Transport TL: The Chevrolet Corvair succeeds

[TheMann]

Taking with my favorite what ifs, what if the much-maligned Chevrolet Corvair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair) turned out to be a major success?

For those who don't know, the Chevy Corvair was a very unconventional car design from GM, produced from 1960 to 1969, which had a air-cooled flat-6 engine mounted in the rear, very similar to the 1964-1998 Porsche 911. The car gained a bad reputation for evil handling, largely due to GM's decision not to use quality tires and a rear anti-roll bar. Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed, was a death knell to the car.

Now, let's assume that the car did get its better tires, better fabrication and rear anti-roll bar. The car was said to be the last time an American small car truly commanded respect, instead of the three-ton chromed land arks that Detroit made right into the 1980s.

Here's my TL along those lines.......

[TheMann]

1960

The dismal sales year of 1958, in which the import carmakers, led by Volkswagen, managed to gain nearly 10 percent of the American car market for the first time. Volkswagen managed to move 78,000 Beetles that year, an astounding number considering what Detroit thought of the German-built little car.

But the Beetle had attributes that few American cars did - good handling, very good fuel mileage and virtual indestructibility. Stories abounded about rolled VWs being flipped back onto their wheels and driven away. (OOC: That's happened in real life too. It happened to my dad's '65 Beetle.) The falling sales of 1958 and the imports demanded a response.

Ford and Chrysler came up with conventional small cars, the Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant. Smaller cars with conventional front-engine, rear wheel drive powertrains, the only real point of those was the powerful straight-six powerplant of the Valiant. The Falcon was perceived by Ford chairman Robert S. McNamara as being a personal expression of utility, and was a austere little sedan with decent appeal to those seeking economy.

General Motors however, would not back down from a fight and came through with an incredible piece.

It was called the Chevrolet Corvair, and it was an engineering marvel for 1959 Detroit. Powered by a rear-mounted aluminum air-cooled flat-six engine, the Corvair made 80 horsepower versus 30 for the Volkswagen, and carried many more amenities. It was also the first car ever built by Detroit to carry the revolutionary Michelin X radial tire, and one of the first to carry anti-roll bars at both ends of the car.

The Corvair handled like no other car Detroit had ever made. It was a fundamental oversteering car like the Beetle. But it was also a hoot to drive even at moderate speeds, with responsive steering and a smooth four-speed manual gearbox, the Corvair easily smoked its competition - and in terms of appeal, dusted the Beetle.

The Corvair first went on sale in December 1959, and it was clear right away that the Corvair was not appealing to domestic buyers, but was mostly stealing sales from Volvo, Volkswagen, and other import makes - exactly the goal GM had in mind for it.

GM had hoped to see the car be an import fighter, which it was. By contrast, the Falcon and Valiant turned out to be little more than sale-stealers from their parent companies.

The 1960 Corvair sold over 360,000 units, and proved to General Motors that the higher-tech small car would be the import fighter.

The stage was set......

[Dan1988]

As a car buff - and a GM fan - I wholeheartedly support this TL. :D

Please, do continue.

[TheMann]

1961-63 - The Corvair and the GM Evolution.

After the success of the 1960 models, GM didn't make too many improvements to the 1961 models - no need to.

GM did however kick out several new models, including the very sporty Monza coupe, and pickup truck and station wagon models. This dramatically added to the Corvair's appeal to families.

A few complaints were made about the car's quirky handling compared to many of its rivals. It was clear early on however that the car's handling quirks added to its appeal, and its solid fabrication, great fuel economy and class-beating handling were more than an offset to the handling. The radial tires helped, providing a different handling style but much greater roadholding.

What was also making its way to GM by this time that customers were impressed with the Corvair's build quality. The thing was well put together. You couldn't roll it and drive away - some magazines tried to do that - but it was however the best-built vehicle GM had built in ages.

1962 saw the arrival of the turbocharged Monza, which made an astounding 160 horsepower - as much as some V8-powered models of the time. At the same time came the first Corvair convertible. Sales went even higher, accelerating past the 500,000 mark - with nearly half being the sporty Monza models.

