staff@slashgear.com (Michael Bruton)
2024-05-24 11:30:34
www.slashgear.com
The fifth-generation Mustang’s release in 2005 kicked off a muscle renaissance. The only other nameplates to survive the century, the Camaro and Firebird, had gone out of production in 2002, which meant Ford was the only original muscle builder still in the field. However, the new Mustang’s retro-fastback design proved there was still an enormous appetite in the contemporary market. Within a few years, consumers saw the resurrection of some famous names from the golden era.
Dodge was the first to join the fray, reviving the Charger for the 2006 model year — this time as a four-door sedan. The SRT-8 came with a 6.1-liter V8, producing 425 horsepower. Gas prices be damned, this was promising for muscle car fans that suffered during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2008, Pontiac’s last gasp reintroduced the GTO plate. The same year, Dodge fully committed to the muscle renaissance with the Challenger. The Camaro rose from the dead two years after that, in 2010.
Some names were noticeably absent. There would be no production return of the Firebird, as Pontiac ceased to exist entirely. Road Runners, GTXs, and Barracudas would remain in the grave, along with Plymouth, which ceased operation in 2001. But there was one nameplate that defined the golden era perhaps more than any other, the king of muscle, a definer of the genre: the Chevrolet Chevelle.