Pontiac’s Tempest-based GTO had been on the market for two years when Dodge finally fired back in mid-1966 with an intermediate-sized, big-engined intimidator of its own – the Charger. Though it wasn’t first on the field and so can’t claim credit for igniting the frenzy, the Charger would become every bit the muscle car...
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The Bible says the poor are blessed in spirit – but they sure get short-changed when it comes to transportation. The Jeep-like VW Type 181 “Thing” - sold here for only two years, 1973-1974 – didn’t even come with carpeting. Or gauges (other than a speedo). You did get a couple of small indicator...
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Wayne’s World immortalized the AMC Pacer, a car which defined the 1970s even more than a Bee Gees 8-track, the “Farrah” hairstyle, or the leisure suit. In fact, wearing a leisure suit and listening to a Bee Gees 8-track while driving a chiffon-yellow Pacer with wood panel accents to your job as assistant manager...
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Oldsmobile had a long and distinguished history – and suffered a slow, painful death. The process of mortification began in the early 1980s, when General Motors gutted the formerly independent engineering departments of each of its seven car divisions. Management eliminated the Buick, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile-built engines that had made each of these divisions’...
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The smart athlete retires gracefully, at his peak – before he starts to slip and give off that “has-been” stink. To their credit, that’s what Chevrolet managers did when they discontinued the Z28 version of the popular Camaro sport coupe after the 1974 model year. True high-performance engines such as the 1970–1971 Z28’s solid...
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It’s not well-known, but AMC’s Rambler line actually surpassed Plymouth as the number-three brand of car in America (in terms of total sales) by the early 1960s, under the inspired leadership of George Romney—father of 2008 Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney. It was also a performance brand—though few remember this today. For example, the...
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If General Motors eventually goes bankrupt (again) it won’t be for lack of imagination and innovation. It will be for lack of successful innovation. The Allante project is a case in point. It began with high hopes – and an audacious plan. By the mid-1980s, Cadillac was still the “standard of the world” –...
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Trying to keep the performance flame flickering in the late ’70s wasn’t easy. Big-cube, high-powered V-8s had been all but outlawed. Only a handful of smallblocks were still gimping along, their power output reduced to pathetic levels by emissions control and fuel economy considerations. Ford’s once-proud 302 V-8, for instance, had been reduced to...
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A few weeks back, before the weather turned to schiesse, took my old Pontiac – a 1976 Trans-Am – to a local old car show. The old disco machine is pretty reliable – even though it is approaching 40 years old. But it is pushing 40 years old and stuff does go wrong with...
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Hybrid vehicles are not a modern invention. The quirky, quintessentially British Jensen automobile company of Birmingham, England had the idea long before Toyota – and decades before there would be a Prius. Instead of MPGs, however, the focus of Jensen’s “hybrid” was BHP – brake horsepower. And the name chosen for the vehicle would...
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