Our recent drive of the new
Chevy Camaro and not-so-new Mustang GT500
, as is almost inevitable when you get a go in such evocative icons of Americana, has got us hankering for more pony car action.
So - as is equally inevitable when you work for PH - a trawl through the classifieds for some of these cars' ancestors was called for.
Now, we won't pretend to know the intricate ins and outs of either model - during the past 40-or-so years that Camaros and Mustangs have been on planet earth there have been more model changes, special editions and engine options than the average human is capable of imagining.
Couple that with the fact that most 'Stangs and Camaros ('Maros?!) - especially the older ones - haven't exactly been kept in original factory spec by their various keepers, and it's pretty unlikely that you'll find two identical models.
So we've just picked a few that we like - you'll no doubt tell us where we've gone wrong or (hopefully) right!
As far as Camaros go, we spotted a 1969 Z28 up for £37,995 that we rather liked the look of. We'd ditch the flashy wheels and dubiously modified interior (where are those seats from?), but we'll keep the 510bhp power output, thank you very much.
Spooling forward a decade we came across
this Smokey and the Bandit-era Camaro
(yes, we know the Bandit drove a Pontiac Firebird) up for a couple of ponies under six grand. That's not very much really, for 7.4 litres of big-block goodness and a spec sheet that's as long as a long man's arm.
At the true budget end, you could go for a 'modern'. Provided you can put up with styling that only a mother could love, less than £5k will get you a nice 1990s Camaro with V8 power, while just £1500 will put you in a V6 model.
As for Mustangs, there is if anything even more choice. This immaculate
£36k 1967 Mustang Fastback with a 289 cubic-inch motor
rather took our fancy, but then again this
1969 Shelby GT350
(signed by the great man himself, no less) is a bit of a knee-wobbling device, even if it is a heavy £48,950.
The earliest of the 're-born' V8 Mustangs (2004 onwards) have held on to their values pretty well - this 55-plate GT model is still up for a whisker under £15k even after four years on the road. Of course, if that's too rich for your blood, you can get V8-flavoured Mustang fun for less than three grand, but you'll have to put up with the less-than-glam 1990s model for that...
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