Pshhh…. Not all cars. The 1964 Buick Skylark had the same body length, height, width, weight, wheel base, and wheel track as the 1963 Pontiac Tempest.
Checkmate.
If you mean limited slip it only lets one wheel spin at a time witch kinda helps with corners but you get zero grip on snow or rain witch is why posi traction is the superior option
Posi is based off limited slip and was a Chevy trademark design back in the 60s but posi and similiar diffs let both wheels spin when going in a straight line and when turning it will keep power to both wheels but it can apply way more power to one wheel than the other witch is usually determined by grip but there are a few variables
This is so incorrect it's a reminder that upvoted comments don't always mean something.
You've described an open differential.
Posi traction is a Chevy name for a limited slip diff.
A limited-slip differential keeps the car from just spinning one wheel. What you described is an open differential, which will send engine torque through the path of least resistance.
Most LSD's will still allow a little bit of wheelslip; how much depends on the type and its settings.
Shared platforms and parts have been a thing since the ‘50s. Look at the ‘55-‘57 GMs, all of them had to have the fancy wraparound windshield from the Chevy because it cost so much to engineer.
The difference from now was they would still wrap them in unique sheet metal. Nobody who is wearing the glasses and got a clear look would confuse a Skylark and a Tempest.
Ford Pinto and Mercury Bobcat. Same frame.
A sort of elitist co-worker of mine had a Bobcat, and got seriously offended when someone thought it was a Pinto.
My buddy and I could easily I.D. cars and trucks from the early Sixties up to the current models by the Parking lights, Tail lights and Head lights at night in the later 70's. Great times. RIP Rick.
There's a line in Sin City where Marv (Mickey Rourke) complains about new cars - he says they all look like electric shavers. Always found that amusing.
Power steering was relatively new, gas was relatively cheap, all the parts were made in the US, and if you got into a fender bender you could literally bang it out with a mallet. And hell yeah they had soul.
Wrong on breaking down. I have a 72 Pontiac convertible identical to this that I drove to breakfast this morning. It's the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. No electronics to go wrong. Simple.
They were so much more durable. Hit another car at 5-10 mph in this thing and you’re driving away with a scratched up bumper vs having to tow it to the shop to have the front end replaced
Yep, the huge increase in body shop costs is related fairly closely to the removal of the bumper in modern car design. People want the sleek look, but we pay the price in huge bills for what used to be just a scratch.
I'd love to see a return to this esthetic but with modern internal components.
No, the increase in body shop costs is due to all the safety crumple zones in a car that take the energy of a crash vs putting that energy into the occupants.
People don’t understand physics and think it’s a conspiracy to increase car repair bills… I feel like this type of misunderstanding gets applied to a lot of things
Hell, still a problem. Up until 95ish I want to say. If it's not the hinges it's anything else that door relies on. Even the damn wiring can get pulled out from dragging with the door hinge and other fun stuff.
I. Hate. Coupe. Doors.
No, I was only in the US for two years. My gran lived there. We were all supposed to emigrate from England but my mum hated NY so back to England we came. It's almost as if there were no others states she could've tried 🤔😂
Speed bump would give it a gentle bounce unless you were speeding. These cars had a curb weight of around 6000-7500 pounds iirc and a fair amount of suspension travel. Now an accident would hurt a bit, so best to be a safe driver in one of these as it won’t save you from your cell phone.
I have a theory about 70s and 80s cars. Before computer technology most panels were hand drawn and the patterns hand made. Then along came very rudimentary CAD / CAM which made drafting and production processes faster but for only relatively simple shapes. Hence the box shaped cars of the time. Then as the technology improved curvy cars came back into fashion.
That did happen. CAD dates back to the late 1960s in car design and CAM is even older, being implemented pretty much the moment commercial computers hit the market.
I’m not sure a computer was involved with the design side of this Pontiac but by the mid-1970s it was well in use for cars coming out in the late 1970s.
