants to say no, but my head says that this is likely an unsustainable escalation in horsepower and speed. While increased gas prices, high insurance premiums, and tough emissions standards killed off the musclecars of yesterday, increasingly strict emissions standards look to be the lone assassin moving in to crush power outputs yet again.

We also can’t rule out the chance that eventually everything moves to electric. This would allow for speed and power levels to remain up while fundamentally bringing emissions to zero — although I feel like EV producers always fail to take into consideration the uptick in greenhouse gasses due to the increased demand for electricity. When 67 percent of America’s electricity ceases to be produced by greenhouse-gas emitting techniques, then I’ll agree. 

But no matter what it is exactly that throws a wrench in the works, I have a hard time believing that manufacturers can support this kind of arms race without running into some sort of catastrophic event that puts an end to it all.

It Doesn’t Matter

Maybe it will be physical limits to how much power an engine can produce and still retain a warranty. Or, maybe it will be a decrease in demand due to the Millennial generation comprising the majority of the market. But whatever it is, we’ll keep on modding them to make more horsepower than they realistically should. Why? Because that is the spirit of hot rodding; it’s a tradition handed down from father to son for generations and that, my friends, is not going anywhere, no matter what happens to this hobby we all love.