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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Biggest change over a decade

June 15, 2011 7:44 a.m. Jay SuperDork

I was just thinking of this after I read JoeyM's door hinge thread. He posted a pic of something (don't know what it was) that looked way old to me, and used it as an example of a " '30s car." I tend to think of '30s cars as the beginnings of aero designs, lots of art deco & swoopy fenders, but that decade didn't start that way.

1930 Ford:

1940 Ford:

Big difference!

Same idea here, but more recent. I owned both of these Celicas let me tell you it felt like they were about 30 years apart rather than 10:

1980

1990

On the other hand sometimes a company just seems to stagnate over time...

1990 Ford:

2000 Ford:

What do you guys think was the biggest change in cars over a decade?
June 15, 2011 7:51 a.m. RossD SuperDork

Changes like going from a mid-sized (yeah right) car to a sub compact for the same name plate:

and
June 15, 2011 8:00 a.m. Klayfish Reader

It could go both ways. Good change and bad change. Case in point:

Bad. Going from 1967:

To 1977: (even though I actually like this look, the peformance loss was disgusting)

Then the good example:

From this in 1987:

To this in 1997:
June 15, 2011 8:08 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

Like any other technology, it was evolving quickly. Sometimes to meet customer expectations and othertimes to take advantange of better building processes.

Look at computers and the space race.

Apple for example. Compare the IIe to the latest Macs.. and then look at how fast they got there.

Or how about from Sputnik to the latest and greatest satillite we just put up.

Heck.. just in the last ten years... Cell Phones. They went from being a little on the heavy side with limited battery life, range, and NO computer power.. to the smart phones of today
June 15, 2011 8:15 a.m. pinchvalve SuperDork

Cadillac built this in 1945:

And this in 1955:
June 15, 2011 8:19 a.m. White_and_Nerdy HalfDork

Interesting topic. Here's a couple.

1961

1971

Lunar rover and all, just to keep this vaguely car related.

On the flip side:

1990

2000

Personally, I don't see the lack of radical change in the Miata as a bad thing at all!
June 15, 2011 8:21 a.m. David S. Wallens Editorial Director

Not to bring up the Volt thread, but I think we're in the middle of one of the biggest changes right now. A decade ago, just about every commercially available passenger car ran on gasoline or diesel. Today, we have alternatives: CNG, gas-electric hybrid, electric, etc.

If we're talking style, 1930 Ford vs. 1940 Ford gets my vote.
June 15, 2011 8:37 a.m. White_and_Nerdy HalfDork

You bring up an interesting point, David. Are we talking form, or function? On the outside, modern hybrids look just like any other car, despite radically different powerplants. Heck, in the case of the Civic only a very trained eye can tell them apart by looking at them (most GRM readers qualify as this ). And yet, mechanically, how different are the 1930 and 1940 Fords under the skin, despite their appearances? Even the Celicas that Jay posted don't look too radically different, despite the major differences he reports between them.

It's all relative.
June 15, 2011 9:02 a.m. jstein77 Dork

1950 Buick (the car I grew up in)

1960 Buick:
June 15, 2011 9:14 a.m. SilverFleet HalfDork

I have a couple..

1979 Trans Am:

1989 Trans Am

Went from a big, steel carb'ed beast to a smaller, (slightly) lighter EFI hatchback.

1957 Cadillac Eldorado:

1967 Cadillac Eldorado

Went from a huge post-war luxury coupe to a FWD, very forward-looking personal luxury coupe that still looks fresh today.
June 15, 2011 9:16 a.m. kreb Dork

late 50s to early 60s was a huge change in a very short period. Much more minimalist designs and less bulk.

1957 Ranchero: 1960 Ranchero: 1960s vehicles were in many ways the beginings of the modern era. Look at pony cars: the fundamental overall size, proportion and configuration have remained constant for almost 50 years. A '57 Chevy OTOH is an altogether different beast.
June 15, 2011 10:27 a.m. WilberM3 Dork

starting around the 50s or so i'd say the biggest difference is probably engine management, from simple carbs, to mechanical fuel injection, electronically controlled feedback carbs, early electronic fuel injection (CIS, Kjet, TBI...), multiport EFI, direct injection...
June 15, 2011 10:57 a.m. MadScientistMatt Dork

