Sept 23: Modern Muscle



1969 Mustang Boss 429

 

2012 Mustang Boss 302

Notice a resemblance? Forty years apart and the modern day "pony cars" (Mustang, Camaro, Challenger)have gone back to their roots for design cues. I mention this because the other day, my wife said she saw this neat new bright, bright green car, which looked old and (for me) she asked what it was  -  a new Challenger done up in one of these wild colours from the late '60's, early '70's. Now she is savvy enough to know that it looked the same as a Challenger from 40 years ago. Compare.......

 1970 Challenger in that bright green

and now the 2012 version......



These cars are almost identical in everyway, except for size. Believe it or not the current Challenger is the same, yes the same size as a full size 2012 Chrysler 300C. Go figure!

Camaro has also followed the retro theme, but like the Mustang, it is not a carbon copy. Compare this 1969 Z/28 to the new 2012 below it..........

 You can see the family resemblance, but the designers have done a very nice job of picking up styling cues while giving it its own identity. 

Now which do you think has been the most successful? To date the Camaro is ahead of the Mustang and the Challenger is at maybe 25% of the Chevy's sales. Maybe size does matter, but in this case in a negative way. 

Until next time........