A blast from the past
Inspired by their '60s predecessors, high-tech muscle cars power their way onto car-show circuit
Matthew Haase, Freelance

EDMONTON - This year at the Edmonton Motor Show, the past is the future. Two of the biggest vehicles to hit the North American market in decades will be front and centre at this year's show. That's right, baby boomers, muscle car lovers, racing fans and just downright car nuts -- the big news of this year's car-show circuit, the Camaro and the Challenger, are coming.
Trucks, like this 2009 Dodge Ram, will be big this year.

Trucks, like this 2009 Dodge Ram, will be big this year.
Photograph by : Special to the Star-Tyler Brownbridge
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"Manufacturers set the tone, obviously, with the Detroit show and it goes on to all of the other car shows afterwards," says Bob Vilas, manager of the Edmonton show.

In what has become a revival of the pony car wars of the late '60s, the new Ford Mustang got a big jump on Dodge and Chevrolet just as it did when it debuted in 1964, several years ahead of the Camaro and Challenger. And just as it was in the 1960s, the latest Mustang, which has plenty of styling throwbacks to those early models, has managed to run free and create a leap in sales for the Blue Oval.

The new Dodge Challenger SRT8, which pulls styling cues heavily from the 1970 Challenger, will beat the Camaro to market by about six months. The similarities to the original Challenger stop at styling and use of the legendary Hemi name for the 6.1-litre, 425-horsepower V8 engine. While the engine does use hemispherical combustion chambers, the similarities pretty much end there. The Challenger is all high-technology under its retro skin. No leaf springs and solid axles in this modern muscle car.

The buzz was growing around the reincarnation of the Camaro name long before a glowing yellow prototype appeared on screen in last summer's Transformers movie. While the movie managed some pretty big numbers, the true star of the show was Bumblebee, or rather the 2009 Camaro that the transformer embodied when not in robot form. Now Edmonton-area car lovers get to see Bumblebee in person as the early Camaro concept appears at the show next weekend.

Though no official specs have been announced for the Camaro yet, it is expected to pick up where the past model left off, offering both V6 and V8 models. The V8 powerplants will most likely be lifted from the Corvette lineup, which means at least 400 horsepower in this retro beast. While the Camaro's styling throwbacks aren't quite as obvious as the Challenger's, there are definitely some touches on the original 1967-69 model in the front end and body lines.

Though the Camaro and Challenger are sure to be fun machines, some of the biggest interest at this year's show surrounds two of the biggest vehicles -- the 2009 Ford F-Series and the 2009 Dodge Ram pickups. Here in truck country, they're sure to be hits.

"There's no question, people like big pickup trucks and big SUVs here in this province," Vilas says with a chuckle.

Dodge has been criticized in the past for not keeping up with Ford and Chevrolet, but now it's trying to push the pickup limits, taking cues from its minivan to provide as much utility as possible.

The completely redesigned interior and exterior offer more storage options than ever in a pickup. Power will continue to come from the 5.7-litre Hemi engine, but a revised rear suspension on the half-ton models will do away with the leaf springs in favour of a more comfortable and versatile coil-spring setup.