Are America’s Muscle Cars a thing of the past?

General Motors is going to show its new supercharged version of the Corvette at the Detroit auto show next month. The performance car represents a design that will rival the fastest, most expensive exotic cars from Europe.


Sadly, this version of General Motors venerable Corvette, the ZR1, may be the last in a long tradition of Detroit performance cars.

America’s muscle cars have been endangered for many years higher gas prices, demand for stronger federal fuel economy regulations and limits on carbon dioxide emissions.

President Bush signed into law legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it "a major step" toward energy independence and easing global warming. The legislation, which requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per gallon by 2020, is still far behind foreign automakers even at today’s standards.

Interestingly enough, Tadge Juechter GM’s chief engineer, said to sell one of the Chevrolet supercars, GM would need to offset that with cars that get 45 mpg. This could perhaps be a way in which muscle cars could survive. The Corvette is fuel efficient when compared with its competitors. Although fuel economy figures weren't released for the ZR1, the current 505-horsepower Corvette ZO6 gets an estimated 15 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway, according to GM. The ZR1 gets around the same mileage as a Chevrolet pickup truck, and GM won't be getting out of the pickup business because of gas mileage standards.

And, you will always find buyers for such a car regardless of emissions standards as long as someone is willing to build them.