Posted on 07/01/2002 2:52:14 PM PDT by wallcrawlr
Guess what the fastest stock car Hot Rod Magazine tested in the quarter mile in 1958? It wasn't the dual-quad Corvette,but the 1958 Rambler (Nash)Ambassador 4-dr hardtop with the 327 (NOT a Cheverolet engine!) and automatic transmission. It even had one of those funkie Contentinal Kits on the back that came stock on them.
I have a 58 Rambler station wagon that is all original with factory air,but mine is the Cross Country,and it has the 194 inline 6 with overdrive.
I've got a '74 (beautiful metallic green). Bought it 3 yrs ago from the original owner. It was his everyday driver for over 20 yrs, then he gave it to his daughter to drive for a few years, got it back, painted it & then put it up for sale.
He lost track of the number of times the odometer rolled over. It's got to have at least 3-400k miles on it. Original everything on it and everything is worn out. When I have to be somewhere on time, I drive my Ford. When I want to enjoy a leisurely drive, I take the Charger. In a world full of plastic foreign cars destined for the junkyard, the old Dodge draws a LOT of attention.
I never made one cent in Japan, I try to spend my money where I make it!!
It travels through summer heat and winter cold (as cold as -65F.) It hasn't failed me yet. When it does, I will replace it with another GM product.
USA ALL THE WAY!!!!
See post above. Power options available here range up to 300Kw. Not sure what that is in HP but should be quite impressive.
That's what really astonishes me; I never thought I was going to live long enough to see really good cars being made in America, but here it is. I remember a steering wheel coming off in my mother's hands in a 59 Mercury like in a W.C. Fields movie. I remember driving a Corvair Monza which tried to tuck the outside front wheel in and roll every time you drove through a turn going the least bit downhill. I remember a Chrysler Imperial which I was utterly unable to stop without locking up the over-power brakes and skidding, I remember AMC cars with zero traction and having to slow to a crawl going around turns and, mostly, I remember overweight cars which I never really felt I had good control over trying to stop or turn or do anything with at all other than drive in a straight line at 55 or 60 mph.
You can have em. Like I say, I've been there and done that, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
It is impossible for this to accidentially happen. Note I didn't say "rare",I said "impossible". The reason I say this is because not only are the steering wheels held on with a fine thread nut and lock washer,but they are ALL also a "press-fit" that requires a steering wheel puller to take them off. You could take the nut off and throw it away,and it would STILL be damn near impossible for anybody to just pull the steering wheel off. Somebody had to have purposely taken the nut off and thrown it away,removed the steering wheel from the shaft,and then LOOSELY put the steering wheel and horn ring back on in order for that to have happened.
Please note I am NOT saying that didn't happen,but that it didn't happen due to mechanical failure or design failure. It happened because somebody tampered with the steering wheel.
I remember driving a Corvair Monza which tried to tuck the outside front wheel in and roll every time you drove through a turn going the least bit downhill.
No,you don't. This sometimes happened with the REAR wheels in the early Corvairs,but was corrected sometime during the 2nd or 3rd year of production. The Volkswagen bug had the same problem,but nobody ever bothered to complain about them because "we all know European cars and drivers are sophisticated."
BTW,the reason Corvairs got a reputation for being unsafe was because that old fairy Nader was a young fairy back then,and his best friend was a famous comedian whose name I can't remember (Jerry something?)right now,but he had a moustache and always smoked a cigar. He had a new Corvair,and was killed in it after having a front-end collision with a full-sized car. The collision occured becuase he took his eyes off the road to light his cigar,but Nader didn't seem to want to talk about cigar smoking back then. Today,he's most likely call it "another tragic tobacco-related death",and sue tobacco companies.
I remember a Chrysler Imperial which I was utterly unable to stop without locking up the over-power brakes and skidding,
This was most likely due to a combination of 3 factors. Your own unfamiliarity with the car (people who were used to driving them didn't have this problem),a over-boosted system,and the TRULY sorry tires used back then. Those old nylon and Polyglas tires were slicker than snot,and it was rare to get even 12,000 out of them before they started blowing out. Heavy cars like the Chrysler only made this worse. I just talked a friend of mine into putting a set of radials on his 1950 Lincoln,and he was actually shocked at how much better it rode,drove,and stopped. In fact,he even commented on how much harder it was now to make the tires squeal when he hit the brakes hard.
I remember AMC cars with zero traction and having to slow to a crawl going around turns
I have no idea what you are talking about here,unless maybe you are talking about the way they handle in snow? They were very light cars with most of the weight on the front wheels. One of the cars I drive is a 1958 Rambler Cross Country stationwagon,so I am familiar with AMC/Rambler cars.
and, mostly, I remember overweight cars which I never really felt I had good control over trying to stop or turn or do anything with at all other than drive in a straight line at 55 or 60 mph.
Here is the real problem. Your personal biases and preferences. You prefer smaller and lighter cars. Your buying and owning a Neon now and the list of other cars you considered prove this. Nothing wrong with that,but it doesn't mean bigger and heavier cars are unreliable or unsafe. ESPECIALLY when compared to any Italian car ever made.
Half my family sells cars or otherwise works with cars for a living, my brother's an auto wholesaler and I get to drive pretty much everything which rolls from one time to another, and the problem isn't one of size; today's big cars are infinitely safer and more controllable than those of the 60's and 70's. There was a huge gain in quality in American cars going from the 80's to the 90's. GM in particular couldn't have gone on the way they were in the 80's; they'd have gone under. They say they don't make cars or houses like they used to: thank God.
You just needed a hell of a long road to reach 80 in either an Alfa or Porche of that period..
So9
They built 5 of them. That is hardly a production car. If the corvettes had bee a thousand pounds lighter they might have been competitive. They were nothing but short Cadillacs.
So9
No,it wasn't. In fact,it was one of the best handling cars in America at that time,and this inlcudes foreign "sports cars".
My father bought one used in fairly good condition around 62 and I drove it just once down to the 7-11 which involved a sweeping downhill turn which caused no problems for a VW of the same vintage; I saved it somehow by straightening out almost enough to run into trees and refused to drive or ride in the thing afterwards. I've never felt anything like that before or since. My father apparently saw the same sort of thing and sold the thing after about two weeks.
The key word here is "used". There was obviously something WAAAY out of whack in the suspension or body,or maybe even both. It was most likely a rebuilt wreck that wasn't done right.
No, I'm not kidding. When I was in high school, my Friday nights were regularly spent in my buddy Steve's turbocharged Corsa blowing Mustangs into the weeds.
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