The Monza Spyder was that year pitted in a famous shootout against the Jaguar E-type, Porsche 356C, Corvette and Lotus Elan by Sports Car Illustrated magazine. It topped its GM big brother, and all but the gorgeous E-type. The authors said that the Monza Spyder only lost because of the E-types styling. The turbocharged engine gave it fantastic acceleration (it easily trumped the 356C and Elan, and narrowly lost to the E-type) and it was by a margin the cheapest of them. "This is a sports car. GM can call it a portion of a model range, which it is, but the fact that this same drivetrain and suspension power other more mundane cars is kinda sad in some ways. This is one of the best cars we have ever driven, no question, and if there is any justice, this will be a car for the young generation."

By this time, it was also obvious that those young drivers were starting to enter the marketplace - and the Monza sold well to these young drivers.

Ford and Chrysler had to answer back, which Ford did with the Falcon Sprint. Chrysler answered with the Plymouth Barracuda for 1963. The Falcon Sprint was said by industry insiders to be just the beginning, as Ford's new boss, master salesman Lee Iacocca, was said to be planning a real Monza rival based on the Falcon platform.

1963 saw the end of the Corvair pickup, as GM planned a brand new model line of more conventional compacts. The plan to make the Monza into the sporty car, with the new car, named the Nova, being the more utilitarian vehicle - and as such the Nova would have pickup, wagon and sedan versions, and a two-door coupe like the Falcon.

GM was also by this time planning a redesign of the Corvair. The air-cooled engine was one of the car's physical faults to many, including its tendency to loose oil and snap fan belts. The swing-axle rear suspension also came in for criticism - it gave better road holding, particularly with the radial tires, than virtually any other American car.

GM soon "leaked" to the press that the new Corvair would gain four-wheel independent suspension and a water-cooled motor. It also would likely lose the van version, and move towards building the Corvair into a real sports car. GM had begun to make changes to their other cars too.

Radial tires gave such better roadholding than the traditional bias-ply rubber that by 1963 Ford and Chrysler had made it an option on all of their vehicles, and traditional suppliers Goodyear and Uniroyal were left scrambling to catch up. This briefly gave an opening to European makers Michelin and Dunlop, but Michelin's hold with its Michelin X tires was sliding by the late 1960s. GM however was again one step ahead, and began making them standard on new vehicles, phasing out the old bias-ply tires, which were cheaper but also tended to be of a lower quality.

1963 saw both the Valiant and Falcon gain small V8s for power, partly as a response to the Monza and its expensive but advanced turbocharging.

1964 saw the game changed yet again......

[Dan1988]

So when's the Ford version of the Monza coming up?

[TheMann]

1964-1968 - Muscle Cars, Pony Cars, That D*mned Book and GM's New Ideas

The Big 3 entered 1964 expecting another record year. Auto sales had rebounded considerably from six years before, and despite noticeable competition, particularly from Germany and Sweden, and a rising Japan, the American automakers thought themselves untouchable. But the raging success of the Corvair had taught all of the Big 3 something - technology sold well, and that customers always liked having a car be built solid.

1964 saw several new cars, including four very significant ones.

The first, and most important, was the Ford Mustang. Debuting on April 17, 1964, the Mustang was a runaway success, far beyond anyone's dreams. Based off the Falcon chassis but with an undeniably handsome body on it and perhaps the best fabrication of any Detroit automobile, the Mustang sold insanely well. Ford had predicted 150,000 sales in the first year for the Mustang. They wound up moving almost 700,000.

GM had thought about the Mustang long and hard, and had launched the new Corvair to combat the Mustang. But GM quickly realized the cheap V8 power of the Mustang and its style was something the new Corvair couldn't compete with.

Not that it had to. The Mustang was admitted, even by its brainchild, Lee Iacocca, to be a parts bin special. The Corvair, however, was a very different proposition indeed.

