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Chevrolet Camaro Says “Happy Birthday” to The World’s Best-Selling Sports Coupe

The Mazda MX-5 may be the world’s best-selling convertible sports car, but the Ford Mustang holds the title for best-selling sports coupe. Global registrations of the most popular pony car on the planet totaled an estimated 128,809 vehicles in 2017, with two-thirds (81,866) registered in the United States of America.
Chevrolet of Saudi Arabia "Bring The Thunder" ad 19 photos
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The Chevrolet Camaro, which has been the Mustang’s arch-nemesis since the 1960s, managed to move 67,940 examples in the U.S. last year. On a global scale, there’s no competition whatsoever considering that the Ford is sold in 140 markets. Be that as it may, the Camaro didn’t forget to bake a cake and share it with the fellow pony.

For the 54th birthday of “The Little Horse That Could,” the golden bowtie would like us to remember that it “didn’t just bring the thunder – we stole it.” The tongue-in-cheek statement comes courtesy of Chevrolet Arabia, which also put together a 15-second video for the Mustang’s anniversary, featuring a horse-shaped cake with two candles that read 5 and 4.

Without further beating around the bush, there’s a man holding the cake on the side of the road in the desert. As a red-painted ZL1 passes by him at high speed, the Camaro puts out the candles. Following this bit of friendly banter, the clip cuts to “Happy Birthday Little Pony.” On the other hand, it’s this bitter rivalry that helped Ford and Chevy push the envelope time and time again, heating up the pony wars.

Without the Mustang, the Camaro wouldn’t have existed in the first place. Codenamed Panther during development, Chevrolet wrote down more than 2,000 words beginning with the letter C for what would be called Camaro in September 1966. Enter E. M. Pete Estes, then general manager of Chevrolet at General Motors.

Estes sent telegrams to approximately 200 journalists from around North America on June 21st, 1966, telling them to save noon of June 28th for the big announcement. When he was asked how he came up with the name Camaro, Estes told the media that he locked himself in a closet and came back out with the name.

And when he was asked what’s a Camaro, the journalists weren’t having that it’s a French word. To get back at Ford reps calling the newcomer a “shrimp creature,” Estes retaliated by saying the Camaro is “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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