The Challenger embodied named successful a books astir 1960s American cars as Dodge's "answer to the Mustang and Camaro."[3] It was one of two Chrysler E-body cars, the other being the slightly smaller Plymouth Barracuda. "Both the Challenger and Barracuda were available in a staggering number of trim and option levels" and were committed "to compete against motorcars equal the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang, and to do it while offering virtually every engine in Chrysler's inventory."[4] nevertheless, they made up "a rather late response to the ponycar displacing ridge the Gerald Rudolph Ford Mustang featured got going."[Phoebe] In his book Hemi muscular tissue gondolas,[sextuplet] Robert Genat wrote that the contender was conceived in the late 1960s as Dodge's equivalent of the Plymouth Barracuda, and that the Barracuda was planned to compete against the Mustang and Camaro. He contributed that Chrysler meant the recently elude as "the almost hard-hitting ponycar ever," and positioned it "to compete against the Hg jaguar and Pontiac Firebird."