'70s cars, decade of disaster or delight?
12/14/12, 03:12 AM
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'70s cars, decade of disaster or delight?
Maybe that should be afternoon delight? If anyone remembers that Starlight Vocal Band song, lol. But maybe the decade deserves more credit than it gets, and did have some decent cars, like the 1972 Gran Torino Sportsroof with CJ 351 & 4 speed? Which other notable cars from that time can you think of?
'72 Gran Torino
RX-7
Pacer X
'72 Gran Torino
RX-7
Pacer X
Last edited by synchro; 12/14/12 at 03:14 AM. Reason: typo
12/14/12, 11:02 AM
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There were still some decent cars in the early '70's, but various factors quickly took their toll on real performance which was then replaced by ridiculous tape-stripe and spoiler packages that still haunt my dreams to this day.
1970-71 still had a lot of genuine performance/muscle cars such as the Boss 429 and Boss 351 in the Mustang ranks alone. Probably the last true old-school muscle/Pony car was the 1974 Pontiac Trans Am SD 455 which somehow survived like a dinosaur into at least the Pleistocene age. The Vette still retained the 454 up until, like ’75, but towards the end, it was more in station wagon tune that battle wagon.
In comparison, the ’74 Mustang the atrocious little lump called the Mustang II sporting some wheezing V6 with maybe around 100 put-upon hp – it was more a mini disco pimp mobile than anything resembling an actual performance car, what with being built on the chassis of that rolling Molotov Cocktail, the Pinto. Ford did shoe horn a suffering 302 into this limpid Palomino and festooned it with decoration even gaudier than those of the screaming chicken Trans Am, and even turned up the tastelessness dial to “11” with the King Cobra.
On the European front, Italy still churned out some fairly compelling supercars deeper into the 70’s with such classics as the Ferrari Daytona and Boxer which still had hp numbers on the far side of 300 and top speeds well in excess of 150. Lambo introduced the iconic Countach, whose design is still echoed in their Avantendor, even if its actual performance fell a bit short of its 200mph looks.
Porsche intro’ed their own icon, the 911 Turbo (though I recall they just called it the “Turbo”) which could still get into the low 14’s or even high 13’s through the quarter. Even though it only had something like 237hp. However, it’s metal hadn’t transmogrified into lead as seems to have happened to all cars of late and weighed under 3,000 lbs, so those horse weren’t hauling a wagon full of bricks and the car was quite fast. BMW had their 2002, which really introduced the somewhat upscale small performance sedan/coupe (especially in Ti and Tii tune) along with the now ubiquitous 3, 5, 6 and 7 series sedans and coupes. I seem to recall that their M cars got their start in the '70s too, no small thing there for performance buffs. Mercedes had their big 6.9 S-Class sedan which sort of presaged in a way their AMG teutonic hot rods.
Oh, and one shouldn't forget looking east and the advent of the Datsun Z car and Mazda RX-7, among a few other interesting cars from that direction (other Mazda rotary cars, Datsun 510, the poor man's BMW 3-series and Toyota Supra and Celica sport coupes).
That all said, most other cars were sad, wheezing, slow, overstyled and underbuilt monuments to an age of malaise.
1970-71 still had a lot of genuine performance/muscle cars such as the Boss 429 and Boss 351 in the Mustang ranks alone. Probably the last true old-school muscle/Pony car was the 1974 Pontiac Trans Am SD 455 which somehow survived like a dinosaur into at least the Pleistocene age. The Vette still retained the 454 up until, like ’75, but towards the end, it was more in station wagon tune that battle wagon.
In comparison, the ’74 Mustang the atrocious little lump called the Mustang II sporting some wheezing V6 with maybe around 100 put-upon hp – it was more a mini disco pimp mobile than anything resembling an actual performance car, what with being built on the chassis of that rolling Molotov Cocktail, the Pinto. Ford did shoe horn a suffering 302 into this limpid Palomino and festooned it with decoration even gaudier than those of the screaming chicken Trans Am, and even turned up the tastelessness dial to “11” with the King Cobra.
On the European front, Italy still churned out some fairly compelling supercars deeper into the 70’s with such classics as the Ferrari Daytona and Boxer which still had hp numbers on the far side of 300 and top speeds well in excess of 150. Lambo introduced the iconic Countach, whose design is still echoed in their Avantendor, even if its actual performance fell a bit short of its 200mph looks.
Porsche intro’ed their own icon, the 911 Turbo (though I recall they just called it the “Turbo”) which could still get into the low 14’s or even high 13’s through the quarter. Even though it only had something like 237hp. However, it’s metal hadn’t transmogrified into lead as seems to have happened to all cars of late and weighed under 3,000 lbs, so those horse weren’t hauling a wagon full of bricks and the car was quite fast. BMW had their 2002, which really introduced the somewhat upscale small performance sedan/coupe (especially in Ti and Tii tune) along with the now ubiquitous 3, 5, 6 and 7 series sedans and coupes. I seem to recall that their M cars got their start in the '70s too, no small thing there for performance buffs. Mercedes had their big 6.9 S-Class sedan which sort of presaged in a way their AMG teutonic hot rods.
Oh, and one shouldn't forget looking east and the advent of the Datsun Z car and Mazda RX-7, among a few other interesting cars from that direction (other Mazda rotary cars, Datsun 510, the poor man's BMW 3-series and Toyota Supra and Celica sport coupes).
That all said, most other cars were sad, wheezing, slow, overstyled and underbuilt monuments to an age of malaise.
Last edited by rhumb; 12/14/12 at 11:08 AM.
