So, let's see how it goes, shall we? Might expect a slight problem finding anything to fit when we come to "X", but y'know, nuttin ventured...
So, A is for...
AMX. The American Motors Experimental (marketing division spelling fail there) was a bold step for AMC at the time, given that the short wheelbase came from making it a strict two-seater, and thus arguably the only domestic product it was in direct competition with was the Corvette. Errrm... Mind you, the little car with the big heart (up to 390cu in V8s) was a potent performer. A specially modified pair set several speed records, including posting 189mph at Bonneville! This example has some forced induction going on, which must make it entertaining
A is also for Apache, the market name for Chevrolet's Task Force pick ups. The white one especially was a beautifully clean and bright joy to behold, especially as we saw it on the M1 on the way oop t'Pod, and I can safely say it's the best tow vehicle I've seen in a looooong time
A is also for Air Grabber, the hoodscoop fitted to some Plymouths such as Roadrunners. Operated by a big vacuum actuator, a lever on the dash would cause the flap in the hood to open. The aperture sealed direct to the aircleaner housing below with a big rubber seal, and thus opening the Air Grabber fed cool air direct to the carb intake. They also in later years had a natty sharks-mouth decal
And apparently, A is also for Austin. Oddly. No idea what model this little gasser van is based on, cos I struggle to tell a Westminster from a Cambridge to be honest. Funky though, innit?
B is for Bandido, a delightfully zany dragster that makes a great noise and goes stupidly fast. Which, I suppose are the two main things you look for in a dragster. Loving the transporter... "Horses". Oh yeah, very much so
B is for Barracuda. When first conceived, it could be argued that this little Plymouth began the whole "pony car" thing, since it pre-dated the Mustang to market by a matter of weeks. Plymouth basically took the humble Mom's Taxi Valiant and shoe-horned a frisky engine into it; the archetypal muscle car recipe but of course the Ford became the "Hoover" of the scene, the brand name by which all others were judged. And to be fair to the little A-body Plymouth, early styling treatments were... well, shall we be kind and say "awkward"? As shown by this '65, famously modelling the world's biggest piece of automotive glass at the time!
By '67 the styling had toned down and become a bit more, well, normal. And this one presumably doesn't have the stock 273 under the hood, pulling wheelies like this
And this '68 is stylish. Almost. As I've often banged on about, one of my favourite things about American cars is the model branding that was so carefully contrived by the designers. I love little touches like the barracuda fish badges
B is for Bel Air. Originally Chevy's new concept was a trim level but it wasn't long before they saw the potential and it became a model in its own right. From '55 it was known as the "Hot One" and was the mainstay of Chevy's full-size model range, selling by the gazillion. Offering just about every option you could think of and a few you probably couldn't, what didn't change was that the platform offered style, sophistication and even good handling (all things being relative, of course). The '55 is recognised by it's allegedly Ferrari-inspired "egg-crate" half-width grille. Most of the examples on the day we went up the Pod were properly modified dragsters in superpro or promod classes.
But of course, there were plenty around, so it was cool to see a matching pair mooching around in the show and shine paddock. So yep, B is still for Bel Air...
'56 brought a few stylistic upgrades, such as the full-width grille and different trim packages. As with many of the flagship models of the mid-50s, rocket age stylig motifs were very much the order of the day
B is still for Bel Air. By the time of this '64, much of the shock and awe and bonkers style had ebbed away. The easiest way to tell this from the same year of Impala is by the twin rather than triple rear lights. And the fact it has "Bel Air" written on it, of course
B is, unexpectedly, for Bentley. I never got a chance to track this down in the pits and see if it still has VW power under the bonnet or if it's had a Yank heart transplant. See above; it made a great noise and went really fast. Good nuff
So, [deep breath] C is for
...after Camaro...
...after Camaro...
....after Camaro! Thousands of the things!
which is no bad thing, really. I like a nice Camaro as much as the next man, and there were certainly plenty to choose from. I've never been insanely fond of the 2nd gens aesthetically but this Zee Twenny-Eight went some good way to persuading me the error of my ways. The fuel-injected setup under the hood was nothing short of awesome
and if that didn't flick your switch, there were plenty of serious weapons that started life as Camaros but now were capable of anything down to high sevens on the strip
But if it were down to me, the one I'd take home is a neat little understated '67 with all the right stuff... non-daft wheels, bumblebee stripes and RS pack. Gotta be hidden headlights, thanks
C is not just for Camaro, of course (though you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise). C is also for... errrm.. Capri. How'd they sneak in?
