C is For Muscle Car

It should come as little surprise to anyone acquainted with the auto industry, that fall is the time for new releases. It signals a tapering off of interest in this year’s model, and gives the auto enthusiast the chance to search under couch cushions and in dryer balls for the money to afford next year’s model.

A specific fall, 49 years ago, on September 29, 1966, a car was released that did more than pump up the fanbase. It did more than get a few pimply kids excited about what they might drive when they got their license. It did more than add another car to an era of the increasingly cool, quick, and ultimately historical. The car was the 1967 Chevy Camaro, and it was so much more. 

Designed to combat Ford’s head start on the pony car competition, the Camaro was touted as a “small vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” It would be the start of a decades long rivalry extending even up to today, where the Mustang and Camaro continue to play leap frog for the position of faster, most powerful, or quickest off the line.

But the importance of this week in Motorhead history, (look, we said the thing!) extends past our lovable Camaro, to encompass another model that has survived decades of American automobilia, oil crises, safety regulation, and the Pony Car competition – the Dodge Challenger.

Six days before the 3rd anniversary of the Camaro’s release, on September 23, 1969, Dodge put out the Challenger. Though not the first of Dodge’s attempts to make a name for themselves with the fast and powerful, it would go on to create a lasting legacy, one that survives even up until today.

And that’s the most remarkable element of these two Muscle Car Gods. Though lesser cars have come and gone, lost to their geopolitical environments, or left in the dust by the competition, the Camaro and the Challenger are kicking it today. With the production of the latest Z/28, and the 707 horsepower Hellcat hellion, they are not footnotes in history.

This week, whether ‘66 or ‘69, was a turning point, not for the wonder years of automotive past, but for the world in which we live today, the overpowered, insane, what-will-they-manage-next of modern muscle. Yes, September in the late 1960s was a special time for car enthusiasts – the beginning of legacies.

Image top right selected from SenseiAlan via Creative Commons. 

Image bottom left selected from SenseiAlan via Creative Commons.