Automakers Flex Their Muscle Cars in Automotive Arms Race
More than 1,000 people are expected to gather on Detroit's Belle Isle Park this weekend for the official unveiling of the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, an event that will kick off with a parade of 350 classic versions of the muscle car.
The debut of the sporty coupe comes a year after the launch of an all-new Ford Mustang - Camaro's biggest rival - and just short of the 50th anniversary of the original Camaro's debut. It also marks one of the biggest turnarounds in recent automotive history. In 2002, Chevy abandoned the Camaro due to declining sales, but today it is one of the market's hotter nameplates and part of a broader upsurge in demand for muscle and performance cars.
Not that many years ago, that would have seemed highly unlikely. With fuel prices soaring to record levels and tough new emissions and fuel economy standards falling into place, conventional wisdom suggested muscle was on the way out in favor of hybrids and battery cars. But automakers are discovering they need to bulk up even those alternative-power vehicles to meet consumer demand.
Automotive arms race
It's nothing less than an automotive arms race. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recently launched 707-horsepower Hellcat versions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger models. And there are customized versions of the Camaro and Mustang pushing up towards the 1,000-hp range. That's a big change from a decade ago when the most powerful version of the Mustang, the Shelby Cobra, barely could deliver 390-hp, notes David Sullivan, senior analyst at consulting firm AutoPacific, Inc.
Meanwhile, the latest versions of these machines are also delivering fuel economy that once would have been impressive on a pint-sized econocar, he says. The "base," 300-hp version of the Mustang, for example, gets an EPA-rated 31 mpg on the highway.
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http://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/automakers-flex-their-muscle-cars-automotive-arms-race-n359651
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