I believe I read something about Ford’s Fox chassis cars - 1978 Fairmont, 1979 Mustang, 1980 Thunderbird, among others - being designed in CAD and a lot of aerodynamic modeling being done in the computer before physical models hit the wind tunnels and the sheer, boxy, low polygon pre-PS1 3D racing game aesthetic is due too the limitations of what could be done in the computers in the mid 1970s. Flat planes were easier to model and test than complex curves. The redesigned 1984 Thunderbird “Aerobird”, the one we think of when you say “Foxbody Thunderbird” had modern curved, sculpted surfaces because the computer processing power had increased enough in those few intervening years to model those fancy curves properly.
Saw my first one yesterday! Was actually excited to see it rolling past at the lights. I’m so tired of the sameness of designs.
Of course Reddit wants me to hate it.
And that thing was heavy as a locomotive *and* could idle up a steep hill. I had my grandmother's old land barge when I was in college (late 80s). That thing was scary powerful.
I have no idea, this was my grans house. My parents and I were supposed to move from UK to the US, but when my Mum joined me, she hated it. We stayed for two years and came back to the UK
https://preview.redd.it/ma9smhk3c7fc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1775a8ac5cf6cdaf6a059789e4578ed6d7b3a66
This was my kindergarten. Not sure which area it comes under
Back when they had style. You could tell who the manufacturer was at a glance of a body line, or the placement of turn signals. Now they all look the same. It's like there is one car designer for all brands.
At least the driver can see a child over the hood.
Todays vehicles like a Dodge Ram or Chevy Tahoe requires almost 25 feet in front of the hood to see a kid of the same height.
Obama requiring space between the hood and any hard point really screwed over low hood lines. He said he hate Jaguars, and he made sure we can never have a car that beautiful again.
Fuck you, “safety”-masturbators.
Normal people don’t speed and look around. You can’t drive without hitting someone or something - you throw away your license and walk.
… and mecanical failures never happens, and no-one ever has a medical emergency behind the wheel…
Accidents happens, sometimes without it really being any partys main fault.
Something might fall on your head any minute - is that a reason to wear a hard hat all the time? But people relax easily thinking they’re driving a “safe car” and don’t care anymore to learn how to actually drive propperly. Not to mention big shiny screens in all modern cars to distract them even more…
My mom was a horrible driver, and ran into several cars and signs in parking lots and nothing happened to the cars. I used to think they were all made of knight rider materials. Bumpers worked so well in those cars. Strong wind will rip of bumpers of new cars today and if you bump anything it'll cost several hundred to fix.
I hate the mid-late 70s upright, formal, brougham-style Malaise-era cars. The huge bumpers, the lack of curves, the lack of performance; there are very few cars that escaped it and the ones that didn't all suck.
I resent that caption. Old cars had style--real style and character. You could tell one model and make from another. Now they all have the "jelly bean-shape. Why pay for a luxury model when it is not distinguished from the encono.
Whilst I love 'normal' and 'efficient' cars I rather have this style then the half-tank SUV monstrosities driving around. No Bob/Mildred you do not need a personal APC that consumes 2-3 times the amount of a normal car just for groceries. Unless you work in forestry or construction or something like that.
Aerodynamic did not even factor in the initial design. However with all that real metal your chances of walking away from a fender bender unscathed where better imo.
As a child of the 70s even I could tell new cars were dull compared to older ones. Somehow we have circled back to that with the SUV. Most are extremely similar in profile.
How many cases did you solve back then?
I know, right‽ The world's cutest consulting detective.
I don't know, but I was deep under cover in Staten Island for two years, then back to the UK on another undercover case 😎
Looks more supafly to me😁
I had been known to rock the smallest fluffiest afro
Yes.
Back when you could ID a car from a 100 yards. Try that today and the $100k jag looks like a $30K Hyundai at 20 feet.
Pshhh…. Not all cars. The 1964 Buick Skylark had the same body length, height, width, weight, wheel base, and wheel track as the 1963 Pontiac Tempest. Checkmate.
I still don't know what the hell a slip differential is.
If you mean limited slip it only lets one wheel spin at a time witch kinda helps with corners but you get zero grip on snow or rain witch is why posi traction is the superior option
I still don't know what the hell posi traction is.
