Fun fact: Cars are, more often than not, manufactured by car companies. These companies like to save money, so they’ll often share as many parts as possible between vehicles — interior components, lights, even entire body panels. But when two cars share too much, they start looking suspiciously twinlike.
The Subaru BRZ and Toyota GR86, the Acura Integra and Honda Civic, pretty much anything General Motors has ever made — all sorts of vehicles have twins. Today, though, we want to figure out which twins are just plain better than their siblings.
My take on automotive twins is a bit controversial, but I’ll come right out and say it: For any given year, the Pontiac Firebird is a better car than the Chevrolet Camaro. In design, in unquantifiable cool factor, the Firebird wins out every time.
For one, the beaked nose looks better than any Camaro — even the ‘68, the Camaro’s best-looking year. The name, too, is an improvement. Plenty of listings advertise a “Camaro” for sale, but would anyone misspell Firebird? Is there a cooler-sounding car name on planet Earth? I didn’t think so.
We don’t even need to get into the product placement of both vehicles, comparing the modern “Transformers” films to “Smokey and the Bandit or Knight Rider.” Y’know why the reboot of the latter failed? Because it didn’t have a Firebird in it.
I think the Pontiac Firebird deserves the spotlight over its Chevy Camaro twin, but which pair of automotive siblings do you think has such a clear ranking? Leave your answers below, and I’ll comb through the results later this week to highlight my favorites.