Suddenly, It's 1974!

Which is the best set of wheels to get you home in time to watch President Nixon resign? This 1973 Dodge Dart Swinger has the cool Rallye wheels, unusual on the inexpensive Dart. On the other hand, these Datsun B210 four doors with their 1.4 liter engines kept you from running out of gas during the recent oil crisis.

Note the last picture below appears to show a Scion all the way on the right. That's an illusion; it's 1974! Let's get Led Zeppelin tickets!

Tweet

1971 Ford Thunderbird - Four Door Landau

The most popular American collector cars are those made by GM and Chrysler circa 1970. Fords? Not so much. Ford products of the time mostly seem to be either dull-as-dishwater or, on the other end of the spectrum, exercises in bad taste and excess. This Thunderbird is a good example of the latter. The big T-bird coupes made through 1966 were not strong sellers, so Ford decided to go for more of an old-man's luxury car. The first edition of this design in 1967 was not too bad, but in 1970 Ford decided to really beat this car with an ugly stick, replacing the flat grill and hidden headlights of the '67 design with the bulldog look you see below. Combine that with the dubious design features the car already had, including a mandatory vinyl top and "landau irons" on the roof, and you've got what might have been the least-attractive luxury car to come out of Detroit until the 1980 Cadillac Seville. Sales were only 36,000 units in 1971, with only one-sixth of those being the four door.

* This Thunderbird and the 60s Lincoln Continental were the only mass-production cars made after World War II with suicide doors.
* The T-bird made a huge comeback later in 70s, selling 352,000 in 1978 alone. Why everyone was so crazy for that land yacht, I don't know. Who can explain anything about the 70s?

Tweet

1956 Rambler Custom

In my last post I mentioned that in the fall of 1956, American Motors tried to introduce the first car with electronic fuel-injection but ultimately killed to idea due to the complexity of the system. If they'd gone ahead, the unattractive sedan you're looking at would have been the fastest car in America. Even without the horsepower boost provided by fuel-injection, the 1957 Rambler Rebel (the pillarless-hardtop version of the car pictured) boasted a 327 c.i. V-8 with up to 255 hp. Combine that with the lightweight construction of the Rambler, and you've got a car with a 0 to 60 time of 7.5 seconds.

Tweet

1965 Corvette convertible fuel-injected

Glory days at General Motors: You're looking at the final edition of the only reliable non-electronic fuel-injection system ever put in a mass-produced car.

The basic problems in using fuel-injection without an advance control system were evident in the first fuel-injected car, the 1955 Mercedes 300 SL. From Wikipedia, "unlike today's electrically powered fuel injection systems, the 300 SL's mechanical fuel pump would continue to inject gasoline into the engine during the interval between shutting off the ignition and the engine's coming to a stop; this unburned gasoline washed lubricating oil from the cylinder walls, which not only left them unprotected in affected areas during start-up but would dilute the engine's entire oil supply if the car was not driven hard or long enough to reach a sufficient temperature to evaporate the gas out of the oil."

At this same time, the Bendix Corporation said, "No problem, we'll just build electronic fuel-injection." The Bendix system worked, provided the car owner kept a team of genius engineers and mechanics on hand at all times. American Motors promised a Rambler with Bendix fuel-injection in 1956, but never made it past the show car stage; no one has ever been able to find any of the fuel-injected Ramblers. In 1958 Chrysler made the same promise and actually built and sold a handful of Bendix system cars; all of them were recalled when it was clear the system was not reliable in daily use. One of these cars, a DeSoto convertible, has been restored.

In 1957 GM introduced its own mechanically-controlled fuel-injection. It was powerful (the first engine developing one horsepower per square inch of displacement), it was reliable (for those who could take the time to understand its complicated construction) and it got great gas mileage. The problem was that it cost almost $5,000 in 2018 dollars and those wanting to go fast found it easier to just buy a bigger engine with a couple of gas-guzzling 4-barrel carburetors. It's no coincidence that 1965, the last year the GM fuel-injection system was made for the Corvette 327 V-8, was also the same year that buyers could get the 396 c.i. big-block in that same car.

For the record, the engine you're looking at was available in full-size Chevy's from 1957 to 1959, Corvettes from 1957 to 1965 and in the Pontiac Bonneville in 1957 and 1958.

Tweet

1967 Ford Mustang convertible

While not a particularly expensive car, the old Mustangs are survivors. I'm not sure that his car has its original paint, but it doesn't appear to have had any major work done in 51 years. Even those RFK in '68 bumper stickers appear original. If only Bobby were still with us.

Tweet

1959 Volvo PV445

Seattle loves old Volvos. In 1944, Volvo introduced the PV444, a remarkably modern car with unibody construction and coil spring suspension. So it was a bit of a surprise when nine years later they launched the PV445 as a design from the automotive stone age, with ladder frame chassis and leaf spring suspension. This design was so primitive it stayed in production only sixteen years. Hey, it's a station wagon, not a sports car.

Tweet

1966 Plymouth Barracuda

You lying so low in the weeds
Bet you gonna ambush me
You'd have me down, down, down to my knees
Wouldn't you, Barracuda?

The original Plymouth Barracuda could lie low in the weeds better than most cars, as it's based on the tiny 1964 Valiant sedan. But unlike that dull-as-dishwater car, the 'Cuda is a cool fastback with glass-house rear window and was available with a 273 c.i. V-8 making 180 horsepower or more.

Tweet