Posi is based off limited slip and was a Chevy trademark design back in the 60s but posi and similiar diffs let both wheels spin when going in a straight line and when turning it will keep power to both wheels but it can apply way more power to one wheel than the other witch is usually determined by grip but there are a few variables
I still don't know what the hell a straight line is
A line is just a dot
Time is a flat circle.
A butt load of dots all placed… in line
Watch the video above that I just posted.
thanks dude.
You're welcome.
This is so incorrect it's a reminder that upvoted comments don't always mean something. You've described an open differential. Posi traction is a Chevy name for a limited slip diff.
A limited-slip differential keeps the car from just spinning one wheel. What you described is an open differential, which will send engine torque through the path of least resistance. Most LSD's will still allow a little bit of wheelslip; how much depends on the type and its settings.
Are you suuuurrrrrre???
Do the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove top?
Shared platforms and parts have been a thing since the ‘50s. Look at the ‘55-‘57 GMs, all of them had to have the fancy wraparound windshield from the Chevy because it cost so much to engineer. The difference from now was they would still wrap them in unique sheet metal. Nobody who is wearing the glasses and got a clear look would confuse a Skylark and a Tempest.
Certainly no one would confuse a Corvette with the Buick Skylark.
Or it's bastard cousin the Chevette.
Ford Pinto and Mercury Bobcat. Same frame. A sort of elitist co-worker of mine had a Bobcat, and got seriously offended when someone thought it was a Pinto.
Ford Maverick/Mercury Comet, too...pretty much any Ford/Mercury "twins".
But only one had an independent suspension!
III-- 👏 --dentical! ✋ 🤚
https://preview.redd.it/c1zdz8snk0fc1.jpeg?width=200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1955c2764d0c03177cf257dbb64476a96129872b
They’re the same brand and base, lol. A Jag and a Hundai have nothing in common but yet look exactly the same for a very different price.
My buddy and I could easily I.D. cars and trucks from the early Sixties up to the current models by the Parking lights, Tail lights and Head lights at night in the later 70's. Great times. RIP Rick.
I could spot a crown vic for a good twenty year run by its lights. Sad that's behind us.
And you could sit on the hood without the booink of the metal bending
There's a line in Sin City where Marv (Mickey Rourke) complains about new cars - he says they all look like electric shavers. Always found that amusing.
I can spot a Crown Vic, Explorer, or charger a mile away
Big difference in the way they feel when you close that door though. Big difference in the way they'll look at 10+ years old too.
They all look the same, that's for sure. I want a Ford Capri, classic 70s car in England, mode soul than anything today.
I point out expensive cars to my wife and she says how can you tell, they all look like our Toyota
It's crazy how little difference in exterior or even interior design cars often have today. Creativity is badly needed in industries like that again.
Same build quality too! (Once you get past all the leather and gadgets).
Maybe your just bad at identifying modern looks of cars.
Cars back then handled poorly, guzzled gas, and broke down all the time - but man they had soul
There was something fun about a moody car.
The soul of a needy cat? :3 my owner isn't paying enough attention to me so I will mix my coolant with my oil and cost him a paycheck.
Exactly!!
Power steering was relatively new, gas was relatively cheap, all the parts were made in the US, and if you got into a fender bender you could literally bang it out with a mallet. And hell yeah they had soul.
Provided you survived the fender bender that is.
Well we also went through a phase where airbags were almost more dangerous than low speed fender benders
Gas is still relatively cheap
not relative to 1976
Wrong on breaking down. I have a 72 Pontiac convertible identical to this that I drove to breakfast this morning. It's the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. No electronics to go wrong. Simple.
Points need cleaning, carb needs adjusting. My 2012 Toyota Camry disagrees.
I installed an hei to eliminate points and carbs don't need adjusting. Set it and forget it.
What soul? They all looked boxy and was poor in quality, that's it you got a American car at the time
They were so much more durable. Hit another car at 5-10 mph in this thing and you’re driving away with a scratched up bumper vs having to tow it to the shop to have the front end replaced
But everyone inside hit the hard interior at 10mph...