The 1964 Corvair was all new, including engine and drivetrain. It went with a water-cooled engine, an all-new 2.0-liter flat-six, with twin overhead cams. The ultimate brainchild of Ed Cole before he ascended to GM's presidency, the new unit was state of the art in all aspects. An aluminum block and internals mounted a twin overhead cam head with four valves per cylinder. Designed with help from famed racing engine manufacturer Offenhauser, the unit in normally aspirated form put out an amazing 140 horsepower, with the turbocharged version kicking out 195 in the Monza. Special options packs for racing that came in 1965 boost that output to 225 through higher boost pressure.

Hitched to that high-tech motor was GM's first five-speed manual transmission, the Muncie M-25. That same transmission, which would become standard on the Corvette for 1965, would spread through the rest of GM's range by 1970, and would see service into the 1990s, gaining a reputation as bulletproof and able to handle anything. The other transmission was the ubiquitous Powerglide automatic, but very few buyers opted for it.

The 1964 Corvair came as the Stylish Monza coupe, Sportman sedan and Lakewood station wagon. All sat at least four. Styled by Bill Mitchell, the famed author of the 1963 Corvette, the 1964 Corvair was called the best looking small car ever made by anyone.

But the Mustang and one other overshadowed the Corvair - the Pontiac GTO.

Like the Mustang, the GTO was a parts special. The brainchild of engineers Shane Wiser and Russell Gee along with chief engineer John DeLorean, it was approved with some trepidation by Pontiac manager Pete Estes, who would eventually also take his place as GM President. The GTO was an option package on the bog-standard Pontiac Le Mans, getting around a GM rule on engine displacement.

The GTO sold out its first run in no time. The GTO gave birth to a new term in automobiles - the muscle car.

The runaway success of the Mustang forced a response from GM, and the engineers began feverishly working on it. In 1966, it was explained that this car would be named the Panther, but a late-date change changed the name to Camaro.

1965 saw a new nemesis emerge - consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed, was a merciless attack on the entire American car industry's shoddy safety policies, opposition to pollution control and quality control. He did however notably not take more shots at GM, saying it was by far the best of the three automakers.

Nader caused a massive furor. GM decided to try and destroy Nader's reputation, which backfired very publicly in their faces. The effect of GM's campaign in the public ultimately made Nader's points, which are in many cases overblown, to have credibility. Nader successfully sued GM for harassment, intimidation and damage to property.

GM President James Roche was brought before Congress in April 1966 to explain himself and his company's actions. That fact made for a lot of bad press for GM, which ultimately caused a decade of safety law changes.

All three American makers however did not sit around. Wanting to make an idiot out of Nader drove many executives at the Big 3. Lynn Townsend was the most candid about Nader: "We're gonna prove that b*stard and that d*mned book he wrote completely wrong."

Collapsible steering columns first appeared on the 1966 Corvair, and had spread to all GM models by 1970. Seatbelts became standard on all US cars by 1969, and other safety additions came on later on.

Technology-wise, with GM's profit in the stratosphere and engineering taking greater precedent at the long-dormant automaker, GM moved fast. Their legendary bureaucratic, go along to get along inertia had been shaken - badly - by Unsafe at Any Speed, as if they didn't need more help waking up. Safety issues took much of the time for 1966-67, but that didn't stop the muscle car boom.

The Pontiac GTO had touched off the first of many muscle cars. By 1970, they took 12% of the American car market, and their powerful engines, handsome styling and aggression proved to be popular amongst all ages. It was a golden time for American performance.

And yet, so much was to come......

[TheMann]

So when's the Ford version of the Monza coming up?

That's the Mustang. :D

[TheMann]

1968-1973 - An Engineer on the Bridge, a Salesman in the Chair, the battle for the UAW

1968 dawned with the muscle car boom in full bloom, and the Pony cars taking much of the rest. The youth market dominated the ideas of most of the automakers.

For GM, December 1967 was a huge moment - James Roche retired, and famed engineer Ed Cole, the man behind the Corvair, rose to the presidency. Cole, a big man with a devout love of advanced engineering, promised that now GM would now focus on the best cars around. The accountants complained, but the engineers and stylists didn't.

