'69 COPO Camaro and '70 Cuda 340 Convertible

            40 years from now, will today's Camaro and Challenger inspire the same kind of loyalty and love that these two cars and their muscle car contemporaries enjoy today?

Come to think of it, 40 years from now, will it even be legal (or financially possible) for the average person to own a car that isn't a 4-cylinder hybrid or an electric, assuming they get the range and charge-time issues worked out?

Before you start laughing, consider this: in less than 4 years after these two cars rolled off the assembly line, the 426 Hemi and the Barracuda and Challenger convertibles (and later, the coupes, too) would be extinct. The Mustang would be based on a Pinto chassis and not even have a V8 as an option. The Plymouth Road Runner, which snapped thousands of necks back with 383's, 440's and Hemi's under the hood, would have a 318 V8 as standard equipment. Top Corvette horsepower (with a 454ci engine!) would drop to what it had been in 1957 with a 283 (and would drop still lower as the decade wore on).  And battering-ram 5 mph bumpers, lap/shoulder belts,  seatbelt interlocks (where you couldn't start your car unless you buckled your seatbelt) and the 55mph speed limit would be the law of the land.

Subsequent legislation would make Shaker hoods, like the one on the 'Cuda, illegal on production automobiles.

Today, just try to build one of these cars now without catalytic converters, ECM's, high-mounted center stoplights, tire-pressure sensors, ABS (for those who never learned how to pump brakes in wet or icy weather),  and iPod Sync. Without power windows, power door locks and every other useless power gadget known to man. And God forbid we should drive unprotected, without exploding balloons ready to pop out of every car interior orifice, all to protect morons who refuse to buckle up.

This long, slow slide to a world where the government and its laws engineer cars happened during administrations Democrat and GOP. (CAFE, 5mph bumpers, the seatbelt interlock, combination lap/shoulder belts and the 55 speed limit came straight from the GOP Nixon era.)

It happened because the fat, lazy, sloppy silent majority wanted to be able to eat, drink hot coffee (and spill it in their laps), chug a beer or two, do makeup, text and read newspapers on their tables, all while driving, and walk away completely uninjured after the inevitable rollover or 60 mph encounter with a bridge abutment. They wanted to be able to buy top-heavy 4WD SUV's, and make the same kinds of quick maneuvers that they did in the Vista-Cruiser... without tipping over. Good luck with that.

A COPO order to yank all that shit out on the assembly line and build a 2015 Camaro with an ass-kicking big-block V8, a limited slip differential, wind-up windows, a full-size spare tire and not much else? Surely you jest. But we can dream of that simpler time, and dream I shall.

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Taken in: United States / Illinois / Rosemont (show map)

Taken on: November 19, 2011

Tags:

Rosemont

'70

Plymouth

Barracuda

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340

shaker

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convertible

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tires

Mopar

Chrysler

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automatic

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Camera: Nikon D40X, f/5.0, 1/15 sec, 26mm (=39mm), ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D40X
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.067 sec (1/15)
Focal Length:	26mm (35mm equivalent: 39mm)
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	+11/3 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.00
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