I know I'm odd but

My favorite decade of cars is the seventies. I'm not sure what it is exactly, maybe being born in '79 most of the cars I saw on the road as young impressionable youth where cars of that decade.

I bought a book a while ago entitled "Cars of the sensational '70s a decade of changing tastes and new directions" While flipping through this book I began to daydream about how fitting an efficient modern drivetrain into some quirky cool car from my favorite era would make a badass daily driver.

I've thought about putting a modern diesel in a big land yacht from before the first fuel shortage. Should make one hell of a awesome comfortable highway cruiser.

Then I thought about how a modern turbo 4 cyl into a small econo box would make a killer commuter.

Then I got to wondering where in the hell did all these cars go? I mean according to this book in '74 alone AMC made over 131,000 Gremlins. In '73 Chrysler made ove 234,000 cars all HUGE! In '75 over 302,000 Granada's where built by Ford.

I know alot have been wrecked over the years, and ran into the ground and crushed at the wreckers but it would seem to me that cars like these wouldn't be so hard to find. I mean i've seen more NSX's and Ferrari's out on the loose than these old cars. I don't even know the last time I saw a Gremlin on the road.

Anyway please feel free to post up any '70s era badassedness of you have any.

You aren't looking in the right places. Go on the Detroit Craigslist, tons of malaise era American iron for cheap. Little cars are just hard to find, the few that weren't driven into the ground have been made into race cars.

I would rock this.

Look at these awesome interiors

Bonus points for which car they are from.

the problem with cars to that era.. rust. It was not until the mid 80s that the car manufactorers got their act together on how to keep most cars from rotting away in a few short years.. and even then, some locations and models still rust

^ Lincoln.

I really like what is currently referred to as the Disco Nova- 1975 to the end, and one of the many projects floating around in my brain is an early 70's Cutlass done up in Nascar trim...although that is almost becoming common. I thought of it first.

nicksta43 wrote: Look at these awesome interiors Bonus points for which car they are from.

Well this one is a Lincoln Mark IV

the 70's was the decade of "Rich Corinthian Leather"..

it just don't get much more awesomer than that.

nicksta43 wrote: My favorite decade of cars is the seventies. I'm not sure what it is exactly, maybe being born in '79 most of the cars I saw on the road as young impressionable youth where cars of that decade. I bought a book a while ago entitled "Cars of the sensational '70s a decade of changing tastes and new directions" While flipping through this book I began to daydream about how fitting an efficient modern drivetrain into some quirky cool car from my favorite era would make a badass daily driver. I've thought about putting a modern diesel in a big land yacht from before the first fuel shortage. Should make one hell of a awesome comfortable highway cruiser. Then I thought about how a modern turbo 4 cyl into a small econo box would make a killer commuter. Then I got to wondering where in the hell did all these cars go? I mean according to this book in '74 alone AMC made over 131,000 Gremlins. In '73 Chrysler made ove 234,000 cars all HUGE! In '75 over 302,000 Granada's where built by Ford. I know alot have been wrecked over the years, and ran into the ground and crushed at the wreckers but it would seem to me that cars like these wouldn't be so hard to find. I mean i've seen more NSX's and Ferrari's out on the loose than these old cars. I don't even know the last time I saw a Gremlin on the road. Anyway please feel free to post up any '70s era badassedness of you have any.

I was born in '79 as well, but I have a thing for 80s cars. I've only ever had 2 cars that weren't body style-s sold during the 80s.

Me, I really like 70s and early 80s Japanese cars. Not because I am on the "retro-Japanese" bandwagon -- my first on-the-road car was a 1980 Civic back in '88 -- but because I like their quirkiness. The cars were designed by the Japanese for Japanese tastes, with a "buy it or don't" attitude towards export markets. Look at any 70s Datsun or Mazda and the little touches that made them just different enough. My "new" '85 200SX is just at the tail end of that era, as Japanese manufacturers were setting up North American design offices.

Having played with 70's cars for a long time..

The leaky door seals and terrible interior quality will wear on you almost as fast as the terrible power and fuel economy will.

Give me cars from the 30's.

Style, grace and about as complex as my lawnmower.

Trans_Maro wrote: Having played with 70's cars for a long time.. The leaky door seals and terrible interior quality will wear on you almost as fast as the terrible power and fuel economy will. Give me cars from the 30's. Style, grace and about as complex as my lawnmower.