Delayed by design issues and Nader-fighting, the Camaro debuted in late 1967 as a 1968 model. Perhaps Mitchell's greatest masterpiece, the Camaro was a handsome car by anybody's description and aimed for the Mustang's jugular. With a choice of engines, the tough Muncie M-25 and four-wheel independent suspension, it personified modern GM engineering. The Camaro was only the third GM car to have four-wheel disc brakes (the first two being the 1966 Corvette and 1967 Corvair Monza), and it was one of many which were now gaining independent suspension. The Camaro was as fast as its Dearborn rival, handled much better and had far better brakes. It didn't match the Mustang's sales, but with 254,200 '68 Camaros moved, it was hardly a failure.

1968 saw the end of the Corvair wagon due to relatively poor sales. The sedan, coupe and roadster however stayed on, thank you very much, and would prove to be effective sales tools. The Corvair's place in the lineup began to solidify as a sports car among Chevrolet, like the Corvette. A conventional small car, the Nova, began development in 1967, and would debut in 1970.

By 1969, Cole's inspired technology boom was in full blast. The Muncie M-25 and its even more rugged descendant, the M-27, spread across the lineup. 1969 however was marked by labor trouble.

The turbulent 1960s came to roost in 1969 for GM's workforce. The UAW, which ad dramatically changed in the 1960s as many older workers left and were replaced by new baby boomers, because a much more troublesome group. Racial problems weren't common in GM plants, but a racial battle killed three and caused major damage at Chrysler's Hamtramck plant on January 11, 1968. The UAW, whose veteran leader Walter Reuther was well known for anti-management views, was not sympathetic to GM's wishes to have the workforce take an active part in the bettering of GM cars.

On August 26, 1969, Reuther and his brother were among those killed when their chartered Lear Jet overshot the runway at Flint Airport in Michigan. Leaderless, Chrysler's leadership tried to force a big wage and benefit drop on the UAW members, and wouldn't back from that position.

On September 11, 1969, the Chrysler UAW members began striking, a strike that soon swelled to encompass all of the big 3 and American Motors. Ford and Chrysler fought the union at every turn, but GM again lead the way.

Faced with a disgusting economic situation and a large group of disgruntled shareholders with regards to his management decisions, Cole risked his career by making offers for four-day weeks and profit sharing to the UAW, in return for ending the strike and the cost of living allowance.

GM's board went predictably insane and howled for Cole's removal. But most of the top managers, realizing that this would ease labor costs and provide a more reliable and better workforce, most of the high staff at GM decided to back Ed Cole. The showdown ultimately was won out by Cole, and John DeLorean, who spoke out against Cole's decisions, was sacked by Cole.

The UAW's leadership was skeptical of Cole's motives, but liked the deal enough that it was easily ratified. On September 28, 1969, the UAW members returned to work. The first profit shares went out to employees in late 1970, and so began the longest reign of peace between the UAW and GM ever.

Ford and Chrysler, incensed at GM's decisions and similar UAW demands. Iacocca and Henry II flatly refused such an idea at Ford, and Chrysler's managers wouldn't even consider it either. Their indecision cost them dearly in the long run. Production was restored at Ford and Chrysler in April 1970, but the UAW members there eyed the GM worker benefits, even though the Ford/Chrysler UAW members were often better paid. The battle caused a total lack of loyalty at Ford and Chrysler, which would cost them dearly in the years to come.

Cole's successful boardroom battle made him one of America's best known and most respected corporate executives. GM followed through on its promise to make workers' lives better by showcasing its new Lordstown, Ohio, auto plant, which opened in March 1970.

Lordstown was a showcase of GM's new commitments. The plant would produce the Corvair, Chevrolet Nova and Pontiac Tempest. A state of the art plant with many robots for repetitive jobs, it proved to be one of the best plants for both GM and the UAW. Lordstown would go on to become one of the best plants for GM, and a template of its facilities in the years to come.

