How to identify a Chevy muscle car?

My Ford and Chrysler friends all seem to be able to identify every Chevy muscle car just by looking at the tail lights. They even know the year, make and model of these Chevy's just by the tail lights. How can this be?|||year,make,%26amp; model is easy because they were all different. back in the day not every car looked the same...not even a little [ except for the 63/64 impala %26amp; a few other year combination,s...the tail lamp,s were very similar but the body style was slightly different]...but you could not tell if it was a muscle car by that...a 65 %26amp;66 body style were very similar [ impala/caprice] but the tail lamp,s were different...to know if it was a muscle car could only be determined [ from a distance] if it had the SS emblem...%26amp; even that did not assure that a simple belair didn't have a big block,4 speed ,posi rear end,dual exhaust,etc. no...you could tell the year , make %26amp; model...but not if it was muscle car unless you got up close %26amp; personal....even now you can take an old chevelle %26amp; put the right trim,emblem,s %26amp; power train to come up with a SS clone...but the V.I.N. number will allway,s tell the truth....that said...it was easy to tell the year,make,%26amp; model because they changed the style,s every year...at least until the 70,s when not a whole lot changed ...like the montecarlo from 70 to 72..little thing,s like the front grill or front signal lamp,s changed...but hard to tell from the side or rear.|||the design..i can identify evey chevy from 55 to 70 full size...chevele from 64 to 70..they changed every yr and each looks differnt..|||The year is molded into the lens in small raised letters.|||my brother is the same way (and he doesn't even have to be close to the car) ...


practice, I guess.|||Back in the 60s and 70s, automakers had the mindset that if someone wanted to buy a car with specific features, they would have bought it that year. So they changed things every year, so that no two years were identical. Myself, I can't identify a lot of them, but a few I can, like 1968-1970 chargers. For example, 68 charger had dual round taillights on each side, while 69 and 70 had panel taillights that covered the entire rear. The 68 had round side marker lights, 69 and 70 were rectangle. As for grilles, the 68 was an open grille, 69 had the classic split grille, and 70 went back to the open full width grille like the 68, but had a chrome strip through the center of it running side to side. I know Chevelles had the same deal going on.|||Yeah, you could identify all the big 3's musclecars by just spotting them from the sixties through the late seventies.|||In the 60's and 70's there were Malibus and Novas with a big block motor, and some with an in line 6 cyl, so not every car of the same year is a "muscle car"





Muscle cars typically ran a big engine, and you can't tell what engine it has by the tail lights.|||friends are putting you on/some vettes are too close to call/also early chevelles/and camaros/they are reading the dates on the lense|||It comes with being around cars alot, working with them, going to car shows, etc.





Its not JUST the tail lights. Its the basic shape of car plus things likethe tail lights, or head lights.





Like 60's and early 70's covettes and camaros had tail lights that was round and look pretty close, but we all can tell the diff in the shape of the rear of a camaro and vette.





X year had single head light per side where the next year had 2 per side, or X year had tail fins,





Its all the little details that goes with the car and alot of those details changed each year