Category: Times Were
NHTSA, IIHS wanted airbags, not seatbelts, for crash safety
Once upon a time, the National Highway Traffic Administration, or NHTSA, the federal agency charged with among other things setting safety standards of automobiles, wanted to take seat belts out of cars. So did the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, perhaps best known today for its crash testing, which said that the added cost of [...]
1965 Fiat Abarth 695: The Cult of Personality
For a car manufacturer that went AWOL in the U.S. some twenty-eight years ago, Fiat and its new-to-America 500 are on the cusp of being ubiquitous. Fiat’s formal return began with then-Chrysler deputy chief executive Jim Press arriving on a New York Auto Show stage in 2009 aboard Fiat’s 500, and moved to more formal [...]
1988-89 Chevrolet Beretta GTU: Born from racing…really
In 1988 Chevrolet went racing in the IMSA GTU class and that, simply, is the reason for the 1988-89 Chevrolet Beretta GTU. Of course, the reason Chevrolet racing is, simply enough, marketing. It certainly has paid off grandly for anyone associated with NASCAR, despite the fact that the tube-chassied “stock car” racers are mere silhouettes–if [...]
1951 Mercedes-Benz 170S Cabriolet, playing survivor
Although the first Mercedes-Benz 170S wasn’t built until 1949, the model was in its own way a survivor of World War II and then helped Daimler-Benz, the company that made it, survive the peace. Allied bombing had done its level best to destroy the ability of the Third Reich to wage war. Mercedes-Benz, according [...]
1969 Mercury Marauder, ‘an overall sports car–but with a new luxury look’?
Do you remember the 1969 Mercury Marauder? How about bell-bottoms? Floppy at the ankles and tight at the knees and floppy at the ankles, they made sense only a sailor but we wore them anyway. After all, it was the ’60s, and bell-bottoms were as much a part of that confused decade as protest marches, [...]
1972 Chevrolet Impala Convertible: Memories of twilight
It’s a twilight crafted for the 1972 Chevrolet Impala Convertible. The temperature is 80 degrees, the wind is calm and invading clouds promise rain. It is August, the swan song of summer, and one of those lazy summertime evenings ideal for a convertible cruise. By rights I should be younger by far, and I’d know [...]
1975 Toyota Corolla Deluxe: Squashing Beetles
Something rather remarkable occurred in 1975. For the first time in two decades, Volkswagen no longer topped the U.S. imported car sales charts. Toyota, regardless of whose numbers you use and not including trucks, surged past the German carmaker to a position of import dominance that it has not since relinquished. More sophisticated automobiles were [...]
1979 – 1982 Fiat Strada: Hit the road, Tony
This would be the sedan that could make it here. The Fiat Strada came to the United States broadly heralded and with much press coverage. And why not? Fiat was well established in the U.S. Its sports cars provided Italian entertainment for those without Ferrari or even Alfa pocketbooks, even if its more mundane offerings [...]
1973 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham: Gas crisis? What gas crisis?
You could play tennis on the poop deck of this thing. And bocce ball on the forecastle. This boat measures 230.1 inches stem to stern with a wheelbase of 124 inches. And uncommon two-door hardtop, this 1973 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham, by any measure outside of Cape Canaveral, is simply huge. One marvels at the [...]
1957 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Honeymoon Express: Striking an understatement
Applied to the 1957 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Honeymoon Express, the word “striking” is an understatement. That it’s a Rolls-Royce is unmistakable, what with the classic square-shouldered Rolls-Royce grille, precise as a Euclidian geometry illustration. The cowl height is similarly constrained. But from there, this 1957 Silver Cloud is like no other Rolls. Well, the Silver [...]