The product focus in 1970 was still on the Muscle cars, but growing insurance rules, safety concerns and creeping emissions rules were eating away at them. All the American automakers began research on more efficient technologies.

At the same time, Cole demanded - and got - a return to racing for GM. Working with the famed Chaparral Organization, GM returned formally to international racing in 1969, and the Chaparral 2L, with its turbocharged 305 cubic inch V8, proved to be a decent, if underpowered Le Mans racer. But the Chevrolet racing effort was far more successful at home, as the Chaparral effort in the Can Am series and its first factory Trans-Am efforts in 1970 immediately bore fruit.

The Corvair had always been a competitive Trans-Am racer, though the lighter Porsche 911 and Datsun 510 were squeezing it. The Camaro was ideal for battling the Mustang, Dodge Challenger, Pontiac Firebird and AMC Javelin in the Trans-Am series' big class. GM would win both classes of the rising in fame Trans-Am in 1971, with Mark Donohue's Camaro winning the 5-litre class and Tony Adamowicz dominating the under 2-liter class in a Corvair Monza.

Ford, now with Henry Ford II pretty much letting Iacocca run things, was havign to adapt to the GM way of doing things. Ford's decision to fight the UAW wasn't helping, and neither was Ford's decision to have Eugene Bordinet run things. Bordinet was a key pusher of large, blocky designs and a salesman of the school of chrome. Iacocca knew better, but forced to work with Bordinet, the increasingly aggressive Henry II and an angry, jealous UAW, Iacocca had his hands full. However, he demanded a new small car for Ford by 1970. He had tried to get Ford to take on the Corvair several times, but had always failed largely due to Henry II and Bordinet.

More to come......

[Riain]

Can you please save the unlimited Can Am sports/racing series as part of this TL, rather than have Porsche kill it? Otherwise a nice car TL, do I detect a hint of goodness in store when the oil crisis hits?

[The Dean]

Good TL! How are the exports to Europe and the UK going to develop?

[Bobindelaware]

Oh, God! This is absolutely delicious! I lived the Corvair in its second iteration - 1964 to the (bitter) end, but YOUR versions: Sign me up! I want one yesterday!!

Bobindelaware

[TheMann]

Answers to the questions:

Riain - Can-Am and Trans Am will live on after the oil crisis. Can-Am ultimately will make it into the 80s. GM's factory involvement won't last that long. Porsche after the 917 was canned from international will rebuild a bunch of them for privateers in Can Am and the Interseries.

The Dean - not much has changed about Europe right now. Will in the future, though. By 2008, lots of European cars will still inhabit America, and you'll be seeing lots of GM cars, too. No more crappy Astras, trust me. :D

Bobindelaware - the Corvair, as you can probably tell, is evolving into a lightweight sportscar and sport sedan. That won't change, either.

[TheMann]

1968-1973 - Part 2

Iacocca was found with having to work within the constraints of Hank the Deuce and Bordinet. This made his job harder.

But Iacocca's capital made by the Mustang gave him some clout. In 1970, he began trying to use that clout.

Ford designer Donald Petersen (who would later become president of Ford), had designed new, more aerodynamic designs for Ford cars for the 1970s. They, however, clashed with Bordinet's designs, which tended to be massive, chrome-laden things. Eventually Bordinet and Iacocca came to a compromise - they'd build both sets of cars, and see which came out ahead.

The 1971 Ford Galaxie was a harbringer of things to come from Ford. A handsome but still huge sedan, it was aimed at the full-size Chevrolets. It had a sloping, smoother nose. (OOC: not Taurus like, more like the Cadillacs of the mid-70s.) It was powered however by the typical small-block Ford, but that new small-block Ford had new cylinder heads - four-valve units originally designed by Ford Racing that gave much better efficiency - and mileage. Bordinet's counter was a conventional megacar, the standard LTD, was a bigger machine, laden with chrome and all the trimmings.

Ford also came out its small car battle machine, the famous Falcon being redone once more. This time with a new chassis with independent suspension, and many of the lessons learned by Ford during the muscle car era. The Falcon would go on to be a big seller world-wide, and be one of the most famous nameplates in Ford's history.