As someone who's played with 90's and 80's cars for a while diagnosing and fixing fried circuit boards, wonky ignition components, failed window regulators, power locks, $3 sensors hidden inside wheel hubs that disable anti-lock brakes, traction control, and lockout 1st gear, I say gimmie 70s cars that have style and grace, and are simpler than my modern lawnmower....

70's cars emissions controls... (shudder....) Only the 80's were worse.

I seem to like cars from the 90's. For the most part, rust prevention had been figured out and EFI fairly well sorted, but annoying crap like networked chassis computers were still in the planning stages.

Styling-wise - definitely late 60's cars for me.

I want one of these.

I grew up driving the cars of the 70's (77 Impala, 77 Impala Wagon, 78 Impala Coupe and a 78 Cordoba) and they were all crap compared to modern cars. But they were reliable, would run forever, and body-on-frame construction meant that you could just let the body parts rust and fall off.

Luckily, Hulu has entire seasons of Hunter and Rockford files available for free. Kinda fun to have that playing in the background while working...

pinchvalve wrote: I grew up driving the cars of the 70's (77 Impala, 77 Impala Wagon, 78 Impala Coupe and a 78 Cordoba) and they were all crap compared to modern cars. But they were reliable, would run forever, and body-on-frame construction meant that you could just let the body parts rust and fall off.

Cordobas were unibodies.. around these parts, it wasn't unusual to see the leaf springs on them poked thru the floor with the back of the car being supported by the trunk lid by the early 90's..

someone earlier mentioned the smog stuff of the 70's- living in MN, i've always just had the option of putting that stuff in the dumpster where it belongs and make the car run cleaner and get better mileage with more power than stock via tuning. but it is kind of hard to make any mid to late 70's Mopar V8 run worth a crap without opening it up due to compression ratios that were rated at 8:1 but actually closer to 7.5:1.

I want a King Cobra II with a 3.7L V6.

The mid-70s and much of the 80s represented the nadir of automotive enjoyment - crap barges with little power. Things really didn't warm up again until the early 90s.

I like the cars from the 50s and 60s and the current cars (though not many sports cars out there these days).

rallymodeller wrote: Me, I really like 70s and early 80s Japanese cars. Not because I am on the "retro-Japanese" bandwagon -- my first on-the-road car was a 1980 Civic back in '88 -- but because I like their quirkiness. The cars were designed by the Japanese for Japanese tastes, with a "buy it or don't" attitude towards export markets. Look at any 70s Datsun or Mazda and the little touches that made them just different enough. My "new" '85 200SX is just at the tail end of that era, as Japanese manufacturers were setting up North American design offices.

I have a very dim memory (unfortunately, can't recall who wrote it) of a great article in Car and Driver about the 1st gen MR2 when they came out. Discussing the styling, they mentioned that Japanese cities are so crowded that you never see cars--you see parts of cars. So, they decorate the different parts.

I like the color schemes of the late 70s. Especially orange, yellow, and brown, when used together.

I have a neat 70s-mobile import even though it is technically a 1980 model.

I saw a 70s Olds 442 in traffic yesterday. It was a bit of a hoopty, but it looked and sounded great!

PI to the MP

Trans_Maro wrote: Give me cars from the 30's. Style, grace and about as complex as my lawnmower.

QFT!!

I liked the 1970s cars, but in particular 1970-1973; 5 mph bumpers came along in 1974, and catalytic converters and emission controls came along in 1975. Not that emission controls are bad, but those early attempts didn't work very well.

turboswede wrote: Luckily, Hulu has entire seasons of Hunter and Rockford files available for free. Kinda fun to have that playing in the background while working...

I watch Rockford Files for the cars

In my mind a "real car" is RWD powerd by a v8 and has body on frame construction. Just the way I look at it. I've never been much for typical sports cars. The most fun car I've ever Autoxed was my '96 Impala SS, a car that had a chassis by and large designed in the '70s.

Now don't get me wrong I love sports cars, although I've never owned one, I love what they can do and the performance benchmarks that they set. A big part of the passion of messing with cars for me is making a less than sporting car achieve similar or better performance to true sprorts cars.

I hate the styling of most cars from the 80's with the exception of G-body's and F-body's. Ninety's and newer have very little for me.