Pontiac of course are not Mopar. But then we've already had GM offerings ...and even [whisper it] F*rds... so why not? C is therefore for Catalina
This '60 model is still hanging over from the Fifties with preposterous fins and strakes and bulges and oooooh, just stuff. I love it. I especially love the semi-translucent steering wheel!
C is for something a bit unusual. How about a Buick Century? Another one of those model designations that changed beyond belief throughout a ridiculous length of production. Ridiculous? Oh yeah; how about 1936 to 2005? And we thought the MGB did well! This '73 model was a GM A-body occupying the mid-range of that forgotten marque Buick's ouvre. With the demise of the Skylark model, the Gran Sport packages opened up the Century to some serious performance options, making this a rare and potentially very potent departure from the norm. And why the Century nametag? It was the first Buick guaranteed to break the ton, way back in the 30s when that really meant something!
Right then, it must be time for some proper Mopar then? As ane fule no, Mopar has come to mean any performance car from the tri-stable of Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler, a word derived originally from the aftermarket MOtor PARts arm of the parent company. Somehow, much as we (well, I) love all American Muscle, there's just something that little bit special about Mopar. And you know you're in for a good day when trundling up to the show through the drudgery of the average speed limits on the M1 through the darkest hole in civilisation yet discovered (also known as Luton) you see a Plum Crazy coloured '71 Challenger and suddenly the world is a much better place
So yep, C is very much for Challenger. This year it seemed to be the voiture de jour, with loads of the things in every imaginable colour and flavour. And that's possibly no surprise, since Chrysler brought the Challenger to market in 1970 with the avowed intent of taking on the Mustang and Camaro head-on... and to that end, the Challenger could be ordered with just about any engine spec in the entire Chrysler range as well as a truly bewildering options list. (And yes, there was technically an earlier Challenger in the late 50s called the Silver Challenger, but it was a weird bulbous cruiser blancmange based on the odd Coronet platform of the day. For the purposes of this thread we're only bothered about the '70-on E-body platform). Shall we start at the beginning then? C is for 1970 Challenger. This one does wheelies
while this one just sits there looking stunning. Funnily enough, the steel-with-trim wheels would have been the base option but now look right proper. 440 six-pack was a serious engine option. 440 is the cubic inch engine displacement... a mere 7.2 litres in new money. The Six-pack was a three-carb setup with twin chokes, so that in normal running only the central carburettor fed the engine in a tokenistic gesture to fuel economy. Floor it, and the other two kicked in, giving warp speed capability
The SE package is a rare one to see over here, as modelled by this '70 car. It stood for Special Equipment, and leaving aside the engine and trans specs, the easiest way to spot one (aside from the badges, doh) is the small "Formal" rear window and the roof-mounted console with light and interior function controls. This one has the added bonus in being painted one of the best ever automotive colours, C7 Plum Crazy
By '72 Dodge had realised offering every option under the sun and a few more besides was not only a good way to go bankrupt, but it also made for a nightmare running scheme on the production lines and thus cut back massively on Challenger options. Even the iconic Shaker Hood was deleted (where the top of the aircleaner poked through a hole in the hood and could be seen "shaking" to the pulses of the engine). However, it was still available when this '70 was built, and thus seems even more inexplicable how it ended up with this thing
Although well received by the car-buying public, the press disliked the Challenger and even by the end of the first year, sales were dropping. Sadly, Dodge had simply left it too late to bring a proprietary version of the long-running Barracuda into the muscle car market... the market was already drying up. Although it's a relative term, the American market has always afforded sales numbers that any European manufacturer could only dream of, and the 79-odd thousand sold in the first year is hardly insignificant. By the time this '71 hit the streets, the muscle car ethos of yearly styling updates to keep the marque fresh and emphasise to your neighbours yours was newer than theirs was well established.
