Now folks, don’t pick on me for using the term ‘high performance’ cars to describe the muscle cars of the late 60s/early 70s. They actually were referred to with that terminology back in the day. Of course technology has taken giant leaps since then, but automobile designers have not gladdened my heart in the same way as they did back then for many years now.
There was something just a bit magical, being a teenage girl on a summer night, sitting on my front porch and listening to my boyfriend-du jour’s performance car approaching from blocks away. Those of you who were around back then can testify, that sound was like a large, prowling, jungle cat on the hunt.
Whoa. Now I’m wondering how many of the vehicles I hear pass by are what the linked article calls ‘fake’.
I’m of at least two minds about this. On one hand, I kind of like the idea of being able to add custom synchronized engine sounds to a car. On the other hand, I hate loud vehicles, so I’d like to be able to turn it off. On the third hand, I almost got run over by the first Prius I ever saw (I was crossing the street and didn’t hear it coming), so I can see the need for some noise.
In general, I’m of the ‘quiet power’ school. I think loud noise in machinery is a sign of inefficiency. But I can intellectually understand that some people appreciate it as art.
I miss the little triangular windows that you could open and direct air to your face.
The last car that I had that had this was a VW in the 70’s. For the life of me I can’t remember the model.That car traumatized me. I looked at some pictures of VW from the era. It may have been a Sirocco.
No I didn’t have a wreck in the car. The darn thing exploded while I was in it.
AUSA Today link to the slow disappearance of the cd player, which also mentions something else that I haven’t seen in vehicles for sometime,
pop up headlights like the Opel GT or shutters like on the Cougars and 69 Chargers. I loved those things even if they were a PITA. The last car I can think of that had them were the early MX-5/Miatas.
The C5 Corvette clung to pop up headlights until 2004. Personally I never cared for them, on most sports cars they were a necessary evil to get a streamlined look in an era of small noses and giant headlights. Added weight and terrible aerodynamics with the lights deployed.
Shutters, though, like on the old Continentals or the examples you gave, those were badass.
I think CD players will go away faster than people might think. Dirt cheap flash memory and the ubiquity of USB will see to that.
as far as hidden/pop up headlamps go, those were a styling “fad” because up until the 1980s NHTSA mandated sealed-beam headlamps (the round or rectangular glass lamps.) designers hated them, so hidden headlamps became a way to differentiate styling.
Cars today commonly do not have a key lock on the passenger front door, no key lock for the trunk and what I find the most annoying, no light under the hood!
I am glad to see pop up headlights assigned to the dust bin of car history. I have a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am, (no, I do not have a mullet haircut), and it is a great car except for those damn head lights. Same engine as the C5 Corvette.
The headlight doors should have been designed to close gently when you turn off the lights, but nope, they slam shut with a thunk.
This does not extend the life of the headlights at all. You drive around with your 2002 style headlamps getting hot, then turn the lights off and slam!
I just keep spare lights on the shelf in the garage.
Pop up headlights always seemed like a kludge to me. There is just no way they were cooler or more sporty than headlights truly integrated into a streamlined front end. I also think the styling of the new mustangs, camaros, chargers etc, successfully invoke the muscle feel of their sixties counterparts.
All our Chevy Express commercial vans at have crank windows and button door locks. Full size spares too. I think the youngest one is a 2008 though so I do not know if newer models still have them. I always have to ask passengers to lock their door when getting out, remember when that was an automatic behavior? I have to put it in park and take off my seat belt to reach across. The new vans are Nissan NVs but I haven’t really looked to see if they have power windows and locks. And before anyone says commercial vehicles do not count, take notice how many white commercial vans are on the road.
Those windows disappeared from U.S. cars starting in '68 (Camaro, for example) and were pretty much extinct by '71. They lasted longer in pickup trucks. GM first said they were deleted for styling reasons, but later admitted it was a cost-saving measure. Aerodynamics probably weren’t thought of by the bean-counters that deleted them.
I’m a bit too young to feel nostalgic about those windows. I imagine they were a lot cooler when there was a 55mph national speed limit that people usually adhered to because doing much faster would make your car shimmy and shake. The cars I grew up in at least, from the late 70s/early 80s, didn’t really like doing anything over 65. On top of that, I have a feeling that people spent more time on 45 or 50 mph country roads.
Nowadays I expect my car to maintain 79mph (I swear, officer) all day long with the AC blasting. I can’t imagine wanting to divert gale force winds at my face with a little window.
You may be a bit too young to know that cars built before the late '70s weren’t restricted to 55 mph overnight because they’d shimmy and shake at faster speeds.
I never owned a '64 Honda chain drive. What was it like?
Yeah. The daily commute to Los Angeles and back was a muddy, 16-lane-wide rutted horror. But back then it rained, so the dust wasn’t too bad.
those are there because A-pillars have become so goddamned thick due to roof crush standards and side curtain airbags that it’s all they can do to try to regain some outward visibility.
You drive around with your 2002 style headlamps getting hot, then turn the lights off and slam!