Iacocca also got his way, and came out for 1973 with a Corvair Fighter - the Maverick. The Maverick was also part of what Edsel Ford II had fought for with his dad - a smaller, very sporty car. He had gone so far as to buy an old GT40 and rebody it, to show off what could be. Edsel II had helped to restor one of the GT40s that brought Ford fame in the mid-1960s at Le Mans. Both Ford and Bordinet hated it, Ford commenting "What the hell kinda car is that?"

But Edsel II and Iacocca got their way, and the Maverick headed to the market in 1973. A two-seat coupe and roadster with a mid-engine 283 cubic inch V8 with those overhead cam engines, it was immediately compared with the Corvette, which it really was aimed at. Iacocca immediately said that it was aimed towards the Corvair, but the V8 power made sure that nobody bought that idea. The very first Maverick was bought by Edsel II - who would drive it every day for 12 years, even having it brought to Australia with him when he worked there in the late '70s.

For GM, their engineer corps - which were growing every year - had finished all of the safety stuff, and angrily took aim at the emissions rules that were rolling out of Washington.

They interestingly got help from an unlikely place - Soichiro Honda.

Honda, who had heard about the brouhaha about the emissions rules, took matters into his own hands. He very politely borrowed a Nova in 1971, and sent it back to them two months later - with his own cylinder head on the car's straight-six engine. With that head fitted, the car did meet the emissions standards Washington set out.

GM couldn't believe this, particularly Cole. But the engineers were driven into action by Honda. It was the first time that Honda would kick GM into action, but it would not be the last.

GM took the lessons from the Honda head and made their own four-valve heads for the small-block. To their surprise, the fourth head design did make the cars meet emissions standards.

The advent of SAE horsepower measurement and the upcoming 1973 removal of lead from gasoline not only doomed the first generation of muscle cars, it also sent horsepower numbers tumbling.

GM drew up plans for several new cars, including new Corvair, Camaro, Impala, Nova, Chevelle and Caprice lines for 1974. GM also draw up plans to bring back fuel injection for many of its models, in the quest for greater horsepower and better fuel efficiency, which was proving to be an issue on some models of the cars.

At Chrysler, they decided not to go with small cars after all, figuring that the high-tech fad would be better. They planned several lines of the big cars to be all new for 1974. It was an act that they'd regret very dearly.

American Motors was now gaining respect for their leading stance on small cars, as the Falcon, Corvair and Nova had clearly been responses to the Nash Rambler. Their new for the 70s small cars, the Hornet and Gremlin, were pretty conventional. But AMC had bit the bullet for new motors.

AMC in 1968, as the company was gearing up for these new cars, bought the Offenhauser company, just to get the 3.2-liter inline-four cylinder Indycar engine. AMC had figured that the Offy could be a perfect base of a new motor for the Gremlin and Hornet.

They guessed right. Introduced in April 1970, the Gremlin, despite its odd styling, immediately grabbed a major share of the small car market. The Gremlin didn't quite get the mileage of the Corvair or base model Falcons, but it was quicker than the Falcon, too.

By this time, Volkswagen was having to replace the old and tough, but clearly out of its league, Beetle. By 1971, prototypes of Volkswagen's new cars, the Golf and Scirocco, were out testing. Both were conventional hatchbacks of the European mold, with two-liter four-cylinder engines with front wheel drive, whereas the American compacts all still drove the rear wheels.

1973 also say Honda kick the American makers a second time, with the release of the now-immortal Honda Civic. The Oriental Jewel, as many auto journalists called it, beat VW to the punch by miles. The Civic was a tiny car by most standards, but its 40 miles to the gallon rating, and its $2,200 price sent the Americans spinning. All had figured that their small cars would easily be the standards now that the old Beetle was heading for retirements. But Honda had changed the game again.

As the Big 3 began to counter the Civic, the biggest shock to the world's car industries came......

