Interesting to think about with the higher gas prices but certainly these cars were in development before the recent spike in gas prices so maybe the muscle cars are not dead again.

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Call it retro, vintage, or a blast from the past, but there's another combatant coming in what is shaping up to be a replay of Detroit's pony car wars of the 1960s and early 1970s.

The Dodge Challenger concept car, unlike the Dodge Charger coupe reborn as a sedan this year, is a two-door pony car with a clenched front end and wide-mouth grille scheduled to debut at the North American International Auto Show in January. Factor in the success of Ford Motor Co.'s redesigned Mustang, and the similarities don't end there.

"It's the 1960s all over again," said Matt DeLorenzo, editor for Road & Track magazine.

So strong is the redesigned Mustang's allure with the American public that even when U.S. auto sales hit a seven-year low last month, Mustang demand jumped 21.7 percent. Should the Chrysler Group decide to mass produce the Dodge Challenger, a move widely expected as early as 2008, it hopes to tap into a market ruled by baby boomers with an appreciation for fast cars and disposable income to buy them.

"Manufacturers are picking up on one thing -- muscle cars are becoming collectibles," said Michael Marsden, an automotive historian and professor at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. "You also have to put the fun back into driving, and these cars are putting the fun back into driving."

Fast on Chrysler's heels, General Motors Corp. is working on a rear-wheel drive platform to revive the Chevrolet Camaro or Pontiac Firebird sport coupes, names brimming with nostalgia. A new Camaro or Firebird, which were discontinued in 2002, could debut by the end of the decade.

"The pony car is alive and well, and people are scrambling to catch up to Ford," DeLorenzo said.

The successful launch of the Mustang in the 1960s caught the industry flat-footed. More than two years passed before GM leaped into the muscle car frenzy with the Camaro and Firebird.

The Challenger was the last of the pony cars to be launched, in 1970. And it had a short life -- just five model years.

"Although Chrysler had the Barracuda and Challenger, they weren't considered pony cars until the 1968, 1969 and 1970 versions came out," DeLorenzo said.

Muscle car sales eventually faltered because their powerful engines gulped fuel at a time when gasoline prices began to soar after the Arab oil embargo.

Chrysler didn't opt to build the concept simply for the sake of creating a retro design, a trend fueled by the success of the Volkswagen Beetle, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Ford Thunderbird and now the Chevrolet HHR.

"We wanted to do a muscle coupe that connects with the American heritage," said Tom Tremont, vice president for advance product design for the Chrysler Group.

The company chose to do a two-door model because it wanted to test the flexibility of its LX platform -- the underpinning for the Chrysler 300 sedan, Charger and Dodge Magnum wagon.

The Challenger concept's design harks back to the 1970 model with floating headlights, ribbed black seating, a hood with black trim, a 6.1-liter Hemi engine with six-speed transmission and the pistol grip shifter.

The concept is based on the 1970 model because it was the most distinctive Challenger.

The Challenger may also mean a reprieve for Chrysler, which was criticized by many car enthusiasts when it plastered four-door panels on the new Charger. The Charger was designed as a sedan to appease Charger fans who now have families or want a more spacious vehicle than the coupe version offered three decades ago.

It also allowed Dodge to have a large sedan in its lineup.

Now with the Challenger, enthusiasts are counting on a large rear-wheel drive coupe to return to the Dodge lineup.

Let the muscle car wars begin again.

 

you know it wont look anything like that... but i like it... for now...

 

Funny how the new muscle car era coincides with the rising of gas prices....again