From a styling standpoint, I'd say the '30s move from a fairly upright, boxy, functional body with separate, detachable fenders to the fully integrated designs of the '40s may have been the biggest one decade jump.
June 15, 2011 12:32 p.m. Giant Purple Snorklewacker SuperDork

I have to go with the everything before the 50s and everything after 1960... we went from a steady progression of shapes leading up to the giant, over stylized, tail finned messes of 1958 then a huge shift to the fairlanes, impalas, Mustang, Camaro, Nova, etc... in just 10 yrs. To me, it has been like a whole different paradigm ever since.
June 15, 2011 2:17 p.m. Keith SuperDork

I think most people tend to identify a decade with what happened near the end of it. That's why Jay thinks of 30's cars as the art deco ones from near the end.

The pace of change was brought home to me 10 years ago when I bought my 1987 Subaru, and my parents owned a 1997 Subaru. Huge difference. The '87 was even carbureted. Not the biggest change of all over the decades, but the most personal to me.

And of course, if it ain't broke...

1957

1967

1977

1987

1997

2007

2011
June 15, 2011 2:28 p.m. Graefin10 Reader

1940 Wildcat fighter plane

1950 Sabre jet fighter plane
June 15, 2011 2:36 p.m. alfadriver SuperDork

David S. Wallens wrote:

Not to bring up the Volt thread, but I think we're in the middle of one of the biggest changes right now. A decade ago, just about every commercially available passenger car ran on gasoline or diesel. Today, we have alternatives: CNG, gas-electric hybrid, electric, etc.

Yes, but.

Electric Ranger was available in 1998-2002 (leases expired in 2004).

GM's EV1- '96-99.

So the two largest companies offered electric cars a decade ago.

Don't know enough about what GM offered- but Ford had a CNG Crown Vic in 2002, IIRC, it was one of the first PZEV powertrains.

And the Honda Insight showed up in 2000.

That does not include all of the marginal manrufacturers who have been making electric cars since the dawn of electric cars.

IMHO, there was a bigger change in technology from 1990 to 2000 than 2000 to now. (and in my own little world- the changes were pretty dramatic, with the decade ending in cars that were PZEV AND OBDII, so...)
June 15, 2011 3:48 p.m. JoeyM SuperDork

Jay wrote:

I was just thinking of this after I read JoeyM's door hinge thread. He posted a pic of something (don't know what it was) that looked way old to me, and used it as an example of a " '30s car."

I've seen that photo attributed to different years.....everybody agrees that it is a pre-1933 Datsun. (...back then, called a "Datson") The fenders are the give-away that it is older than a 1933.

Keith wrote:

I think most people tend to identify a decade with what happened near the end of it. That's why Jay thinks of 30's cars as the art deco ones from near the end.

That makes sense....the issue is muddied a bit by the Datsun, since it is a spitting image of a 1929 Austin Seven. By Keith's definition, the car would most resemble what people think of as a 1920's car.

See, to me the 1920s look like this (fenders curved in one dimension, flat in the other)

the 1930s look like this (curves in both directions)

and the 1940s like this (all curves, everywhere....no straight lines)
June 15, 2011 5:10 p.m. ddavidv SuperDork

1960 Austin Mini 1970 Austin Mini 1980 Austin Mini 1990 Austin Mini If you get it mostly right the first time, you really don't need to change it much.
June 15, 2011 5:20 p.m. Toyman01 SuperDork

About those electrics...

1884

1901 Land speed record for electrics. 57.1 MPH

1904

Just a little different from the Volt in 2011

Granted that isn't over a decade.

Times are changing boys and girls, and they change fast.
June 15, 2011 6:45 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

ddavidv wrote:

1960 Austin Mini 1970 Austin Mini 1980 Austin Mini 1990 Austin Mini If you get it mostly right the first time, you really don't need to change it much.

You forgot a varient.. they did attempt to change them up:
June 15, 2011 6:50 p.m. stuart in mn SuperDork

The 1930 to 1940 time span is a good example, although the photo in the first post is a 1941 Ford. (by the way, 1941-1948 Fords were all nearly the same, with minor facelifts. Of course, there was no production from early 1942 until 1946 which had a lot to do with that.) As a couple examples, the car bodies went from wood frames with metal tacked on to all welded steel, and the brakes went from mechanical to hydraulic. A person could use a 1940 Ford as a daily driver relatively safely, while it would be pretty tough to do with a 1930 Ford.

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