Although the '72 re-style turned as many people off as on, with its very depressed sad-face guppy grille. However, this sparkly white one makes a strong case
Despite a lift in sales figures in '73, the writing was on the wall for the muscle car, and the fuel crisis hammered in the final nails. The Challenger died in 1974. Glossing over the ersatz attempt to resurrect it in the late 70s on the badge-engineered Mitsubishi Galant platform (and it's best to just blank that from your memory if you possibly can) it wasn't until 2008 when the stars aligned again to make a muscle car not only desirable but also socially acceptable again. And thus the Challenger was re-born, with styling absolutely true to the original and all kinds of performance options to tickle the fancy, most notably the new fuel-injected Hemis. Add in heritage Special Paint colours such as the old favourite Sublime, and she's a winner
And who could resist the charms of a 370 Hemi dressed in Furious Fuchsia?
So now that C has finally finished being for Challenger, why not stick it onto Charger instead? You know you want it
And by good Gawd dang, there were plenty enough! The legendary B-body bruiser started life as a fastback beastie in the 1966 model year, rose to stardom in a meteoric trajectory, featured as iconic participant in the most famousest car chase in movie history, went on to be horribly killed by the good ol' Duke Boys week after week, hit middle aged bloat and finally tailed away into flabby, mumbling senile obscurity all in a short order of 11 years. A bit longer than it took Jim Morrison then. This '67 shows the vestigial start of all the cues that would make the car such a legend; the in-your-face slatted full-width grille with hidden headlights, the swoopy rear sheetmetal and fastback, the huge, long hood hinting at the phenomenal grunt lurking beneath. It was all just slightly awkward and not-quite gelled together yet, a bit like a kitten whose paws are too big and ears are like sails.
By '68 it had grown into its ears and paws, though, and taken on the shape that every thinks of; ask a child to draw a muscle car and this'll be what you get. For me, it's the purest Charger, especially the full-width toothy grin and the quad round rear lights
In 1968, Dodge sold 96 000 Chargers, but they had failed to beat the massive Ford Torino Talladega and the Mercury Cyclone Spoilers on the high-speed banked ovals. The answer was the Charger 500 (named in honour of the Southern 500 race). Wind tunnel tests had shown the standard Charger body suffered from terrible rear lift due to the buttressed rear screen, and horrible drag due to the full-width grille so the Charger 500 addressed these problems with the sketchy bodge-over of sticking in a Coronet grille and flushing the rear window (often hiding the hasty metalwork with vinyl roof skins) These measures were taken much further a year later with the preposterously-styled Dodge Charger Daytonas, and later the Plymouth Superbirds.
And C is still for Charger... '69 Charger. The car that launched a million Confederate roofs and stupid Dixie horns. To be brutally honest, what I remember most about the programme was Catherine Bach's shorts. Apparently there was also a car involved, though. Split nose now is the easiest giveaway to spotting a '69, as are the funny lozenge-shaped rear lights
I'm not even going to try to explain the Chevrolet Chevelle. Billed by its maker as "the most popular mid-sized car in the world", it certainly sold by the bucketload in various guises of Malibu, El Camino, Deluxe, Nomad and others... and at the high point of the '68 to '72 models, you could spec eight body styles, nine motor variants and four transmissions, making it a truly bewildering marque to wade through with any brevity. Let's just sit back and accept what you really want is a '69-on two-door coupe, preferably in SS flava. And while you think about that, have a '66, '69 and '71 to whet yer whistle
C (gawd, it goes on a bit, doesn't it?) is for Coronet. Yet another of those long-running model designations that ran from early 1950s to late 1970s and really changed beyond all recognition... from rather severe and bulbous Doctor-Smith-on-call sedan to ludicrous '50s rocketship fins and then shrinking into mid-sized middle age as the entry-level Dodge on which sexier models were based (although still higher up the foodchain than the equivalent Plymouth, you understand). Dunno why they didn't call it different names, maybe they thought affection would be guaranteed no matter how unrecognisable it was from its roots. Even in the timeframe we're dealing with here, it changed pretty markedly. From the square slightly Ford Falcon look of '66
To the more sporty look of what we'd think of as a muscle car in '68
and then the mad double-snorty snout thing going on with the '70
C (yep, still) is, surprisingly, for Cortina. There were plenty of the li'l British Ford that have had heart transplants and can now rock with the best of their Stateside cousins. The estate was crazy, we all love a startlingly quick wagon don't we? The tigerish MkIII really showed off just what a mini-musclecar the shape was; squint and you could be looking at a 'cuda or Camaro. The MkV, not usually one of my favourite things with its squared-off... well, everything... had one of the zaniest carb/intake setups you'll ever see
C (oh, Gawwwd, will it ever end?) is, of course, for Corvette. The evergreen American version of what a sportscar should be is now into its seventh generation and its senior citizen 62nd year was well represented as you'd expect. I couldn't find a first gen model to show you, but we'll make up for it by starting with this rather special C2
Yeah, OK, you say, it's a tidy coupe with a nice big blower stuck to it. Why so special?