[Dan1988]

That's the Mustang. :D

I thought that was competition with the GTO. But I'll take your word for that. :D:o

[Bobindelaware]

Answers to the questions:

Bobindelaware - the Corvair, as you can probably tell, is evolving into a lightweight sportscar and sport sedan. That won't change, either.

I Wish it did in OTL . . . .

Bobindelaware

[TheMann]

1974-1977 - The Energy Crisis

The Arab-Israeli War of 1973 kicked off yet another crisis. The Arab nations, having repeated problems in the past with the "Seven Sisters" oil companies and now angry over America's support of Israel, on October 17, 1973, embargoed oil shipments to the United States, it's allies and other non-aligned countries such as South Africa, Australia and Latin America. The embargo lasted for almost three months and sent the prices for crude worldwide skyrocketing.

The embargo was over by January the following year, but it changed everyone's perceptions of oil production forever. The sharp rise in the prices of gasoline and outright shortages of late 1973 caused chaos at the automakers.

True to expectations, sales of small cars went insane. Volkswagen's new Golf, the Civic, and American small cars including the Corvair, Nova, Falcon and Gremlin went absolutely insane, but the big car sales went completely downhill.

This hard everyone hard, Chrysler the worst. The American love of big cars was soon to resurrect itself, but Chrysler's products were inadequate compared to GM, Ford and AMC. Chrysler was soon hemmoraging money, and financial problems loomed in the company's future.

GM and Ford hadn't expected the crisis either, and for all those three months small cars moved as fast as they could possibly make them. GM's new Lordstown plant went to three shifts in a matter of weeks, but all the small and even medium-sized cars were soon on months' worth of back order.

1974-1976 was a chaotic time, and everyone felt it. But what it also did was show the importance of more efficient cars, and again the Americans were forced into action.

GM debuted the new 1974 Corvairs and Novas just as the fuel crisis hit, and they looked like visionaries for it. Cole's swansong as GM's president was the new small cars, and the engineers at the company did their jobs well. Ford's Falcon also did well. But both GM and Ford knew that the current designs of the cars now may well end up being outdated. Honda's little Jewel was the best thing for the job, most figured.

Honda however, had finished yet. In 1976, they brought out their next surprise - the Accord. Following the same principle as the Civic, the Accord was a handsome three-door hatchback with a highly efficient engine. It was fun to drive like most others weren't. GM immediately countered with a worked-over Nova to match it. But it was clear that GM's small car duo was not up to the task any longer. By late 1977, the replacements for both the Corvair and Nova were underway.

Ford had realized the same problem with the Nova, and so had AMC. The downsizing trend had begun.

GM also had plans of an even bigger sort. The automakers had for years made and sold cars for each individual market, and allowed customers to choose what options they wanted individually. Choosing such options however drove the prices up quickly, and engineering different cars for each market was a big waste of resources. GM, the first to realize this, began planning to sell its new generation of cars around the world - and bring its best European and Asian vehicles to North America.

The New Camaro debuted for 1974, again just before the oil crisis hit. The oil crisis however doomed many sports car makers, leaving cars like the Camaro, Corvette, Maverick, Mustang and AMC Javelin among the fewer players. Ford inexplicably decided to re-do the Mustang into the Mustang II for 1976, which turned out to be a commercial and performance flop.

More to come......

[shinblam]

Good stuff, but what of GM's own Wankel rotary engine. They had plans to a Pininfarina styled mid-engined Corvette around the powerplant and AMC planned to put a variant of it in the Pacer.

That ol' rig would've been a fine piece of transportation if not for it's overwieght six.

[mmmeee0]

Seems great, I would like to see it continue. Economic battles are not usually things I read, but it's great...like watching the arms race or something.

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Good stuff, but what of GM's own Wankel rotary engine. They had plans to a Pininfarina styled mid-engined Corvette around the powerplant and AMC planned to put a variant of it in the Pacer.

That ol' rig would've been a fine piece of transportation if not for it's overwieght six.

GM's own!?!?!? That's an ....interesting... take on the history of the Wankel.

[shinblam]

GM's own!?!?!? That's an ....interesting... take on the history of the Wankel.