12/14/12, 11:56 AM
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In comparison, the ’74 Mustang the atrocious little lump called the Mustang II sporting some wheezing V6 with maybe around 100 put-upon hp – it was more a mini disco pimp mobile than anything resembling an actual performance car, what with being built on the chassis of that rolling Molotov Cocktail, the Pinto. Ford did shoe horn a suffering 302 into this limpid Palomino and festooned it with decoration even gaudier than those of the screaming chicken Trans Am, and even turned up the tastelessness dial to “11” with the King Cobra.
Arin's gonna give you a demerit for that!
12/14/12, 12:02 PM
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Wait a minute... you two joined TMS on the same date? 
Or is that a crash/glitch/reboot/software update type thing?
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Or is that a crash/glitch/reboot/software update type thing?
Join Date: January 30, 2004
Posts: 2,431
Join Date: January 30, 2004
Location: Wisconsin / Serbia
Posts: 11,411
12/14/12, 12:39 PM
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I think it was the 2nd day after forum was back on (it crashed when the 2005 Mustang was introduced and all info from the forum was lost, so we had to register again). Many people here have a register date of 01/29/2004 and 01/30/2004.
12/14/12, 12:49 PM
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In comparison, the ’74 Mustang the atrocious little lump called the Mustang II sporting some wheezing V6 with maybe around 100 put-upon hp – it was more a mini disco pimp mobile than anything resembling an actual performance car, what with being built on the chassis of that rolling Molotov Cocktail, the Pinto. Ford did shoe horn a suffering 302 into this limpid Palomino and festooned it with decoration even gaudier than those of the screaming chicken Trans Am, and even turned up the tastelessness dial to “11” with the King Cobra.
First of all, IMO, the 1974-1978 Mustang was much closer to the 1964 Mustang formula that the 1969-1973 Mustang was. Mustang wasn’t intended to be a big performance car, it was supposed to be a small, lightweight, sporty car.
The 1964 Mustang was based on a Falcon, so it shouldn’t be a problem that the 1974 Mustang was based on a Pinto. From what I have heard talking with former Pinto owners, Pinto was actually a pretty nice car back in the 1970s other than gas tank issues; it was like a Model T of the 1970s. Cheap, reliable, easy to fix and maintain.
Anyways, the original 1964 Mustang I6 also made only 100 hp, which is pretty much what 1974 Mustang V6 made.
Sure, 1975 5.0L made only 140 hp – but the 1982 Mustang 4.2L made only 118 hp (and doesn’t get enough crap like the Mustang II does) and the 1983 Mustang 5.0L, which according to many returned performance to the Mustang, made 157 hp – or only 17 hp more than the Mustang II.
The fact that Ford sold over a million Mustang IIs in 5 years pretty much tells us that it was a right car at the right times.
12/16/12, 11:32 AM
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I'd say disaster IMO. The "better" cars from the 70's more than likely had their origins in the mid to later part of the 60's only to be released in the early years of that best-forgotten decade for US automakers. Just about any car produced in the US from around the mid-point on, was atrocious - again, IMO.
12/16/12, 07:44 PM
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As pointed out... 70-72 was good years for lots of reasons. Come to 78-79 and it was startin' to turn around.
That middle bit from 73-77 was... well, brutal for American cars. Not so much the ones called 'foreign' as a group, which was anywhere but American made.
I will say that the '78 Thunderbird was a very nice car, especially the Diamond Jubilee versions. So pretty, and really nice inside.
The '78 Mustang II was the pinnacle of IIs, with the advent of the split fold down back seat. None of that uniback fold down, no sir!
And it had a 5.0 (that was going, almost unmodified, into the new Fox platform.) So it wasn't bad, just small. Today, a 302/5.0 one of those would be a moderate beast, if it were replaced with a new FI mill... just don't take a curve in one. 
That middle bit from 73-77 was... well, brutal for American cars. Not so much the ones called 'foreign' as a group, which was anywhere but American made.
I will say that the '78 Thunderbird was a very nice car, especially the Diamond Jubilee versions. So pretty, and really nice inside.
The '78 Mustang II was the pinnacle of IIs, with the advent of the split fold down back seat. None of that uniback fold down, no sir!
And it had a 5.0 (that was going, almost unmodified, into the new Fox platform.) So it wasn't bad, just small. Today, a 302/5.0 one of those would be a moderate beast, if it were replaced with a new FI mill... just don't take a curve in one.
Last edited by houtex; 12/16/12 at 07:49 PM.
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12/17/12, 01:43 PM
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I think using early 70s cars here is cheating, those cars were designed and launched before the EPA forced major change to these vehicles. In most cases these early 70s muscle cars where the most powerful built. Though my favorite 1970s car of all time is a 1970 Boss 302 (A car in my family for many years now) I still kinda consider it a 60s car.
Though the original poster did not specify, I think we should pick the harder to pick vehicles of the gas crisis era of the mid to late 70s.
Though this car was terribly slow I think the coolest car of the mid to late 1970s would have to be the 1978 Pontiac Trans Am (Burt Reynolds Black and Gold) edition! Though I've always been a Mustang guy at heart I would easily pick a Trans Am from 1974-78 over any Mustang II.
Though the original poster did not specify, I think we should pick the harder to pick vehicles of the gas crisis era of the mid to late 70s.
Though this car was terribly slow I think the coolest car of the mid to late 1970s would have to be the 1978 Pontiac Trans Am (Burt Reynolds Black and Gold) edition! Though I've always been a Mustang guy at heart I would easily pick a Trans Am from 1974-78 over any Mustang II.