In camero muscle car GTE form and fitted with a six cylinder engine, classic car sales it was able to match the Fords for performance. Although the Ford Capri was, in essence, a pony car, muscle car giveaway GM responded with the Opel Commodore Coupe which was based on the mid-size Opel Rekord.

Prior classic car sales to the oil embargo, 100-octane fuel was common (e.g. The car was given lightweight Plexiglass classic car sales windows, and early versions had fiberglass front body panels and bumpers, later changed to aluminum to meet NHRA regulations.[18] Base price was US$3,780.[17] 111 Thunderbolts were built, and Ford contracted Dearborn Steel Tubing to help with assembly.

It featured an innovative and powerful classic car sales new engine—America's first high-compression overhead valve V8 in the lighter muscle cars sales Oldsmobile body.[9] Musclecars magazine wrote: "[t]he idea of putting a full-size V8 under the hood of an intermediate body classic car sales and making it run like Jesse Owens in Berlin belongs to none other than Oldsmobile... .