There was a strange time warp at the 2006 North American International
Auto Show in Detroit. The calendar said it was January 2006 but the
cars on display made many think the clock had been turned back more
than three and a half decades.
On display were a new Shelby Mustang, a new Dodge Challenger and
a new Chevrolet Camaro. The last time all of those constellations
aligned was a quarter-century plus 11 years ago.
But it appears the pony car era, created in the
mid-1960s with the birth of the original Ford Mustang and then
resurrected a couple of years ago with the rebirth of the '69 Mustang
as a 2005 model, is galloping again. Not only did Chevrolet unveil its
Camaro concept but the Chrysler Group unveiled a very retro Dodge
Challenger concept.
While the smoothly curvaceous Challenger looked like it was simply
reissued, though in a somewhat more modern size because of its Chrysler
LX underpinnings, the Camaro concept had a more contemporary and
angular appearance that looked cutting edge, and we mean that both
literally and figuratively.