You know that feeling when you go to the gym every day for like, three weeks or something? Then you wake up to go one morning, and it's snowing, so you say, "Well, I'll just skip one day," and next thing you know, it's four weeks later and you're sitting on your couch with a bag of potato chips, remembering the muscle you used to have and thinking, "Hmm..maybe someday I'll get it back?"

Well, my friend, then you would be the human equivalent of the Chevelle SS. After a few great years, the SS was waylaid not by snow but by ever-growing restrictions on emissions, gas type, and engine size. The 1973 Chevelle SS would be the last of its kind, although the non-SuperSport Chevelle would continue to be produced until 1977.

In its final year, only 2,500 SS 454's were sold. The anemic base engine was now a 350-ci V8 145 horsepower L65. Still fair by today's standards, this was nothing compared to the muscle the model had seen (kind of like you sitting on the couch, now reaching for a beer, looking at your bicep and thinking, "See? It's still there!")

The SS 454 engine was still fairly respectable at 245 horsepower.