Guess I should be clearer, GM's own version of Wankel's engine.

They paid $50 million for the licenses to produce their own in '70.

[The Gunslinger]

Dude, what happened to the Challengers and Chargers? Those were fairly big successes back in the 70's. But Chrysler will still go downhill after the oil embargo, yes.

Holy shit though, an automotive TL, you are a God amongst men (even though I much cared for the Corvair).

[TheMann]

Good stuff, but what of GM's own Wankel rotary engine. They had plans to a Pininfarina styled mid-engined Corvette around the powerplant and AMC planned to put a variant of it in the Pacer.

That ol' rig would've been a fine piece of transportation if not for it's overwieght six.

The GM wankel was a fuel pig on a massive scale. Here, fuel injection and more advanced technology means the Wankel stays at Mazda.

The ME Corvette concept of the 70s never happens either. The Corvette stays front-engined, but a variant of it goes mid-engined in the late 80s.

The Pacer never happens, either. AMC survives, though.

The Challenger and Charger go pretty much as OTL. Chrysler, through its management by bankers, falls way behind the 8 ball.

[TheMann]

1974-1977

The chaos of the embargo times and the immediate aftermath were stunning. The beleagured Nixon Administration, already smarting from Watergate, got hammered harder. America fell into a recession for the first time since WWII, and by the mid-70s it was being felt everywhere.

Car sales fell off again, and this time however new models from Honda, Toyota, Datsun and Volkswagen continued to eat away at the sales of the American makers. The decision to re-do the Camaro, Nova and Corvair in 1974 had served GM well, but they had other problems. Quality was comparable to the imports, but Detroit still had a few areas to fix.

All of the American automakers went on a crash course to drop the size and weight of their big car offerings, figuring - correctly as history would show - that new cars needed to be smaller, more space and fuel efficient than their predecessors.

GM, drawing onts past knowledge, began researching fuel injection for new models, and they also began working on the usage of aluminum and fiberglass in mass production car bodies, which had been done on a small scale in the 1960s. GM's first front wheel drive small cars, the X-bodies, went to production in 1977. Impressive cars from the start, the X-bodies would soon overshadow the old-school Nova, which would be retired in 1980. The Corvair, still a sporty coupe, still sold strong, largely to younger couples who wanted a car with style in the days of efficiency.

But even as the X-bodies went out to market, GM prepared to roll out the big guns. They in 1976 began planning a car to be launched in 1982, which they figured would put the imports on the back foot.....

GM also went to work on re-doing its massive plant infrastructure. Long put off, the reworks of dozens of GM plants would consume billions of dollars, but would ultimately put GM in good stead for the future.

Ford also went to work on its smaller cars. The steady Falcon, which had served since 1960, was redesigned in 1976, going to front wheel drive and taking much of its platform from its European siblings. The European Ford Escort took much of its chassis to the new Falcon. Ford also planned with a second shot, planning a worldwide car for 1978, the supermini to be called the Fiesta.

Brought back to life by the small car revolution, AMC also moved fast. The Gremlin and Hornet soon found the decent Offenhauser engine inadequate, particularly because of its 3.0-liter displacement and its costs. The engine's technology however began to hsow up in other models, as AMC began to focus efforts on new cylinder heads and other designs.

The safety hysteria brought on by Ralph Nader in 1966 had abated, but it also had raised that eyebrow for all of Washington to see. Insurance rises, new and over the top safety legislation, the removal of lead from gasoline and other aspects dropped the performance of vehicles across the board.

[shinblam]

The Pacer never happens, either. AMC survives, though.

I do like your style good sir.:cool:

AMC did have several opprotunities save itself in the '70's and not developing the Pacer is one of the biggest imo. All that saved cash can go towards improving existing models beyond just the occasional facelift; as you are having done.

The Challenger and Charger go pretty much as OTL. Chrysler, through its management by bankers, falls way behind the 8 ball.

Hmm. It seems even in TTL Chrysler's not gonna be able to avoid Lee "Buy and Sell" Iacocca.