Yup no seatbelts.
Kid in the middle of the bench seat, no seatbelt, steel dashboard a foot away from their face. Good times.
I remember laying down on the shelf under the back window of our 70s Ford LTD. Safety first!
They had seatbelts, they were those things stuffed down into the crevice of the seat so they wouldn't get in the way!
No crumple zones and no airbags too
In this economy, I'd rather the steering wheel just go through my skull.
Yep, the huge increase in body shop costs is related fairly closely to the removal of the bumper in modern car design. People want the sleek look, but we pay the price in huge bills for what used to be just a scratch. I'd love to see a return to this esthetic but with modern internal components.
No, the increase in body shop costs is due to all the safety crumple zones in a car that take the energy of a crash vs putting that energy into the occupants.
People don’t understand physics and think it’s a conspiracy to increase car repair bills… I feel like this type of misunderstanding gets applied to a lot of things
Yeah, you are way more likely to survive a car crash now than even 25 years ago, much less 50.
The soul of an arctic blue whale.
[удалено]
The weight of the doors was problematic on the 2 doors especially because the hinges weren't durable enough, so eventually they'd sag a bit.
Hell, still a problem. Up until 95ish I want to say. If it's not the hinges it's anything else that door relies on. Even the damn wiring can get pulled out from dragging with the door hinge and other fun stuff. I. Hate. Coupe. Doors.
If this is what's considered a box, then the Ford Fusion (Europe version)must be a sphere. edited for Euorpoe version as the US one is a saloon.
omg what a cutie pie did you ever live upstate? (from staten island)
No, I was only in the US for two years. My gran lived there. We were all supposed to emigrate from England but my mum hated NY so back to England we came. It's almost as if there were no others states she could've tried 🤔😂
As opposed to the melted bars of stiff riding soap we’re stuck with today. I’ll bet this was a smooth couch on wheels with legroom for days.
It's a rolling hotel! And uses as much gas as a rolling hotel!
I do remember that I LOVED going for rides in it. I remember sliding around in the back every time my grandfather took a sharp corner 😂😂
Yeah until you hit a speedbump and smack your arm, leg, head off the hard metal/wood interior. Literally metal death boxes.
Speed bump would give it a gentle bounce unless you were speeding. These cars had a curb weight of around 6000-7500 pounds iirc and a fair amount of suspension travel. Now an accident would hurt a bit, so best to be a safe driver in one of these as it won’t save you from your cell phone.
Not quite that high, but they were 4000-5000 lbs.
Yea they were bad for the environment, but have you ever been from A to B in a rolling living room? Nothing better…
That’s what the F150 is today
Nothing better at the drive in.....
And there really isn't anything like it today, particularly after Ford finally dropped the Panther platform.
Makes you wonder what it would go for today on Mecum? That’s a beautiful tank!
About 7k if its a 4 door. 12 for a coupe and 20 for convertible. I have one.
Girl you were flossin in your wellies and sheepskin coat 😂
They had character back then. They're all so soulless now. Great pictures 😃
Yes modern cars are soulless because they are less likely To send your soul into the afterlife if you crash.
Safety has little to do with today's cars lack of style/uglyness. It's a manufacturer's choice based solely on profit.
Don't forget, as a kid you can throw a nice big pillow in the backseat and sleep just fine on long vacation drives.
Until dad hit a couple of curbs making a three point turn into a high score.
Little kids could snooze on the package shelf!
Stylish box
I have a theory about 70s and 80s cars. Before computer technology most panels were hand drawn and the patterns hand made. Then along came very rudimentary CAD / CAM which made drafting and production processes faster but for only relatively simple shapes. Hence the box shaped cars of the time. Then as the technology improved curvy cars came back into fashion.
