A quibble, I know, but Camaros aren't muscle cars, they're pony cars. The usual definition of a muscle car is a mid-sized car with a big honkin' V-8 stuffed into it.
AACK! I meant retro-Camaro.
Only to the pedantic old farts who were actually old enough to have owned one when they were new. ;-)
Point taken Al, but from what I can tell the term ponycar never really got much traction outside the Ford camp - and understandably so. Everything kind of got folded under the muscle car tent where it's pretty much stayed since around 1970. Probably after somebody noticed the new 'ponycars' bore little resemblance to the original ponycars from just a few years earlier.
WmB
Hey! I resemble that remark! IAC I've never owned a muscle car but I have had more than a few Mustangs and one Camaro over the years. I guess some would call my '85 Buick GN a latter-day muscle car though.
I dunno about that - I've been reading and hearing it for years. A long hood and short trunk, following the Mustang formula, are pretty much what defines a ponycar.
It certainly looks better to my eyes than the last production Camaro but GM has overdone it once again. That front looks too 'heavy'. Ford tried several things on the Mustang that did not make it to production and I think GM should start taking some things off this one before it goes to production.
I know one long-time Chevy fan who's less than impressed with the current Chevy line-up. GM had best start paying attention to their car lines again if they want to stay in business.
Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.
snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net ( WmB) wrote in :
That concept doesn't look anything like the originals. Now in itself that's not a bad thing, since Camaros were barges rather than sports cars, but they haven't taken the opportunity to design a good-looking car. It's still a barge, just a modern-looking one. More an exercise in 'exploiting GM heritage, no matter what' and jumping on the bandwagon than a true successor.
[snip]
Yeah, it seems to reflect the Dodge "crouching tiger" image (at least the front quarters look that way to me). Way too much bulk over the front wheel wells reminds me of the bunched shoulder muscles of a large cat, and certainly does not invoke recollections of the real Camaraos, etc.
That's a sweet ride. I drove one in '85 and fell in love. I had the thought that I'd pick one up in a few years when the price cooled off. Heh, wrong! Yeah, I'd probably call it a muscle car - "for the times". 300 cubes was pretty much a big block at that time and while the GN didn't have all those cubes, it certainly had the performance. There was one a few years ago kicking 5.0 ass around here at the local strip. The young 5.0 guys were completely surprised. I wasn't.
True - books are about the only place I see it. But at the shows, on the street, at my brother's Camaro club mettings - ya just never hear it. The Camaro guys certainly don't favor its use. Sort of like why the tissue makers at Scott don't call their product Kleenex - as many of us are prone to say.
Hey, the Air Force decided their North American Mustangs after 1947 were F-51s and not P-51s. Outside of books, how many people actually call 'em F-51s?
Ford decided for 1969 that the correct term for their fastbacks was "sportsroofs". I've lived to hear maybe three people make frequent use of that term in lieu of "fastback".
Now if I'm writing a book, maybe I say ponycar, F-51 and sportsroof. Oustide of that, as long as we all have a general idea what we're talking about...
Suddenly I remember a rebuke my Dad favored during certain arguments: "If a cat had kittens in a an oven would you call 'em biscuits?"
I haven't thought of that in years.
WmB
Part of the reason our next car (wifes) will be a Toyota Camry. It'll last longer and is better engineered. Albeit I have no complaints whatsoever on my 2002 4x4 Suburban so far. Awesome vehicle!
Somehow though the pic I see of the new Camaro doesn't resemble the older ones very well. Looks like a Torino grill on a new Mustang...
John
You bet! Unfortunately I 'sold' it to my son a few years ago and it's greatly deteriorated cosmetically since then. I wish I had kept it... :(
Actually you should be able to pick up an '85 for a song, relatively speaking. Most buyers prefer the intercooled '86 and '87 models, and GNXs.
I sure did/does! :)
Heh. I surprised *lots* of people with my GN. Especially since I removed all the badges so it would be mistaken for a Monte Carlo SS... ;-p
What a surprise...
Well, if they're in USAF rather than USAAF markings *I* call them F-51s. But of course I'm a pedant. ;)
If a bullfrog had wings would it still bump its *ss when it jumped? ;)
As luck would have it, American Muscle Car on Speedvision tonight featured the GN. Ah, a real blast from the past - even if my brush with the GN was just for one quick pass along Ocean Boulevard as a designated driver!.
21yrs old is 21yrs old - ya just don't know how good ya got it until it goes bye-bye.WmB
Damn, I missed it. Is it scheduled for replay anytime soon?
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