I think history is about to repeat itself
 

Remember the 70's? The gas shortage killed the muscle car era of the 60's & early 70's.

Now we've got a new muscle car war waging, with cars like the new Vette, GTO, Mustang, and Dodge Charger to name a few. The Germans started it first with BMW M's, Audi RS/S's and MB AMG's (the craziest with 600+ hp) all in a game of HP leap frog. Japan maybe ready to really jump into the game, with the elimination of their old 280hp limit rule. So, we all hope to see the revival of their top performers of yesteryear (i.e. RX-7, NSX, Supra, Skyline GTR etc.) wage battle as well in next few years.

And just when all of this is about to hit its peak, gas prices are again starting to go through the roof. I predict by the end of this decade, gas prices will again kill the second coming of the muscle car era.

I doubt it, nowadays cars can have performance AND efficiency (relatively :p ) AND be environment-friendly (relatively again :o ). If there's a will, there's a way.

or if you're a believer of this doomsday scenarios, better start hoarding performance cars and wait for the hammer to drop! :p

^I plan to! :D

But with all the crying on this board over the RX-8's mpg, mark my words, I think the best times are now for sports car lovers. In the next 5 years, we'll see the rise of the hybrids and the muscle cars will be all but extinct again as we move into the next decade.

i think the problem is SUVs, not sports cars. They're the ones guzzling all the world's gas supplies...

Maybe we're going to see hybrid muscle cars.

Low-power for tooling around town. High hp for that certain moment.

as long as the engines continue to sound the way they do (on "regular" cars :D) i don't really care what technology they come up with. Just don't get rid of the engine sounds we all know and love or replace the sounds with digital ones.

The true 'problem' is the mass industrialization going on in China. They're the ones guzzling all the world's gas supplies :)

If the Accord Hybrid is any indication we'll be just fine. It won't be long before that are 300hp hybrids running on our streets.

The problem with fuel economy is that our cars keeps getting bigger and bigger. A full size truck that's built 15 years ago is smaller than a Mid-sized truck of today, that's a problem. When you suddenly need a SUV when you have an infant instead of a Saturn Ion, that's a problem What we have is the bigger is better syndrome again from back before the fuel crisis. We don't need 50 billion air bags to keep us safe, just keep the cars light and you're fine. We need more cars like the Elise, sub 2000lb fuel efficient go karts. :D

hmm, hybrid powered muscle cars...id be intrested in that, as long as the muscle part is better than what we got today :D