Why muscle cars suit Los Santos
GTA V's map is a version of Southern California, and nothing looks more at home on it than an American V8. Muscle cars also solve a practical problem for server owners. They are fast enough to be exciting and cheap enough, in most server economies, to be a realistic second or third car, which makes them the busiest tier in a dealership.
The shelf splits into five model families (Mustang, Charger, Challenger, Camaro and Corvette) plus a handful of sixties and seventies classics. This guide goes through each, then the lore-friendly alternatives, the packs and the V8 sounds. All the cars named are debadged add-ons that keep their real names unless noted.
Ford Mustang and Shelby GT500
The Mustang has the widest spread of eras. The classics are the 1965 Ford Mustang, the 1967 Ford Mustang 'Eleanor', the 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 and the eighties Ford Mustang Foxbody. The modern cars are the Ford Mustang, the Mustang Boss 302, the Mustang Mach 1 and a Mustang GT (Race Build) for track events.
The Shelby GT500 is the top of the Mustang line and has three model years, 2019, 2020 and the 2021 Shelby GT500 (Street), plus the Shelby GT500 Super Snake (Mansory). If you are stocking one Mustang, the standard car covers the most players; the GT500 is the step-up model to price above it. Two police Mustangs exist for departments that want a pursuit car to match.
Dodge Charger
The Charger is the four-door of the group, which is why it turns up as a family car, a gang car and a police car on the same server. The catalog has the 1969 Dodge Charger for the classic shape, then the modern sedan as the 2016 Dodge Charger (a free download at the time of writing), the 2021 Dodge Charger, a Dodge Charger listing and the Dodge Charger Widebody.
On the emergency side there are the Dodge Charger (SWAT) and the Dodge Charger SRT Wagon – Police, and the lore-friendly Bravado Buffalo police cars stand in for the Charger Pursuit.
Dodge Challenger: Hellcat, Redeye and Demon
The Challenger is the two-door, and its listings follow the real car's performance ladder. The 2016 Dodge Challenger is the base car. Above it are the Challenger Hellcat (F9), the Challenger Hellcat Redeye and the Challenger SRT Demon, with the Challenger Hellcat (Liberty Walk) as the body-kit build.
Two custom builds sit alongside them: the Dodge Challenger 'Drift Cat', which also appears in the drift collection, and the Dodge 'Demonhawk' Custom. Those suit a tuner shop or a single character better than general dealership stock.
Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette
The Camaro comes as the 2020 Chevrolet Camaro SS and two Camaro ZL1 listings, the ZL1 being the higher-performance model. It is the natural rival to stock next to the Mustang, since players tend to pick a side.
The Corvette is listed with the supercars rather than the muscle cars, which matches how most servers price it. There is a Chevrolet Corvette C7, three C8 listings and the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette C8 Z06 at the top. The C7 and C8 look very different, front-engined and mid-engined respectively, so it is worth stocking one of each.
The classics
Classic muscle is what car clubs and lowrider crews are built around. Besides the sixties Mustangs and the 1969 Charger above, the catalog has the 1966 Pontiac GTO (Convertible) and the 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. They are listed in the Classics collection together with the European and Japanese classics.
Lore-friendly muscle alternatives
The certified lore-friendly collection covers the same families under GTA-style names. The Vapid Dominator GT is the Ford Mustang GT stand-in and comes in standard, Animated and Beast versions, with the Dominator ASP Drop as the convertible. The standard Dominator GT is a free download at the time of writing.
For Dodge, the Bravado Gauntlet Widebody and Bravado Hellfire Lastcall stand in for the Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Declasse Impaler SZS Drift for the Charger Hellcat. For Chevrolet, the Declasse Vigero ZX Widebody Drop stands in for the Camaro, the Invetero Coquette 4C, D10 Animated and VR for the Corvette C8 and the Coquette R for the C7. The Imponte Ruiner 450 GT stands in for the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. Each is renamed and carries no real-world badges.
Packs and V8 sounds
Three packs cover the shelf: the American Muscle Pack and the Classic Muscle Pack, with four add-on cars each, and the Lore-Friendly Muscle & Classic Pack with 25 certified cars under GTA-style names.
A muscle car is mostly its noise, so budget for sounds. The catalog has the Mustang GT 5.0 V8, a cammed Mustang 5.0, the Shelby GT500 V8 and the supercharged 5.2-litre Predator; the Challenger Hellcat Redeye V8, the Challenger 6.4-litre HEMI and the 1969 Charger R/T 426 Hemi; and for Chevrolet the Camaro SS LS3, the Camaro Z28 LS7 and three Corvette V8s. The Muscle / V8 Engine Sound Pack is the bundle option. Each sound is a separate resource assigned through the audioNameHash line in a car's vehicles.meta.
