The name of a body style used on two
car: the
Chevrolet Camaro and the
Pontiac Firebird.
The f-body was introduced in
1967 as a way for
General Motors to compete with the
Ford Mustang.
To this date there have been four generations of f-bodies.
The first was produced 1967 to 1969, and was a bit smaller than the later models.
1970 to 1981 was the second generation. This time, in my
opinion, the car became more of a muscle car than before. Bigger and with more power. Around 1974 power started decreasing, though, due to high gas prices and insurance rates. This killed the whole muscle car era. The later second generation f-bodies got heavier and had less power under the hood.
1982 to 1992 was the third generation. The car lost the round shapes of the early seventies (although it had already started losing them a bit during the late seventies).
1993 saw the light of the fourth generation and at the time of writing (2001), it is still the current one. The shapes were again quite round, but the hood has a sharp point in the middle.
Common details among them were a rather long hood and a short trunk. The roof is rather low and they often have a small rear wing. Engines in them were most often V8's, but a V6 has been availible most (if not all) production years and there have also been a 4 cylinder version (which sold very badly). The biggest engine availiable was the 396 cubic inch big block engine from the early seventies.
Already from the beginning, the f-body was a huge success, and it has continued to be one of the best selling cars in it's class.