Posted on 05/14/2024 7:07:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
Sixty years ago, Ford unveiled the Mustang – and it changed everything. Prior to 1964 – the year of the first Mustang’s debut – there was no such thing as a “pony car.” Soon, there were so many of them it was hard to keep track of them.
One of them was the Chevy Camaro, which appeared just in time for the 1967 model year. Its time has just run out because GM has pulled the plug – because GM knows a Camaro with a plug is as oxymoronic as Elvis without the voice (and the presence).
In a backhanded compliment way, this is to GM’s credit.
Camaro will retire from the field with its dignity intact rather than be made into a mockery of itself, as Stellantis (which owns the Dodge brand) has done with the Challenger, another of the pony cars that was inspired by the Mustang. Dodge retired it once before – after the 1974 model year – because Dodge didn’t want to make a Challenger that was a mockery of itself. It was no longer feasible to offer Challengers with 440s and 426s (engines were once identified by their displacement in cubic inches rather than their liters, which served to differentiate them from other engines of the same displacement) or even 360s and 340s, on account of the government, which had imposed emissions standards that – at the time – could not be complied with without single exhaust and catalytic converters and other such devices that did to powerful engines what a naked picture of Hillary Clinton does to the libido of a heterosexual man.
But Chevy – almost miraculously – kept the Camaro (and its sister car, the Pontiac Firebird) in production after 1974, without making it a mockery of itself. The Z28 – which was the high-performance version of Camaro – was retired for a couple of years (1975 and 1976) which is how Chevy kept the Camaro from becoming a mockery of itself.
That and the fact that the non-Z28 Camaro was still a Camaro and there was still plenty of interest in a good-looking pony car, even if it wasn’t especially powerful or fast.
By 1977, Chevy was feeling better about Camaro and brought back the Z28. It wasn’t especially powerful or fast, but it had the potential to be both. Its 175 horsepower 350 cubic inch V8 was still a Chevy small block V8 with a four barrel carb and that engine could be fixed in a weekend’s time with a cam swap and headers and some tuning to equal the power of a 1974 Z28. And the car it was in was still a Camaro – and so still looked good. It had all the essentials that made the 1974 and prior Camaros so appealing.
You just had to make a few adjustments – to get around the government.
The Z28 improved as time passed – and Camaro got much more powerful and faster than it had ever been before. Fast forward to our time and the standard 2024 Camaro with a V6 has more power – and is faster – than the most powerful/fastest Camaro you could buy back in 1970 – the apotheosis of power/performance – before the government tried (and succeeded) in taking it away, the first time.
Now we are at the second time – and the government has succeeded, again. This time, finally. The 2024 Camaro will be the last Camaro – and this time, forever. There will be no temporary hiatus followed by a resurrection – as happened when GM cancelled Camaro back in 2002 and then brought it back, again, for 2010. The reason being the reasons for this cancellation are very different than the reasons for the cancellation last time.
That time – back in 2002 – the Camaro got culled because the Camaro of that generation was not especially popular, especially with female buyers. The fourth generation bodystyle was not like the previous ones that appealed to more than just young guys who liked powerful and fast cars. (The Ford Mustang has always appealed to both sexes as well as most demographics and that’s why the Mustang has been popular with enough people to keep it going for 60 years.)
Chevy realized there was still a market for Camaro – just not the one they were selling at the time. So Chevy stopped selling it. But only for a brief time. During that absence, Chevy – and Dodge – realized they had abandoned their market and thereby given it (the whole thing) to Ford, which by 2003 was the only American car company still selling a pony car.
And Ford was selling lots of them.
So GM – which was not yet run by someone such as Mary Barra, a political appointee who took over shortly after Obama took over – brought back a Camaro (in 2010) that people did want. Just as Dodge brought back a Challenger (in 2008) that people really wanted.
Both prospered – until their time ran out.
That time was last year for the Challenger, which is now no more. The device that Stellantis is going to try to sell as its replacement for displacement is likely to sell as well as a Beyond Meat “hamburger.”
And now the time has come for Camaro, which at least retires from the field with dignity, a casualty of changed times – and changed management.
That leaves the field to Mustang, the last of the Mohicans. And for similar reasons.
“The frontier moves with the sun and pushes the red man of the wilderness forests in front of it. Until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be no more.”
. . .
It’s a sad reminded of what this country has lost.
I had three 67,70,74. Wish I had any of them, now.
When we got married my wife had a 1981 Camaro. I really liked that car.
My first car was a Camaro.
Always had a soft spot for them since.
However in my opinion, they seriously botched the reintroduction.
Ford and Chrysler did an excellent job on there retro mod vehicles.
The new Camaro is butt ugly.
I have owned several ‘Pony Cars’:
Camaro
Firebird
Charger
Mustang - Own now.....................
I’ve owned two of those in my day, a 65 and a 77.
Now Ford could include 30 of those Mustangs with every EV and come out even
The late 70s Trans Ams also had Oldsmobile 403 engines in them.
Now, there’s an idea!
BOGO!
Buy a Mustang, get an EV as a spare!................
Look, I don’t want to insult anyone, but as much as you and I romanticize the Camaro and the Firebird, the reality is that mostly they’re were crappy cars. Huge doors that sagged. Easily rusted. Just not well made.
I remember seeing a chimera car in Maryland when we lived there for a short time back in 1980.
It was half Camaro and half Firebird..................
That is true. I owned them all...........But they were stylish!.............
My Dad had a Dodge Charger, A Pontiac Trans-Am and a Z-28 Camaro. My Nephew has the Camaro. Great car for the money.
That wasn’t standard was it? I thought they typically had the 400cc 6.6L
Anyone I met who owned one hated the poor visibility.
Huge doors that sagged. Easily rusted. Just not well made.
~~~
LOL, that was true for just about any 10 year old chevy that I can remember.
Yep, that is the #1 complaint..................
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