With the way things are going right now, it doesn’t seem likely that Detroit will be able to save itself with muscle cars. Todd Lassa of MotorTrend makes an interesting point saying that the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro and the recently launched Dodge Challenger face very bad timing.

With strict CAFE standards just around the corner and gas edging towards a national average of $4 a gallon for regular gasoline, the Camaro and Challegner face a rocky road for a standard 5-year product cycle.

In normal market, GM and Chrysler would expect the high-performance V8 versions of their muscle cars to sell well in the first year. However, it seems now that the V6 variants of both cars may be more appealing to consumers.

Just this morning we spoke of a turbocharged 4-cylinder Camaro along with a variety of V6 units and a V8 version. Chrysler currently sells the the Dodge Challenger SRT8 which is powered by a 425-hp V8 engine. The only V6 in the Challenger linup is the 2009 Challenger SE, which is powered by a 3.6 liter unit producing 250-hp.

Source: MotorTrend

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