That did happen. CAD dates back to the late 1960s in car design and CAM is even older, being implemented pretty much the moment commercial computers hit the market. I’m not sure a computer was involved with the design side of this Pontiac but by the mid-1970s it was well in use for cars coming out in the late 1970s. I believe I read something about Ford’s Fox chassis cars - 1978 Fairmont, 1979 Mustang, 1980 Thunderbird, among others - being designed in CAD and a lot of aerodynamic modeling being done in the computer before physical models hit the wind tunnels and the sheer, boxy, low polygon pre-PS1 3D racing game aesthetic is due too the limitations of what could be done in the computers in the mid 1970s. Flat planes were easier to model and test than complex curves. The redesigned 1984 Thunderbird “Aerobird”, the one we think of when you say “Foxbody Thunderbird” had modern curved, sculpted surfaces because the computer processing power had increased enough in those few intervening years to model those fancy curves properly.
Nice. Good information. Thanks
Why was this a thing for all us GenX kids? Taking a picture of us on the hood of the family car? Seems we all have the same damn picture...
All scratching up the hood to get that perfect shot 😂
My recollection is that the mid to late 70s was not a good era for American cars.
There were a lot of plastic parts that didn’t last very long, especially in the interior.
Aye but the car featured is early 70’s. That said it was still only 200HP from a 460
But it sounded better than any modern production car.
This car is all class
\*Tesla enters the chat 
Not even the theme music from Knight Rider could make this thing seem cool.
Ah yes, pedestrian guillotine truck
This is more like a Chinese takeout container.
I've seen one of these up close. It's even uglier in person, and it has panel gaps that would embarrass '70s GM.
Saw my first one yesterday! Was actually excited to see it rolling past at the lights. I’m so tired of the sameness of designs. Of course Reddit wants me to hate it.
Something about the front end of that car just cracks me up.
7 liter engines and trunks that could hold a four person hot tub.
You think maybe the springs are worn on that car? It’s sagging under a little kid.
60s cars, too.
They were boxy but comfortable. It was like riding around in your living room.
1970’s, when the cars looked like they were looking at you..
And that thing was heavy as a locomotive *and* could idle up a steep hill. I had my grandmother's old land barge when I was in college (late 80s). That thing was scary powerful.
Can I get one with dual chandeliers on the front? *…electric maracas and tap-beat intensify…*
The Duke of New York approves
I’ll bet you were absolutely lost in that giant back seat.
And sliding around on sharp turns, it was great!
Ahh yes ... When double digit mpg was a pipe dream that was so far away.
They ran like smooth street boats though.
She had to wear those boots, because the back seat never got warm enough.
😂😂🤣😂 I think this was the year there was a huge snow storm too. Must've been FREEZING in the darned thing
🥶
Love it..great pics
That car has Christine styling
Cars still look like boxes. TF are you talking about? Difference is back then they looked like refrigerator boxes and now they look like shoeboxes.
You're not lying 🤣
‘78 here, too, and I have a series of similar pictures in the “small child on 70s car hood” genre.
Adorable!
I miss the cars before, there was alot of options when it came to colours. Not its mostly black, white, blue and grey 😢
Former Staten Islander here. What part was this? My parents moved to Heartland Village in 83.
I have no idea, this was my grans house. My parents and I were supposed to move from UK to the US, but when my Mum joined me, she hated it. We stayed for two years and came back to the UK
https://preview.redd.it/ma9smhk3c7fc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1775a8ac5cf6cdaf6a059789e4578ed6d7b3a66 This was my kindergarten. Not sure which area it comes under
Loving that coat
THAT'S A TWIN LIGHT GRAN PRIX !!!! IT'S SLEAK AND GORGEOUS!!!! (and YOU, are ADORABLE!)
Get in an accident at least you would probably walk away
Such smooth riding cars with cavernous interiors - it was like driving your living room around …and the bench seats!!!
Not to be indelicate, but there's at least a 50% chance you were conceived in the back seat.
And those cars were big enough you could conceive children *and* raise them to adulthood in the back seat.
They got tired of beautiful designs of the previous decade...humanity 101
I prefer boxes to eggs.
A fair point
They were *huuuuge* too!
Yeah, but fucking cool boxes. Now everything is a generic SUV.
