It's really a shame that GM and the others downsized their engines as they downsized the cars back then.
It's not like they had much choice. 1974 smacked the domestics square in the jimmy, and all they had on hand for the medium and large cars were the suddenly-antiquated big-bore I6s and V8s. GM took an initial whack at a smaller V8 with the Chevy 262 (which must have been a real hunk of crud since it only lasted a year), then debored the SBC 350 to produce the 305 and debored it again to produce the 267, plus kicked out chop-block V6s based on those two. Buick had the 231 V6 (and couldn't get the old 215 V8 back from Rover); Oldsmobile and Pontiac both kicked out debored versions of their existing V8s. One thing all the small V8s had in common was their comparatively lightweight block construction.
Or better yet, just imagine if they'd held onto the big-blocks a bit longer
A big block in a 3200-pound Malibu would have made it a 3600-pound Malibu with an overloaded front suspension and a severe understeer problem.
A big block in a 3200-pound Malibu would have made it a 3600-pound Malibu with an overloaded front suspension and a severe understeer problem.
Do you think it would've porked up a Malibu that much, though? According to my old car book, the base weight of my old 1980 Malibu coupe was 2996 lb with the V-6, 3117 with the smallblock V-8. A 454 would only weigh about about 150 pounds more than the smallblock. And an Olds or Buick big-block wouldn't have been as heavy as the Chevy block. The Pontiac 455, technically not a big-block, would be lighter still.
But then, you would have to beef up the transmission (dunno how much more a THM400 weighs compared to a THM350 or 200) and the rear end as well. Most likely heavier brakes. GM's 1978 A-bodies were actually just the full-sized B-bodies with 8 inches of wheelbase removed, bodies that didn't overhang the frame rails as much, and some suspension components changed to tighten up the track a bit, so I'm not sure how much the chassis would have to be beefed up.
But yeah, now I'm starting to see it...it would add weight. I guess the 3600 pound figure just seemed kinda high, because that's about what a stripper version of the old '73-77 A-body started off at! Hard to believe that the big-block would put the downsized car back up to that weight! But I guess it is possible. After all, I notice that the Monte Carlo SS from that generation is around 3400 pounds, while the regular V-8 model is around 3250 or so. So an extra 200 pounds isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination.
I've driven them...they go pretty good but they are on VW chassis and the feel and handle nothing like the originals. Still a harmless enough toy and fun......
Went for a walk to the local shops up the High Street today, just a normal Saturday in East London, so I didn't bother to take my camera....
Saw a Borgward Isabella coupe (circa 1959)
Then a Japanese domestic market Nissan Sunny ( a version we didn't get here when new, so a grey import)
Finally a Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer 4x4, in private hands and by the markings it wasn't one of the 400 or so that the British Army bought so I guess it was a demobbed one from one of the other NATO armies - the registration would indicate the British authorities consider it was made in the late 70's
A 911 engine conversion would be tough...you'd have to figure out where to put the oil tank (it's a dry sump engine) and of course you'd have to run a Porsche transaxle, maybe out of a 914.
Actually a built up VW big-bore engine can put out as much horsepower as an early 911 engine--but it would never last as long, not even close. VW engines are pretty cheaply built.
Still I think I'd go with a VW engine...you could put 4 new ones in there for the price of one 911 rebuild (and that's about what you'll have to do, too!)
I'm surprised at that too...but I have also seen Porsche wheels on a Vanagon, so who knows. MB has used stand bolt patterns for decades, so that might help too.
In the last couple of days I've seen 3 which you guys would view as normal but which are rare here -
One of those Cadillac Escalade Pickups (EXT ?)
Lincoln Navigator
Hummer H2 - they do actually sell these here, now (unlike the above), but generally I only see stretched ones, used as party limos in London - but this one was dawdling along the outside lane of the North Circular - busiest road in London - at about 40 mph, with a queue forming behind it as we aren't supposed to overtake on the inside (left) although he was on the outside of two lanes of empty space - when he finally pulled over quite a few of my fellow drivers seemed to be keen to show ther appreciation with a few hand signals....
Would a 1960 fintail have the same size tire and wheel as a 1960 180? I just went to www.cokertire.com and tried to look up the fintail's tires, but when I click on the link for 220, it defaults to 180. Anyway, it's coming up with a standard bias-ply tire size of a 640-13, with a 670-13 and 700-13 also being available. Finally, they list a 175R13, which I'm guessing is a radial tire, but it doesn't list the aspect ratio.
