Wednesday - May 15, 2013

Shrinking Expectations

I saw a 1977 Thunderbird on the highway over the weekend. OMG, what a whale. Then the old brain cells kicked in, and dragged up the memory that the late 70s ‘birds were in fact downsized, and were built on the old Ford Torino platform. The Torino in it’s day was a mid-sized car. So by the late 70s, was the T-bird still “mid-sized” at 217” long, 3500lb, 114” wheelbase? Or had it’s shrunken size been eclipsed by shrinking size categories such that it was now a full-size car? I really don’t know. But the big square ‘77 looked like an aircraft carrier going down the road compared all the little rounded off blobby cars around it.

I saw a two door 1977 Chevy Nova the day after that. Now I know that the Nova was sold as a compact car, because the Vegas I was driving at that time were sold as sub-compacts. The 111” wheelbase of the ‘77 Nova was just 3” shorter than that of the T-bird, but at 196” long and only 72” wide the Nova was 20” shorter, 6” narrower and more lightly built.

These days the dimensions of that late 70s compact car almost perfectly fit what Chevy would like us to believe is a full sized car, the 2013 Impala. The 2014 Impala is 201” long with a 111.7” wheelbase, half an inch wider than the old Nova, yet tips the scales at 3800lb, 300lb heavier than the bloated brick that was the 77 bird. With engines just about half the size to boot, yet it goes much faster and gets at least double the mpg.

So we’re only really talking about a foot and a half between the ‘77 T-bird and the 2014 Impala. So why does the old Ford seem so gigantic? Is it width alone? The new Impala looks small and feels smaller. I don’t get it.

I’m just musing here. I guess I don’t really have a point. But I notice that most full sized American pickup trucks are 78-80” wide, and that gives plenty of shoulder room. I wouldn’t mind one bit if today’s smaller cars were half a foot wider. Kind of like the AMC Pacer tried to do, only done right this time around. Where are those “wide track” people when you need them? Oh wait, never mind. Pontiac is gone too, right? Not that the “wide track” 97 Grand Prix was even 73” across. No, that was a big con.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/15/2013 at 02:38 PM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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