Our associate editor at Hemmings, David Traver Adolphus, a guy who's fluent in cars from the horseless era, got the spurs: Pick the 10 most powerful historic American cars, from all eras, for the April 2012 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.

Dave got the full story, which means we're going to tease you: For the full results, you're going to have to grab the next issue of HCC. But I'll tell you this much: Today's commonplace notion of the mass-market vehicle with big power was unthinkable when the car industry was very young. Powerful cars were only for the very rich or the very crazy.

As an example, we're confident that we've identified the most muscular car of the years 1900 to 1905. It was the Buffum 4-4 Greyhound Eight, eight of which were built in Abingdon, Massachusetts beginning in 1904. It had the first eight-cylinder engine of any American car, a horizontally opposed beast that thumped out 80hp from 699.8 cubic inches. It also established the formula for a muscle car: Big engine, light weight, in this case from a hand-fabricated aluminum body weighing just 120 pounds.

A few years later, the Apperson brothers of Kokomo, Indiana, created a weapon of their own, which usually went by the innocuous name of Jack Rabbit. It was a whole different kind of animal, a stripped-to-zip runabout with a barrel fuel tank, two seats, 475 cubic inches and 96hp, most of any American car produced in 1907, when it was introduced. The Jack Rabbit also had a price to stop Elmer Fudd's heart, $15,000, and that's no misprint.

Our pre-Roaring Twenties bodybuilder was the 1919 Porter Model 45. You may remember that Jerry Van Dyke drove a "1928 Porter," briefly, during his tenure on My Mother the Car. This isn't it. This was the brainchild of Finley Robertson Porter, who also designed the F.R.P. and earlier created the T- head Mercer Raceabout. Built in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the Porter used a 16-valve head and produced an advertised 125hp from a big 447.8-cu.in. inline-four, although some claim the real total was closer to 170hp, which was amazing output.

Want to learn more? Pick up the April 2012 issue, or visit www.hemmings.com for information on subscribing.