And annoyingly, when you click on each size, instead of going to the tire, it just goes to a page that says "we may have exactly what you're looking for. Call us." :sick:
What size tires to you have on there now, Fintail? I bought the DeSoto's 855-14's from Coker years ago, and I remember they were about $100 apiece back then. I priced 'em today though, and they're $144. Ouch! Oh well, I guess 13+ years of inflation can do that to you.
Yeah...they do make WW radials that fit fintails even...when I said I wish I had tires like that, I meant for free! I just don't want to pay for them. The tires on the fintail now are like 7 or 8 years old, but are still pristine. I can't justify just replacing them for no reason.
It has 13" store brand radials on it now. I think Shifty is right on that size, I have seen those numbers before somewhere.
I don't want bias ply tires either, when I drive that old thing I am often not exactly gentle. I think the car likes it, SE fintails want to be rally cars.
-Flat windshield VW Bug, most likely a '63-'65, looking just like the red '65 owned. It was in good driver shape, spotted a modified one later painted a garish metalflake looking beat up.
-'68 or '69 Chevelle H/T coupe, body and chrome were fair but the paint was shot.
-Late 60s Buick Skylark.
-Late 60s Dodge Dart 2-door w aftermarket, period-correct Cragar-style "mags".
All of the above were seen moving under their own power except the beat up metalflake V-dub.
I wonder what kind of nutjob would import a Chevy Chevette...I mean, the Vauxhall Chevette was the same thing, right? Maybe a car from a serviceman or a very cheap embassy etc.
I just saw Diamonds are Forever the other night, and the car that I remember from the movie besides the Mustang was the Ford Thunderbird that Mr. Kidd and Mr Wint drove. Anyone out there have one?
It was an earlier version of Toyota Sienna then the one in your photo - the front looked like a Picnic, but much bigger. The plates were US embassy, though. (You can tell which embassy a car is from in UK by the first 3 digits).
Re the Chevrolet Chevette, it is different from the Vauxhall version which was indeed basically an Opel Kadett with different trim, and the plate indicated that this dream machine was first registered here in 1980/1, but if it originally had diplomatic plates etc that would be its re-registration date, so it could be earlier. My guess is that it is ex-US embassy staff, as there are at least 400 diplomatic plates issued to US embassy, currently, even on small cars like Ford Focus, etc - but there are also quite a few cars in UK which originate with US forces based here - esp. the USAF in East Anglia. I've seen cars like Saturn, Acura, Infiniti,etc out in Suffolk, none of which were ever sold here (or even, in most cases, in Europe). This one lives in London now though - it had a parking permit issued by Westminster council.
I saw one of those Brewster cars at Hershey this past fall.
I spotted a really nice 1968 Oldsmobile 442 convertible today. This one was olive green metallic with a black top. Funny how that olive green was so popular around that time. I remember seeing a lot of cars in that color when I was a kid.
British Racing Green has always been popular (and still is) but bright greens seem to be out these days. And of course many of us remember Avocado refrigerators from our childhood?
funny, I spotted 442 convertible the other day, too! I'm not that well-versed on the nuances of the '68-72 style, but I think it was a '72. It was a bright non-metallic green. I only saw it from the back, as it was in a bay at the muffler shop where I took my pickup.
I drove past that muffler shop again today, running errands, and they had a good looking dark blue '67 Chevelle hardtop coupe. Couldn't tell if it was an SS or not, though. Probably was, as it seems like they all are these days. Either that or a clone.
Lemko, I think the reason they discontinued that olive metallic green is that it was too tasteful for the 70's! Personally, I've always been a sucker for a green car...if it's the right shade of green. When I was a little kid, my grandparents had a '72 Impala 4-door hardtop that was a dark forest green metallic with a white vinyl top. It was a sharp looking car.
The only green car I ever had was an '82 Cutlass Supreme coupe. It was that light silvery greenish blue that they called "Jadestone". I think it was offered across the board for GM back then, but it seemed most prevalent on Oldsmobiles and Buicks. The rally wheels were the same color, and even the interior was coordinated to match! Except the dash, which was a darker shade of green. They probably did it that way so they could use the dash with several other colors.
Green colors often don't seem to stay around long, though. When the Chrysler 300 came out as a 2005 model, they offered it in "Magnesium" (a dark greenish gray that I loved), and a lighter color I think they called "Sage", which was kind of a greenish gray. However, for 2007 neither of those colors apperar to be offered anymore. Shame too, because if I bought a Charger or 300, I would've gone for the Magnesium.
Yep, I still have the old beast. Sometimes I wonder why...but I am too attached, and wouldn't be able to get much anyway. It doesn't cost much to keep her around, garage rent and $99/year Hagerty insurance is pretty much it save for gas and a yearly oil change.
