Everyone has heard the saying – “it is always darkest before the dawn”, for American performance car fans the period of the mid-1970s to early-1980s was a very dark period. During this time engine displacement shrank faster than the current
Everyone has heard the saying – “it is always darkest before the dawn”, for American performance car fans the period of the mid-1970s to early-1980s was a very dark period. During this time engine displacement shrank faster than the current
Ford having muddled through the 1970s without any major breakthrough innovative cars, was changing its tune by the 1980s. Ford decided by the early 1980s to cast its stodgy image aside and begin to build innovative and modern looking cars.
Long before the term SUV was invented, Jeep was delivering to its customers a solid off-road capable four-door family friendly SUV. The first of these was the 1963 Jeep Wagoneer. It was rugged yet very comfortable – it was as
For those old enough to remember, the Corvette (GM’s premier sports car) had turned into a flashy two-seater by the mid 1970s. The 1978 film Corvette Summer epitomized how flamboyant the Corvette had become. The Corvette by this time looked
The GTO was one of the biggest success stories in automotive history. For the first time an inexpensive fast performance car was available to the masses, creating a whole new market segment called muscle cars. Within a few years just
Life is full of compromises. Usually you must give something up to get something in return. So it is always a nice surprise to find something that is not a compromise. The 2009 Challenger SRT8 is just such a find.
How the times have changed. In the last thirty years free trade and U.S. Government regulations along with a few other factors have put the U.S. auto industry, once one of the largest employers of Americans, on the ropes. Chrysler
Automotive history as it has been written, 1975 will never be known as a banner year for muscle cars. The GTO, Chevelle SS, Challenger, and Cuda were among some of the most famous muscle car names to bite the dust by
The GTO was the cornerstone of Pontiac performance. It was a car that created the muscle car segment and hit a bullseye with the wants of the emerging youth performance car market back in the 1960s. With GM’s recent
When I was a youngster Pontiac was GM’s performance division. It was hip and youthful. Owning a Pontiac meant you weren’t some regular Joe – you were a performance-oriented driver. Even the big Pontiac sedans and station wagons had a