Last Giant – 1970 Hemi ’Cuda

It’s rather ironic that both the birth of the “Pony Car” movement in the mid-1960s, and its eventual death in the early 1970s, would be brought about by the “economy car.” Perhaps even more interesting, and less well known, is the fact that the first car to officially enter this “Pony Car” world and the last to renounce its muscle car ways would be the Plymouth Barracuda.

Panda for the Masses

The early 1960s saw a ground swell shift in the demographics of the United States with the coming of age of the “Baby Boomer” generation. The country was soon overrun with young adults born from the ravages of World War II, and with this enormous new population of potential consumers, American automobile manufacturers were scrambling for ways to tap into this new, potentially lucrative market. But these new young adults didn’t share the same tastes and habits as their more staid parents. They looked different, dressed different, listened to strange music and, in general, wanted nothing to do with the “old ways”…including their parent’s cars. This new generation began to eschew Detroit’s “Big Iron” ways, for smaller, “sporty” cars; they wanted something very different than their parent’s giant, lumbering Cadillacs and Buicks.