Although the Ford Mustang was responsible for igniting the pony car era, it wasn’t until the Chevrolet Camaro hit the market that things begin to heat up. The Camaro was a completely different beast. The lightweight vehicle was the epiphany of what a fun pony car should be, and the Camaro embodied this new generation. The Camaro is one of the longest-running nameplates in the automotive industry, and there has been a long-standing rivalry between the Mustang and the Camaro. The Camaro has remained the face of GM gearheads for the past five decades, always improving and adding new features that made the car even more exciting to drive than before.

There were also quite a few rough patches in the Camaro’s development along the way. Questionable models such as the Berlinetta came into fruition, a Camaro that was weighed down by futuristic technology and not much else. And who could forget the downright awful “Iron Duke” four-cylinder engine that was introduced in the third generation of the Camaro? Decisions like these caused the Camaro to quietly fade into the sunset for the 2002 model year. But a resurgence in popularity has made the Camaro return faster and more advanced than ever. Read on as we take a look at the past 50 years of the Camaro, and click on any image to view a full gallery of the iconic automobile.