2019 Collector Car Madness finals: Camaro vs GT350

And then there were two. The 2019 Collector Car Madness finals are upon us, which means after 16 competitors representing Boomers, Pre-Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials, we are on the cusp of crowning a winner for ultimate bragging rights. In one corner we have the beloved first-generation Chevy Camaro fighting for Gen X, taking on the venerable 1965–’70 Shelby GT350 Mustang, standing proud for the Boomers. As for the Pre-Boomers and the Millennials, you had a good run, but the Bel Air and the Skyline GT-R couldn’t get the job done.

Which car will win and claim ultimate bragging rights for the year ahead? That’s up to you—the winner will be determined by a fan poll on the Hagerty Facebook page. You can vote for the Shelby or the Camaro here.

If you want to learn more about how we got here, check out our first-, second-round, and third-round articles. The short version: we used Hagerty insurance data to determine popular cars within each age group, plus a wild card to keep things interesting. With the winners of each “region” now determined, it’s time for the generations to face off. While the cars in our fake tournament are arranged by generational preference, the voting is open to everyone.

(3) 1965–70 Shelby GT350 vs. (1) 1967–69 Chevy Camaro

Perhaps it’s fitting that the championship of our tournament of automotive titans is now down to two rivals and perennial favorites. The Camaro might not have arrived until after the Mustang, as a reaction to the pony car craze, but there’s no debating its huge popularity and success over five decades. With Z/28 track chops and COPO big-block street cred, it crushed every competitor it faced in this bracket, finally trouncing the C10 with 65 percent of the 798 votes cast.

It’s been a much tougher road to the finals for the third-seeded GT350, which is still riding high from its huge upset of the C1 Corvette in Round 2. Still, the Shelby squeaked out a narrow victory over the Chevy Bel Air in the semis, winning 53 percent of the 825 votes cast. Carroll Shelby’s passion project is the Mustang of all Mustangs to a lot of people, but is it enough to take down the Camaro?

Soon, we’ll know for certain.