Pony Up!

Back-to-the-future ponycars and a herd of standouts are adding giddyup to this year’s auto shows.

Amid a flock of downsized SUVs, fuel-efficient sedans, and economy compacts and subcompacts, look for some old favorites to bring a large dose of fun and nostalgia back to the streets. Such cars first will be spotted as concept cars on the auto show circuit—and on pedestals at the Minneapolis–St. Paul Auto Show in mid-March at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

The validity of back-to-the-future cars was proven with the Ford Mustang, which has racked up sellout numbers during the past two years. The Mustang’s success has led to a new high-performance version—the Shelby GT500, based on the Mustang’s road-racing form by Carroll Shelby in the late 1960s. But both the new Shelby GT500 concept car (at auto shows now) and its Mustang predecessor are no longer the only ponycars in the herd. Dodge has come out with a Challenger flashback concept car, and, not to be outdone, Chevrolet has unveiled a Camaro concept car. Although both are only show cars for now, they seem certain to be refined and produced in a year or two.

The battle for one-upmanship in concepts involves rekindling the sporty image of Trans-Am road racing, a series that peaked in 1970, then faded, as did the racy ponycar models. They were never forgotten, though, and now they’re back.

Dodge brought a 1970 Challenger into the studio for design inspiration for its retrospective sports coupe of the same name. It follows up on the success of Chrysler’s 300, Dodge Magnum, and Dodge Charger, which made the 6.1–liter Hemi V8, with 425 horsepower, readily available, leading to claims of 0 to 60 times of 4.5 seconds with a top speed of 174 miles per hour.

Coincidentally, over at General Motors, designers were feverishly recreating the Camaro, which, like the Challenger, had gone out of production. The new Camaro is more exotic than retro, compared to the inspirational 1969 model, but a little refinement could bring it to real life. It has the Corvette’s 6.0-liter, 400-horsepower V8, and its speed, similar to the Challenger’s, probably won’t be changed.

Since the Mustang was already a sellout in basic and GT form, stepping up to the concept Shelby GT500 was elementary. The design is clean, with a menacing-looking open grille, embellished only by a coiled cobra snake. Under the hood, the 5.4–liter modular V8 was specially built by Hau Thai-Tang, former Mustang chief engineer who’s now special vehicle team director. It has a supercharger and produces 475 horsepower. The Shelby GT500 is already set as a 2007 production model, so it will have the superhot ponycar market to itself when it hits the streets by summertime—but not for long.

The nostalgia-tinged cars are far from the only standouts, and must share auto show billing with cars inspired by another trend—the arrival of $3-per-gallon gasoline last year, and predictions of similar prices this summer. As fuel efficiency shifts to the forefront, compact and more fuel-efficient crossover SUVs are expected to overtake larger SUVs in sales. Fuel economy is also behind the increasing production of hybrids, to say nothing of the new Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, and Nissan Versa—new subcompacts smaller than their respective siblings, the Civic, Corolla, and Sentra. Efficient commuter cars, certainly, but not very exciting auto show stuff.

More glamorous are the Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX, Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass, Mazda CX–7, and Acura RDX, which have made the jump from concept to production—evidence that concept vehicles are no longer just attention-getters. A sporty, neatly styled vehicle, the RDX has Honda’s first turbocharged production engine, plus steering-wheel paddle shifters for added sportiness. The Mazda CX–7 is also sporty, the Caliber and Compass are compact multipurpose vehicles, and the Edge and Lincoln MKX are compact SUVs, which Ford is trying to  establish as crossover utility vehicles.

One of the most impressive small cars at the Detroit Auto Show was the Volvo C30, a concept hatchback with fabulous lines and S40 running gear. It could make Audi wish it had brought out the two-door as well as the four-door A3 in 2005. The C30 shows that whether futuristic or retro, concept or real, foreign or domestic, everything, or nearly everything, will be at the auto show.

Reach John Gilbert at cars@jwgilbert.com. He talks new cars with Charlie Boone on WCCO AM–830 Saturdays at 7 a.m.