Old Car Memories - April 2009

Muscle car fans owe a debt of gratitude to Pontiac. In 1964 Pontiac released the GTO, which started the whole muscle car frenzy. For many years thereafter Pontiac made sure it had a good selection of muscle cars among its product lineup for its demanding customers. In the 1970s when automakers were abandoning performance cars, Pontiac held tough and refused to budge to the new market trends of the disco era. Though the engines were low compression and the smog devices were plenty, Pontiac still managed to please its fans with enough large displacement performance to spin the rear wheels.

1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic - the Caprice that Went on a Diet

There was a time when full-size cars were the hottest selling cars in the U.S. market and not the small market niche they are now. During this time the full-size Chevrolet and full-size Ford offerings were fighting for this “best selling” title year after year. Chevrolet by the 1970s had two very hot full-size sellers – the Impala and the more upscale Caprice. By 1976 both the Impala and Caprice/Caprice Classic (Chevrolet introduced the Caprice Classic as a top-of-the line Caprice in 1973) had become behemoths.

The 1976 Caprice had a length of 2
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1975 Chrysler Cordoba - Right Luxury Car for the Time

Ever been in a situation that you had no control over, a life changing situation that required quick and precise action? That's exactly the predicament the US automakers were caught in after the 1973 Oil Crisis. They were forced to deal with the hard cold fact that their bread and butter - big cars with big cubic inch motors, were losing their appeal to many Americans. There was only one solution to this dilemma, and that was a rapid shift to producing smaller more efficient cars. For the budget auto marques like Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, etc. this was no small task but an