It's so funny how they make good light of the performance of the vehicle during road testing. It actually made me laugh out loud.

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How old was that thing they tested?

 

"an occasional glimpse at a passing bird"

 

"...delivering 150 horsepower. We needed this additional power with the air conditioner"

"4.1 seconds to make 30 mph"

"without any wheelspin or excessive tire wear we made 60 mph in 10.4 seconds"

"in the 70 mph panic stops the short wheelbase aggrevated the process. Nose dive was excessive. On this one we chewed rubber for 214 feet."

"On the good side of the ledger it's heavier than it's competition, thus giving it more stability in a crosswind."

 

The slo-mo slalom = ... BODY ROLLLLLL!

 

that tire squeal is atrocious

 

driving the average car back then must've been scary as fuck. People must've drove slower then dog shit. Rolling the dice in those days.

 

I've always liked the Pacer more myself.

 

It's all relative. We were doing OK for the time. Try comparing today's cars with those from 2058!

See, can't do it.

 

 

I will take one in purple please. With a trailer hitch. Thank you.

 

That there............., that was the reason for the fifty-five mph speed limit.




Terry

 

Wow. Just....wow. It's amazing any of us who were children in that era (I was three at the time that film was shot) survived the atrocious handling, awful brakes, lack of ABS, no ACE body structure, and no seat belts.

 

What are you talking about my Infiniti is decades ahead of the competition

 

I love that speed decided to re air the car and track videos form the late 60's to mid 70's. My favorite so far is the stopping test for the 1969 impala aroudn 5:20. It also amazes me that the tires don't unseat themselves when cornering.

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OH, and I'm pretty sure they use the same tire squealing sound for everything.

 

"we chewed rubber for 214 ft"

 

 

Holy death trap!

 

Wow what a piece of shit!

 

No doubt Bob. I remember my father's 69' Oldsmobile wagon, 74' Impala four door (in the most hideous cream color), and of course the king of wallow: My 77 Chrysler Cordoba.

The thought of performance was left to the Camaro/Firebird/Challenger crowd.

For the rest of us, it was: Does it get to the store to buy beer? Will we be able to stop so we don't have an accident? Those two items checked off meant we had a good car. Period.

 

I'd still take a gremlin any day.

 

AMX or Javelin for me instead.




Or maybe a Pacer?

 

gimme a Vega.

 

Had a Javelin, wanted an AMX

 

My mom had a rich man's Pinto.... a 4 door Ford Maverick . In a very hideous Halloween Orange color. Similar to this:

 

Look at the front left tire at 6:20!!!!

 

yeah, I'm pretty sure he was riding on the hubcap.

 

Loved that "free sunroof" at 2:10. lolol.

 

Yeah and came to a stop damn-near sideways.

 

have you guys been watching the other episodes? It really is amazing how much better cars have become in such a short amount of time.

 

Yes yessss me and Carol get a lot of use out of the sunroof

 

lol

 

You have to wonder how a car could have that much bodyroll but I guess it was normal back then. I understand they were doing a panic stop test but the driver could've at least tried to modulate the brakes a little. Those things really were death traps. I can remember as a kid always standing in the rear seat of the parents' '70s Monte Carlo. Or riding in the non back seat of the Opel GT. No seatbelts obviously as it was just a wood platform covered in carpet.

Going off topic now so read only if you're really bored....

I still hate stability control, traction control, and all the other electronic nannies today. ABS is ok in some conditions where one tire may have full traction while the others are on a slippery surface but for performance I don't like ABS either. These electronics just help to dumb down the average driver. Instead of learning driving skill like how to modulate the brakes, how to control a skid or how to launch the car, the computer now does it for us but not as well as a good driver. I would take driving skill any day over electronics.

I feel no less safe in the GN than I do the TL. You're just more aware of what's around you in the GN and pay better attention to others. Never had an accident or a spin in it either. I have had the TL's rear end come out around a long Vegas offramp and accidentally left the VSA on. It's not fun as you're countersteering then the computer intervenes almost causing a spin. Same with my friend's Mercedes CL65. It will let the rear get fairly out of shape before intervening. I thought I had the traction control off but it wasn't. I got on the throttle to slide it through a 40mph corner. The ass end of these things comes around quickly for such a long wheel base car so you have to be pretty quick with the steering when it does. Of course, the traction control kicked in mid corner and I could barely straighten the wheel quick enough to keep from overcorrecting.

IMO, the Tl's stability control may be good for the average driver where one end gets a little out of shape and all they know how to do is let go of the wheel or stab the brakes. But it will severely screw you up when you're expecting the car to react one way but it does the complete opposite.

 

These videos show how even the most basic cars today are light-years ahead of cars from 30 years ago.

Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be..