The C43 is gone though...and although I felt bad about it for awhile, I have to admit that bigger, plusher E55 is a much nicer car, more comfortable and actually better peforming too. I saw the ad in a local car rag...I decided to check it out as the car is a very unusual color and was just a few blocks from me. I expected the car to not be appealing...but it sure was.
that's the company I have my old cars insured with, as well. I forget what the breakdown is, but I think it comes out to about $175 per year for my LeMans, DeSoto, and Catalina. I thought about transferring my '79 NYer to Hagerty as well, and getting it off my regular policy, but I drive it too much. Plus, I think Hagerty has a mininum value requirement of something like $3500, and that would be kinda pushing it for a '79 Mopar! :P
Comments
It's not like they had much choice. 1974 smacked the domestics square in the jimmy, and all they had on hand for the medium and large cars were the suddenly-antiquated big-bore I6s and V8s. GM took an initial whack at a smaller V8 with the Chevy 262 (which must have been a real hunk of crud since it only lasted a year), then debored the SBC 350 to produce the 305 and debored it again to produce the 267, plus kicked out chop-block V6s based on those two. Buick had the 231 V6 (and couldn't get the old 215 V8 back from Rover); Oldsmobile and Pontiac both kicked out debored versions of their existing V8s. One thing all the small V8s had in common was their comparatively lightweight block construction.
Or better yet, just imagine if they'd held onto the big-blocks a bit longer
A big block in a 3200-pound Malibu would have made it a 3600-pound Malibu with an overloaded front suspension and a severe understeer problem.
Do you think it would've porked up a Malibu that much, though? According to my old car book, the base weight of my old 1980 Malibu coupe was 2996 lb with the V-6, 3117 with the smallblock V-8. A 454 would only weigh about about 150 pounds more than the smallblock. And an Olds or Buick big-block wouldn't have been as heavy as the Chevy block. The Pontiac 455, technically not a big-block, would be lighter still.
But then, you would have to beef up the transmission (dunno how much more a THM400 weighs compared to a THM350 or 200) and the rear end as well. Most likely heavier brakes. GM's 1978 A-bodies were actually just the full-sized B-bodies with 8 inches of wheelbase removed, bodies that didn't overhang the frame rails as much, and some suspension components changed to tighten up the track a bit, so I'm not sure how much the chassis would have to be beefed up.
But yeah, now I'm starting to see it...it would add weight. I guess the 3600 pound figure just seemed kinda high, because that's about what a stripper version of the old '73-77 A-body started off at! Hard to believe that the big-block would put the downsized car back up to that weight! But I guess it is possible. After all, I notice that the Monte Carlo SS from that generation is around 3400 pounds, while the regular V-8 model is around 3250 or so. So an extra 200 pounds isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination.
Also a Renault LeCar, and maybe not an oddity but a late model VW Eurovan wearing Mercedes Benz S600 rims.
(It's the wheels that caught my eye).
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
I noticed a couple of them have white wall tires, nice period touch. You know you're getting old if you can remember when sports cars wore whitewalls.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Saw a Borgward Isabella coupe (circa 1959)
Then a Japanese domestic market Nissan Sunny ( a version we didn't get here when new, so a grey import)
Finally a Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer 4x4, in private hands and by the markings it wasn't one of the 400 or so that the British Army bought so I guess it was a demobbed one from one of the other NATO armies - the registration would indicate the British authorities consider it was made in the late 70's
Actually a built up VW big-bore engine can put out as much horsepower as an early 911 engine--but it would never last as long, not even close. VW engines are pretty cheaply built.
Still I think I'd go with a VW engine...you could put 4 new ones in there for the price of one 911 rebuild (and that's about what you'll have to do, too!)
One of those Cadillac Escalade Pickups (EXT ?)
Lincoln Navigator
Hummer H2 - they do actually sell these here, now (unlike the above), but generally I only see stretched ones, used as party limos in London - but this one was dawdling along the outside lane of the North Circular - busiest road in London - at about 40 mph, with a queue forming behind it as we aren't supposed to overtake on the inside (left) although he was on the outside of two lanes of empty space - when he finally pulled over quite a few of my fellow drivers seemed to be keen to show ther appreciation with a few hand signals....
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
And annoyingly, when you click on each size, instead of going to the tire, it just goes to a page that says "we may have exactly what you're looking for. Call us." :sick:
What size tires to you have on there now, Fintail? I bought the DeSoto's 855-14's from Coker years ago, and I remember they were about $100 apiece back then. I priced 'em today though, and they're $144. Ouch! Oh well, I guess 13+ years of inflation can do that to you.
A 180 would have 6.40 X 13.
It has 13" store brand radials on it now. I think Shifty is right on that size, I have seen those numbers before somewhere.
