Automotif LXV...

1974 Chevrolet Laguna S-3.

This was how the muscle car era ended, not with a bang, but a purple whimper. In 1974 this was what replaced the Chevelle SS. The '74 Pontiac GTO had been reduced to a decal 'n' hood scoop package on Pontiac's version of the Nova, and the Ford Mustang II was essentially a tarted-up version of the Pinto platform.

Gas prices, insurance rates, and government safety and emissions regulations did to fun cars what the Visigoths did to Rome, and it would be a decade and more before the enlightenment of computerized engine controls led us to surpass the performance of yore. If you're much under 40, you fortunately missed out on a dark interregnum when the fast cars were all in the past.