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The 2008 Dodge Challenger is proof and so is the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro. Yes, baby boomers still have huge sway in the car business and that's why coupes are making such a comeback.

Sure, the Challenger and Camaro are pure homage to the tire-burning, gas-guzzling muscle cars of the 1960s and 1970s. But you won't hear auto executives go on the record with the term "muscle car." They all prefer to say "high-performance vehicles" and "sporty coupes."

And they're not kidding. The Dodge Challenger SRT8 "is not a straight-line fast car," says Frank Klegon, Chrysler's executive vice-president of product development. "It's designed and engineered to be a really great car." Period. And with side curtain airbags and antilock brakes, to boot.

The Camaro? Ed Peper, general manager of the Chevrolet brand, says it is much more refined than any muscle car. "This is a sleek, aerodynamic, futuristic sports car," he says.

Both General Motors and Chrysler will offer relatively fuel-efficient versions of the Camaro and Challenger, and GM is toying with the idea of making a Camaro that runs on an ethanol blend. So there is a green piece in all this.

Auto executives say there is strong demand for two-door cars like the Camaro and Challenger. Chrysler received 4,300 orders the first day it said it would make the Challenger SRT8 — the first 6,400 are reportedly all sold out.

GM, for its part, has a list of 500,000 people who have raised their hand, saying they're interested in the Camaro. There is no shortage of demand.

That's true even as the market is being flooded with a wave of interesting and stylish coupes. The 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe? Gorgeous. The Infiniti G37? Stunning. Audi's potent S5? Breathtaking. There's also the Ford Mustang, which was reinvented in 2005, and even Honda launched a coupe model of its newest version of the Accord.

More of the same is coming. The range and number of sleek, sporty cars will expand over the next four years, J.D. Power and Associates says. Some 31 new or redesigned coupe models will be rolling into showrooms, including 16 from luxury brands. One worth watching: a production version of the Cadillac CTS coupe first shown at the Detroit auto show in January. It's a smashing design.

This current coupe revival is interesting, even odd. Car company types have always loved sporty cars, but for decades the general buying public has shown little interest. The decline of the sporty coupe coincided with the rise of minivans in the early- to mid-1980s.

Demand for coupes waned as minivan sales boomed. Baby boomers, who did and still do drive the new car market, were busy hauling around families. Boomers who loved their Camaros and Mustangs and Challengers in their single years found themselves trading in two-doors for two sliding doors.

The numbers: In 1985, North American auto makers built 3.1 million two-doors, about one-third of all vehicles built in Canada and the U.S. Twenty years later, the number of two-doors built in North America had fallen to less than 800,000.

No one can accurately predict where coupe sales will go toward the end of this decade, but with so many new models coming, sales should rise. Also, let's not forget that baby boomers are now largely through with child rearing and that should signal a renaissance for sporty cars among baby boomers.

One encouraging piece of news is the variety of coupes now rolling into, or planned for, showrooms. At the affordable end, Honda has, for instance, a Civic coupe that starts at $17,190, while the very racy Civic Coupe Si stickers for $26,680. The Altima Coupe and the Accord Coupe both start at less than $28,000. The G37 is another step up with a base price of $47,350, and Audi's screechingly fast S5 sells for $65,900, including quattro all-wheel drive.

The Accord and Altima are perhaps the most interesting of the lot. They represent a significant departure for an industry that for 20-odd years has produced conservative, bland two-door versions of bread-and-butter sedans.

Take the Honda. The Accord Coupe has its own profile compared with the Accord sedan. Honda also gave the Accord Coupe its own powertrain option — a V-6 with a six-speed manual.

The Altima Coupe, for its part, is so visually appealing that Nissan officials have found themselves explaining why it will not steal away sales from the G37, which is also a looker. The big difference: the Altima is a front-driver, while the G37 is rear-wheel-drive.

The Altima Coupe is lighter and smaller in most dimensions than the Accord Coupe, but it has more power in both the four- and six-cylinder versions. Visually, the Altima Coupe's flaring rear fenders and narrow side glass hint of the 350Z's aggressive lines.

So there is quite a range of offerings and we've barely scratched the surface with this list of traditional two-door cars. An interesting development, one shaking up the coupe market, is the arrival of a whole new category of coupes — coupes with four-doors.

Mercedes-Benz led this charge into new territory with the CLS, a four-door car with a swept back roofline. Mercedes calls the CLS a four-door coupe. Porsche is calling its upcoming Panamera a four-door coupe and BMW has confirmed plans to build a large four-door coupe based on its striking Shanghai concept car, the CS concept designed by Canadian Karim Antoine Habib. Look for more of this trend.

This is all good news for baby boomers who find themselves throwing away the keys to the minivan. For them, it is not so much about reliving a lost youth, but instead returning to an old passion for cars that was dormant while family duties called. Boomers still drive the market, but everyone else benefits.