well, the answer lies in a surprisingly subtle (for an American car) wing ... sorry, fender... badge bearing just two little words
Not many people took up the factory-optional fuel injection setup when they ordered their new 'vette back in 1967... partly because the American car buyer was pretty conservative and took a while to adapt to new techs, partly because it wasn't actually all that good or reliable but probably mostly because it added the best part of $250 (yep, that much) to the purchase price and was actually about 50bhp less powerful than some of the traditionally carburetted bigger engine capacity options. And back then, no red-blooded American male was interested in that sort of penalty in the traffic-light dragstrip bragging bars, even if it did raise the fuel economy to the heady heights of 20mpg on a run (yep, that much). From '56 on the C1 models, the fuel injected version had been the most powerful (at a 12% premium), but the introduction of the 396 big block on C2s meant the "fuellie"s days were numbered, making this a rare old beast. And nice to see it (slightly) original, albeit with a gargantuan hood ornament
This C2, however, is a very different animal! Not much originality left here!
The C3 generation had got all steroidal; bulges and high sharp wings and vents and strakes and hood power bulges and .. oooooh, just stuff everywhere. And some might say, all the better for it. If you're going for some benchmark of excess, you might as well at least make it excessive. Graphics are always a matter of personal taste but for me... well, I'd leave it, ta
There might have been C4 'Vettes around but nobody knows because they're the forgotten generation of Corvette, and no-one cares. In fact, they're the equivalent of the homeless tramp begging for dogends outside the station; no-one even sees them. They might as well be painted bright pink with a Someone Else's Problem field erected around them. People would bump into them, stub their toe and ten seconds later wonder why their toe was sore. However, we did get to spend some time in the company of this C5 on the trek up. It made an absolute orgasmic noise, although lost many brownie points by having bright yellow wheels (and the driver had a matching yellow baseball cap despite being about seventy. This is not a Good Thing). But it did sound brutal, so have a pic
Another generation skipped, it seems that C6 owners are not the kind to hang around converted airstrips and watch brash hoodlums hurtle towards the horizon. Or a quarter of a mile away, whichever comes first. There was a gorgeous example of the new C7 however, which I like very much a lot. Especially in evil black. My favourite bit is still the resurrected Stingray nameplate and the cool little wing badge. Opel circa 1973 called; they want their fish back...
'C is for 'cuda. And nope, not a typo. By 1970 the Barracuda stopped being based on the Valiant and was frankly much better for it. The new E-body platform was only offered in coupe and convertible, and though it was shared with the Challenger there was no commonality of sheetmetal at all and in fact the 'cuda managed to be a few inches shorter than her sister as well. The Barracuda and Barracuda Gran Coupe were offered in all kinds of relatively poverty-spec trims and even, shame of shame, with straight-six motors. The 'cuda had no such frailties; it was a pure performance package and came with small block v8s right up to big blocks like the legendary 426 Hemi and 440 six-pack. And though it never achieved the fame and fortune of her slightly more famous sister... the Challenger of Vanishing Point for example... and despite the fact that Plymouth was supposed to be the slightly more entry-level... OK, cheaper... arm of the Mopar stable, there's just something about one over the Challenger for me. Take for example, this lovely '70 with iconic Shaker Hood
...or this retina-damaging '71 in the Plymouth equivalent of Dodge's Sublime... same paint, different name. Lime Light, in fact. See what they did there?
This '71 was so monstrous off the line I made a right ricket of trying to get it in-focus and shake-free
By the time of 1973's dying days, the end was nigh. The styling had been blunted by federally-mandated safety bumpers and the big-blocks were discontinued due to the impossibility of meeting new emissions regs (sound familiar?). The Barracuda and its ansty cousin the 'cuda finally limped into oblivion in April 1974, the end of an era. This '73 stands right on the brink, and we shall not see her like again. Sad times
