captaincranky
Posts: 20,144 +9,151
I'll go ahead and admit, I didn't feel like reading all this... but this got under my skin.
I have a problem with this... 2 actually.
I am assuming number 1 was meant for when... ya know... American car manufacturers were still building cars with fins.
Number 2... We've still got a 1971 Demon that has very little rust. If taken care of, they will not rust as you seem to claim is guaranteed.
3.You're right, they were really made for more and more room, no contest, unless you are talking about a HP car.
4. Yeah, to a point.
On the cornering aspect... here in the US, our roads and driveways aren't as sharp and small as in Japan and other countries who are so tightly built. They didn't need the tight cornering radius and to be able to take turns at 60 and 80 mph. Though I know my dad has, and can. He's done it in a 68 Barracuda, a car said to have major under-steer.
It's the driver. Sure, they might not take them as easily, nor as fast, as the newer japs/exotics, but they can take them if done right.
First of all there isn't anything that I posted, that you can possibly have first hand experience with, so it's hard to imagine that you can take exception at it.
There isn't anything I've written that is incorrect, it does however need to have a vintage attached to it.
That coupled with the fact that you have displayed a sense of humor in the past. I do suppose that insulting a motorhead's love of their life, is very similar to insulting a trailer park residents Budweiser.
1. The "rear fin era" began in 1957, peaked in 1959, and ended in 1964. Google 1959 Cadillac, Buick, 1957 Plymouth, 1959 &60 Chevrolet.
2.. the rust out situation was also so bad in those years, that manufacturers began dipping the whole body in primer to combat it, and it became part of their ad campaigns. I think American Motors began this trend. American Motors you ask, who are they?
In any event, if you live in Phoenix Arizona, or perhaps Las Vegas Nevada your results would have varied.
3. Americans are accustomed to excess, a car that starts out as a compact gradually grows to a mid size or larger, and must be replaced with a new "compact model", whereupon the circle of life would begin to repeat itself.
4. Equipped with a standard size of tire, the average 400 CID + muscle car in the hands of a run of the mill lunatic could at least show tire cords in a Saturday night of heavy abuse, if not sooner. I'll qualify this by specifying a stick shift.
5. American cars were equipped with mushy suspensions. "Muscle cars", were of necessity, sprung much stiffer. So here again, your results may vary. In 1963 (or 64) American motor magazines began crowing about how the Pontiac GTO could "take the measure of any Ferrari", they of course were dead wrong, and full of s*** to boot.
As to "understeer", how could an automobile with about 800 pounds of cast iron over the front wheels, and nothing but air over the rear wheels do anything but understeer?