Pony Cars

I useta have a '63 Fairlane with a 427 shoehorned into it, ala the '64 Thunderbolt. Traded it for a 454 Chevette at Grumpy Jenkins' place in Chicago. Talk about a DANGER-O-US car! I needn't go into its HANDLING characteristics...

 

Have you noticed the modern interpretation of the muscle car? It is the "tuner" car that has the attention of young people today. These are front-wheel-drive sub-compacts which have high-horsepower (often turbo-charged) four-cylinder engines. Kids can buy them cheap and rod them up for a few hundred bucks. The factories have taken notice of this activity and are marketing sub-compact high-hp cars like the Focus SVT, and Neon SRT. Sentra has a version whose letter tag I cannot recall. The king among these is the Subaru WRX STI with all-wheel-drive. (In the interest of full disclosure I insert here that I sell Subarus for a living). This car is the size of a Honda Civic, has a 6-speed manual tranny, a 300-hp turbo-charged engine and will do 0-60 in 4.8 seconds.

 

Yeah... makes me cringe. I still haven't gotten used to the 18 inch rims with very low profile tires yet. The neon lights on the hood or undercarriage is odd, but I can live with that.

The lowered pickups seem silly to me as a regular pickup owner. I guess the thought of actually putting something into the bed of that custom truck hasn't occured to them.

Oh well... at least Ford (with the 2005 Mustang GT)is sticking pretty close to the original formula of a V8 and rear wheel drive, 300HP (and some real killer torque) without the aid of a turbo. Dual exhaust with a throaty rumble that only V8s can make.

Ah, now THAT appeals to me (being a child of the '60s and '70s!)

 

Don't know if it was considered a pony car or not.Had a 1969 Camero with a 454 custom built motor,turbo 400 transmission,pushing close to 500 horses.An awsome street racer.Use to race redlight to redlight while cruising between the drive in resturants.Where the car hops wore skates.

 

Yep! I'd say a Camaro is a pony car. With a 454 in it, it may be the father of Smarty Jones.

BTW, I attended a car show up the street from my home this weekend. I saw a red '67 Cougar. That car was a sister to the Mustang. It had the sequential signal lights in the rear. A very beautiful pony car (though strangely named after a cat).

 

Oh yeah, Camaros were pony cars. Sounds like your ride was an exciting one!

The Cougars were classy cars alright. They were basically upscale Mustangs, but you really couldn't tell by the appearance. Not like the Camaro/Firebird models, with relatively few differing parts.

Speaking of Cat Pony Cars, there were also 'Cudas (Fish) and Firebirds (mythical birds) in the pony car field. Actually, the early 'Cudas came first, but the very strong Mustang sales and popularity defined the class. Pretty much all of the smaller, sporty cars with 4 seats and two doors fell under the pony car class.

 

In my younger days, (and alsa, more foolish, for I traded every one of them away! ) I had a '67 Cougar.(Torky lil' 289) '74 Gran Torino (very fast 351 Cleveland), '74 Charger (Plain ol' 318), '74 'Cuda (bored and beefed 318), '67 300 Chrysler ( Hemi 383). I have seen since those days that EACH of these would sell for many, many times their original value, where the Chrysler today would fetch the highest price for its Hemi 383. 'Twas fun days indeed, racing the highways and side streets of Idaho and Arizona.
Now all I want for Christmas is a '71 Hemi Cuda, (dreamer!!!!)
Jim

 

Before the pony cars.In 1963 my Jr.High teacher had a Studebaker Avanti.Guaranteed to do 160 off the show room floor.It looked good too.Studebaker was just a few years ahead of it's time.If I remember correctly Studs were also the first car that came with seat belts as standard equipment.

 

Sales figures on the latest pony cars? The new Pontiac GTO is off to a slow start, selling less that half of GM's annual projection, so far. The Chrysler 300C (not really a pony car, but arguably a muscle car) is a hit, with customers trading Lexus, BMW, et al to get one. A couple of articles are here: www.autoweek.com

 

Ugh! I can't stand the 300C - the front end looks more like a truck!

Of course, car beauty is in the eye of the beholder... but this one hurts my eyes!!

 

Yeah, I wish they had taken the 300M with the swoopy design and given it RWD and a hemi. That is a much more pleasing car to my eye. Dodge is supposed to have a cousin to the 300C out next year with a more aerodynamic shape. Let's hope!