What's Your Favorite New/Retro Pony Car?

[El Mahdi]

(Hey, even game geeks like muscle cars.)


I'd imagine that within the next few years we'll all start switching to Hybrids or completely alternate fuel source vehicles (Hydrogen, Electric, etc.). So, since this is probably the Last Hurrah for the Muscle Car, (I'd doubt we see any more "Muscle Cars" produced again ... Ever) what's you favorite?

Is it the new Dodge Challenger, the Ford Mustang, or the Chevy Camaro?

Vote Now!

 

[El Mahdi]

With the curb weight of these three cars, it's kind of hard to call any of them Pony Cars anymore (Aprox 3600 lbs for the Challenger and the Mustang, and a relatively svelte 3200 lbs for the Camaro). However, my favorite of the three is the Challenger. Besides, even if it's Hemi in name only (it really doesn't have a whole lot in common with the original Hemi engines), it's just so cool to say you have a Hemi under the hood.

None of them are going to be super fast off the line due to their robust weight (any light car with a turbocharged V6 could probably beat them at 0 to 60), but there's just something about the roar of a big, nasty V8 (as long as you can afford the gas).

The redesigned Mustang is pretty cool, especially if you have the cash to lay down for a GT500. However, even though the Camaro is probably the faster of the three, it looks too much like some kind of spaceship to me (especially in Silver). The Challenger however, especially in SRT8 trim, just looks like the best mix of modern options with throwback styling IMO.

 

[nerfherder]

I'm a big fan of cars, but muscle cars have never done anything for me. In fact, I had to look each one up to see what they looked like. So, sell me on muscle cars

Dodge

Ford

Chevy

[ame=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2286346925315509530]Top Gear - Ford Mustang GT 2005[/ame]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Though I'm never going to drive any kind of sports car, I like their aesthetics...and I think this current crop of retro-styled muscle cars looks pretty good all around.

As for seeing the last hurrah of this kind of car, don't count them out just yet! I've seen some prototype vehicles that are both energy efficient and surprisingly powerful.

There was one fully electric car- a roadster type- that was featured in some tech show I caught on late-night cable a month or so ago. Due to the way they had it geared, it actually out-accelerated a Formula race car! And as I recall, the show was a rerun from a couple of years ago.

If that kind of tech becomes commercially viable, you may yet see another "pony car" renaissance. Only instead of a throaty roar of a V8 (or bigger!), it will be the silent hum of an electric.

 

[nerfherder]

As for seeing the last hurrah of this kind of car, don't count them out just yet! I've seen some prototype vehicles that are both energy efficient and surprisingly powerful.

There was one fully electric car- a roadster type- that was featured in some tech show I caught on late-night cable a month or so ago. Due to the way they had it geared, it actually out-accelerated a Formula race car! And as I recall, the show was a rerun from a couple of years ago.

If that kind of tech becomes commercially viable, you may yet see another "pony car" renaissance. Only instead of a throaty roar of a V8 (or bigger!), it will be the silent hum of an electric.

Sounds like the Tesla Roadster, based on a Lotus Elise. It's in production, although the production model wouldn't out accelerate a F1 car! There's even a company that have produced a prototype engine sound system that sounds like a V8, or whatever engine you want, based on the accelerator inputs.

As an edit to my previous comments in the thread, I do like the sound produced by a muscle car, but I'd rather have a V8 in something like an AMG or Aston Martin.

 

[El Mahdi]

...Only instead of a throaty roar of a V8 (or bigger!), it will be the silent hum of an electric.

Do you mean like this?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_y27chNLas]YouTube - Volkswagen 2009 Jetta TDI- Clean Diesel Sets World Record of 58 mpg vs Hybrid Commercial[/ame]

 

[El Mahdi]

I'm a big fan of cars, but muscle cars have never done anything for me. In fact, I had to look each one up to see what they looked like. So, sell me on muscle cars

Not sure if I can sell you on them. It may just be a US thing. (or maybe Australia also, you could probably call the cars from Mad Max muscle cars.) Muscle cars aren't always about performance (although their are many with good to very good performance). Muscle cars are pretty much all about Horsepower (well, except for the new/retro muscle cars, they are just as luxury filled as any other modern car, just with a lot of horsepower - although affordable horsepower - not exotic horsepower like a Vette or a Viper). Thus the old saying: "There's no replacement for displacement!".

They were closely linked with NASCAR in the States. The idea being you could watch it race on Sunday, and buy it from a dealer on Monday. Some cars were also designed to run in the Trans Am series, but mostly it was about NASCAR.

The Pony Car was a sub-categoy of muscle cars, smaller and more light weight (not to mention more affordable) than the big muscle cars (like the Dodge Charger or the Plymouth Baricuda).

 

[nerfherder]

The Pony Car was a sub-categoy of muscle cars, smaller and more light weight (not to mention more affordable) than the big muscle cars (like the Dodge Charger or the Plymouth Baricuda).

Thanks for the explanation - I'd heard of Muscle Cars and Pony Cars before, but hadn't realised that one was a sub-category of another. Yeah, I like small, lighter cars, although I'm now appreciating the extra torque of a bigger engine.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm a big fan of cars, but muscle cars have never done anything for me. In fact, I had to look each one up to see what they looked like. So, sell me on muscle cars

Dodge

Ford

Chevy

Top Gear - Ford Mustang GT 2005

I think I like the originals better.

Biggest mistake in Transformers was having Bumblebee turn into an ugly retro instead of keeping the other frame, just because Megan Fox character said something against that. That just really made no sense at all. Even if we do not take Transforming robots as a given and wonder about how that can even be possible.
[/Car Snobbery]

From the ones here, I like the Dodge most. It reminds me a little of the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard. [/Nostalgia]

 

[El Mahdi]

I think I like the originals better.

...

From the ones here, I like the Dodge most. It reminds me a little of the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard. [/Nostalgia]

Mmmmmm, Daisy Duke!


Yeah, I agree with you 100%. I prefer the originals also. But of these, I'd choose the Dodge also (even though the Hemi engine it has is pretty much just a "Hemi" in name only).

Now, if I could choose any muscle car, it would be a 1969 Mercury Cougar XR7 (or if I really had some money to spend, a Cougar Eliminator with a BOSS 302). Oh, the bittersweet joy of dreaming.