January 17, 1953 The Corvette's Debut

[tkcartoonist]

Ahh! The poor edsel. Too bad people had to make fun of the radiator grill on the front. I've heard it being called all king of nasty names, like, the vagina, the toilet seat and an ox's yoke.

From what I understand, the looks of the Edsel were the least of its problems. I read that the early ones had a lot of mechanical issues as well. Granted, they did smooth those out over the next few years, but by then it was too little, too late.

 

[Nitro]

Are you sure about that? Remember, anything any other country we could do worse... a whole lot worse!View attachment 73987

I know what is missing on that ride.
A mountain motor with an 8-71 Roots supercharger on it blocking the driver's view

 

[Nitro]

LoL what happened to that poor car? How did that happen.

Well, it was American Motors to begin with.
They sourced a ton of parts from the other manufacturers and let their design department do all of the concept sketches in crayon

 

[maycontainthunder]

LoL what happened to that poor car? How did that happen.

The 70's. Worst decade for anything automotive.

 

[Nitro]

The 70's. Worst decade for anything automotive.

We gearheads refer to most of that decade as the malaise years.

 

[Nitro]

The rear end of it could not have looked more wrong. I`ll bet that car feels terrible when it`s on the road among other cars, confidence problems. And the color...

We called the AMC Pacers goldfish bowls because of the glass.

 

[maycontainthunder]

We gearheads refer to most of that decade as the malaise years.

Yep. The decade where turd brown cars and baby diarrhoea coloured interiors were considered cool.

 

[tkcartoonist]

We called the AMC Pacers goldfish bowls because of the glass.

I understand that, because of that same glass, it was also extremely hot in that car, particularly if you sat in the backseat.

 

[Nitro]

Here's an interesting piece of General Motors trivia.
An autoworkers strike forced GM to pull office workers who were not union to work the assembly lines.
That in turn lead their design department to make subtle changes to the trim work and they began to outsource parts to built their vehicles.
That in turn sort of took another turn of negative events on the union workers as accounting found out it cost less to do it that way.
In the end, the 1972 cars were just modified versions of the prior years and were really supposed to look like the ones built in '73

 

[Nitro]

Yep. The decade where turd brown cars and baby diarrhoea coloured interiors were considered cool.

'72 spelled the end of our horsepower here too in order to make them exhaust emission compliant.
The other styling impact was the mandated 5 mile per hour impact bumper ruling that made nice looking cars look like crap with junk added on.

 

[maycontainthunder]

'72 spelled the end of our horsepower here too in order to make them exhaust emission compliant.
The other styling impact was the mandated 5 mile per hour impact bumper ruling that made nice looking cars look like crap with junk added on.

Here in the UK we had British Leyland. They turned cars ugly while introducing new models that consistently feature in the top ten worst cars in British history.

 

[Nitro]

For many years I used to attend the North American International Auto Show held at the COBO in Detroit, Michigan as a guest of General Motors.
They gave us full access to the GM headquarters and tickets for the show.
In the future, I will make another thread about all of that, but it was still really cool to be that immersed into it and have my chosen marque for straightline performance vehicles pay my way.

Truth be told kids, my most admired vehicles from an engineering standpoint come out of Japan

 

[Nitro]

Here in the UK we had British Leyland. They turned cars ugly while introducing new models that consistently feature in the top ten worst cars in British history.

You also had Lucas handling the wiring.
We call Lucas the Prince of Darkness

 

[Nitro]

We hold British motorbike rallies here.
Most of them feature what they call the Lucas Night Run, held only for the brave

 

[maycontainthunder]

You also had Lucas handling the wiring.
We call Lucas the Prince of Darkness

We also had Amal who made carburettors that were one of the reasons for the downfall of British bikes.

Trivia: Amal is short for Amalgamated. They were formed in 1927 when the three main manufacturers joined forces; Brown & Barlow, Binks and Amac.

BTW, Lucas parts are perfectly fine as long as you don't try to use them.

 

[Nitro]

Lucas always had combo electrical switches that were as complicated as a cuckoo clock and just about as fragile.
The last I knew, Lucas was building missile guidance systems.
How very comforting, eh?

 

[Nitro]

I understand that, because of that same glass, it was also extremely hot in that car, particularly if you sat in the backseat.

I could imagine that.
Kind of like hitting an ant with a magnifying glass in the sun

 

[maycontainthunder]

Lucas always had combo electrical switches that were as complicated as a cuckoo clock and just about as fragile.
The last I knew, Lucas was building missile guidance systems.
How very comforting, eh?

Not nearly as comforting as the British government in the forties. They took away the development of the jet engine from people who knew what they were doing and gave it to Rover... who predictably put it in a car.

And on the subject of not having a clue. The 70's gave birth to this;

To set the ignition timing you had to take the engine apart. No, I'm not joking. It killed the company making it.

 

[Nitro]

Not nearly as comforting as the British government in the forties. They took away the development of the jet engine from people who knew what they were doing and gave it to Rover... who predictably put it in a car.

And on the subject of not having a clue. The 70's gave birth to this;

View attachment 73991

To set the ignition timing you had to take the engine apart. No, I'm not joking. It killed the company making it.

Nasty.
All of that.
No exceptions at all.

 

[maycontainthunder]

The Rover jet car;

It actually doesn't look too bad. It was based around an existing production car.