I don't want bias ply tires either, when I drive that old thing I am often not exactly gentle. I think the car likes it, SE fintails want to be rally cars.
-Flat windshield VW Bug, most likely a '63-'65, looking just like the red '65 owned. It was in good driver shape, spotted a modified one later painted a garish metalflake looking beat up.
-'68 or '69 Chevelle H/T coupe, body and chrome were fair but the paint was shot.
-Late 60s Buick Skylark.
-Late 60s Dodge Dart 2-door w aftermarket, period-correct Cragar-style "mags".
All of the above were seen moving under their own power except the beat up metalflake V-dub.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Also from 1956, a Chrysler New Yorker (distinctive grille - I've just looked it up)
Ferrari 612 Scaglietti
Chevrolet Chevette - don't laugh - we never saw that in Europe, so it is an old import
Some MPV called a Toyota Sienna which I've never seen either, and which was LHD on diplomatic plates
They're all over here.
I was thinking the same thing. Wasn't there also an Opel version, called the Kadette or something like that?
And of course, the later Kadett ended up in NA as the Pontiac (Daewoo) LeMans
Here's the 1939 Opel Kadette, looks like a small Buick doesn't it?>
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Re the Chevrolet Chevette, it is different from the Vauxhall version which was indeed basically an Opel Kadett with different trim, and the plate indicated that this dream machine was first registered here in 1980/1, but if it originally had diplomatic plates etc that would be its re-registration date, so it could be earlier. My guess is that it is ex-US embassy staff, as there are at least 400 diplomatic plates issued to US embassy, currently, even on small cars like Ford Focus, etc - but there are also quite a few cars in UK which originate with US forces based here - esp. the USAF in East Anglia. I've seen cars like Saturn, Acura, Infiniti,etc out in Suffolk, none of which were ever sold here (or even, in most cases, in Europe). This one lives in London now though - it had a parking permit issued by Westminster council.
Such low mileage because it is embarrassing to drive?
This is pretty cool, I think Charlie Chaplin had one of these
Larger early cars are still doing well
Deluxe ElCamino
If you don't want to spend a fortune on a real gullwing, spend a fortune on a nice model
It looks like a pretty accurate reproduction too except waht's with the faux wire wheels? Those were only on SLRs AFAIK.
Havin' trouble wrapping my head around it. :confuse:
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I spotted a really nice 1968 Oldsmobile 442 convertible today. This one was olive green metallic with a black top. Funny how that olive green was so popular around that time. I remember seeing a lot of cars in that color when I was a kid.
and every body wants them or no one buys them.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I drove past that muffler shop again today, running errands, and they had a good looking dark blue '67 Chevelle hardtop coupe. Couldn't tell if it was an SS or not, though. Probably was, as it seems like they all are these days. Either that or a clone.
Lemko, I think the reason they discontinued that olive metallic green is that it was too tasteful for the 70's! Personally, I've always been a sucker for a green car...if it's the right shade of green. When I was a little kid, my grandparents had a '72 Impala 4-door hardtop that was a dark forest green metallic with a white vinyl top. It was a sharp looking car.
The only green car I ever had was an '82 Cutlass Supreme coupe. It was that light silvery greenish blue that they called "Jadestone". I think it was offered across the board for GM back then, but it seemed most prevalent on Oldsmobiles and Buicks. The rally wheels were the same color, and even the interior was coordinated to match! Except the dash, which was a darker shade of green. They probably did it that way so they could use the dash with several other colors.
Green colors often don't seem to stay around long, though. When the Chrysler 300 came out as a 2005 model, they offered it in "Magnesium" (a dark greenish gray that I loved), and a lighter color I think they called "Sage", which was kind of a greenish gray. However, for 2007 neither of those colors apperar to be offered anymore. Shame too, because if I bought a Charger or 300, I would've gone for the Magnesium.
That reminds me, I guess I should upload some E55 pics
02, tectite grey, virtually every option, 27K miles.
Funny, you must have bought your E55 right about when I purchased the new GTI. The bug must have hit us at the same time. :P
Yep, I still have the old beast. Sometimes I wonder why...but I am too attached, and wouldn't be able to get much anyway. It doesn't cost much to keep her around, garage rent and $99/year Hagerty insurance is pretty much it save for gas and a yearly oil change.
The C43 is gone though...and although I felt bad about it for awhile, I have to admit that bigger, plusher E55 is a much nicer car, more comfortable and actually better peforming too. I saw the ad in a local car rag...I decided to check it out as the car is a very unusual color and was just a few blocks from me. I expected the car to not be appealing...but it sure was.
That E55 is a seriously nice ride. Again, congrats!