50 Years of Challenger

Challenger may have been late to the pony car party, but it did so fashionably. 50 years later, that entrance remains memorable.

Ironically, it was the Dodge’s sister division, Plymouth, was actually first to the party with its Barracuda. Released just a couple weeks before the Ford Mustang in April 1964, the Barracuda shared with Mustang the formula that would make this sporty, youthful segment such a huge seller during the 1960s: long hood, short deck and compact proportions in a sporty front-engine, rear-drive package. While the Mustang was based on the Ford Falcon platform, its styling was entirely new; conversely, the spendier Barracuda was more clearly a fastback version of the existing Plymouth Valiant.