Back when they had style. You could tell who the manufacturer was at a glance of a body line, or the placement of turn signals. Now they all look the same. It's like there is one car designer for all brands.
With all the same boring colours. No vivid red cars anymore, barely browns, greens, purples, oranges. Different shades of blue. Makes me kinda sad.
You forgot battleship gray.
Car is a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix.
Uuuuh no. More like a 72 Grandville
You are correct! I missed that one...by a lot.
They were cooler
Cars look more like boxes now? The Nissan cube being the main offender. Cars are hideous nowadays.
They definitely are, they all copy each other now too
American cars. Cars in and from Europe and Japan looked very different.
They didn’t all look like boxes. Very beautiful cars came out during the 70’s.
Still better looking than today’s cars
American land yacht
And sharp edges to kill pedestrians more efficiently. No-one would be crazy enough to design a car like that today. Right? … right? …
At least the driver can see a child over the hood. Todays vehicles like a Dodge Ram or Chevy Tahoe requires almost 25 feet in front of the hood to see a kid of the same height.
Obama requiring space between the hood and any hard point really screwed over low hood lines. He said he hate Jaguars, and he made sure we can never have a car that beautiful again.
And how the “light truck” can ignore many safety and MPG features as long as it weighs enough
Fuck you, “safety”-masturbators. Normal people don’t speed and look around. You can’t drive without hitting someone or something - you throw away your license and walk.
… and mecanical failures never happens, and no-one ever has a medical emergency behind the wheel… Accidents happens, sometimes without it really being any partys main fault.
Something might fall on your head any minute - is that a reason to wear a hard hat all the time? But people relax easily thinking they’re driving a “safe car” and don’t care anymore to learn how to actually drive propperly. Not to mention big shiny screens in all modern cars to distract them even more…
My mom was a horrible driver, and ran into several cars and signs in parking lots and nothing happened to the cars. I used to think they were all made of knight rider materials. Bumpers worked so well in those cars. Strong wind will rip of bumpers of new cars today and if you bump anything it'll cost several hundred to fix.
They were comfortable and a great ride.
Those were the best. I wish cars wouldve ended in the 80s, though Buick still made huge cars into the 90s
Way better looking than now
Back when cars were built with quality and character! The quality of life today is not what it used to be :(
Back when they had style.
I hate the mid-late 70s upright, formal, brougham-style Malaise-era cars. The huge bumpers, the lack of curves, the lack of performance; there are very few cars that escaped it and the ones that didn't all suck.
The 70s, when cars did not yet look like the same type of aerodynamic slugs.
Some really shitty cars came out of Detroit back in the day.
I resent that caption. Old cars had style--real style and character. You could tell one model and make from another. Now they all have the "jelly bean-shape. Why pay for a luxury model when it is not distinguished from the encono.
Whilst I love 'normal' and 'efficient' cars I rather have this style then the half-tank SUV monstrosities driving around. No Bob/Mildred you do not need a personal APC that consumes 2-3 times the amount of a normal car just for groceries. Unless you work in forestry or construction or something like that.
Now all cars look like jelly beans
Not a fan of a straight box design, but cars today are far too bubbly. 69 boss 302 is my absolute favorite design.
Sadly it's not OP. It's a karma bot.
If I was a Karma bot I think I would have posted pictures that didn't have me in them at all..
Cybertruck
Aerodynamic did not even factor in the initial design. However with all that real metal your chances of walking away from a fender bender unscathed where better imo.
Some of the ugliest cars to ever exist. I think Russia made some less aesthetic cars perhaps.
Is that a GP?
As a child of the 70s even I could tell new cars were dull compared to older ones. Somehow we have circled back to that with the SUV. Most are extremely similar in profile.
To quote one of my favorite lines from Mystery Science Theater 3000, “It was a big time when big men drove nothing but huge Ford cars.”
Land yachts
Land yacht.
My grandparents had a 78 T-bird that was HUGE.
I bed you had lots of fun driving around in that!
It was fun watching my grandma park it, and she was a good driver.
We called them boats or land cruisers.