Indholdsfortegnelse for September 1975 i MotorTrend

CLAIM TO FAME Or so they call these little solid brass personalized ownership plaques. They will engrave them with any brand name or your own name … or anyone’s name, for that matter. The plaques are available in the four styles shown, measure five inches by one inch, and attach anywhere with a self-adhering backing. They take three weeks to complete and it is requested that you PLEASE PRINT the name you want inscribed. Only $2.98 each from Sunrise Manor, Dept. MT-775, Blake Bldg., Gilroy, CA 95020. OF PLUGS AND SOCKETS Now we will tell you right off the bat that we are running this because we think the lady holding the socket set is kind of neat looking. Nice … oh, sockets. This one comes with a flex head…

You may not appreciate what’s going to happen in Long Beach, California this month. The Long Beach Grand Prix for Formula 5000 cars is the shakedown race for the first Formula One event on the West Coast in 15 years. This upcoming Formula 5000 race will be a one-shot deal, as its primary function is to check out the Long Beach road course in a racing situation. Formula 5000 cars were selected for the shakedown race because they are the closest machines, technically, to actual Formula One Grand Prix cars. The major difference between the two classes of cars is weight, approximately 200 pounds. This weight differential is due to the use of a heavier stock-block American V-8 in the 5000 cars. The predominant engine in U.S. Formula 5000 is…

We had a problem. It began with our Project Safari, the VW Thing project car that we were hardening into a camping/hunting vehicle as a joint venture with our companion PPG magazine Hunting (MT, June 1975). The problem evolved around a varying suspension requirement caused by the fact that we had not only increased the weight with the added equipment but we would also be running the Thing empty at times and loaded with camping gear and/or game at other times. Normally a simple overload type of coil-shock set-up would handle the extra weight but … which amount of extra weight would we trim for? Loaded or unloaded? If we simply trimmed for the additional weight of the off-road modifications we would still have sag from the weight of the…

For a lot of low-bucks off-roaders the question is: “How can I afford a $6000 4WD?” This is a major stumbling block, we must admit. But, there are other alternatives. Consider the mini-pickup. True, it can’t go as many places as a 4WD, but the advantages are many. The mini-pickup gets superb gas mileage, has a low initial cost and is easy to maintain. It will also carry quite a bit more than the average bobtail or baja bug. To boot, you’ll never have to worry about breaking a transfer case or front drive axle. As far as off-road ability goes, the minis will conquer most terrain with ease. They are narrow (for picking through those horrendous rocks and narrow canyons), short (almost as short as most other four-wheelers), and…

AMC has placed all their bets for the present and future in intermediate, compact and subcompact cars. Far from being diffident, they are downright insistent about it. To quote from a preview release: “Whatever else may someday be written about 1975 and its place in automotive history, it will be recorded as the year when all doubts about the U.S. entry into i the small-car era were erased.” 1 It isn’t only that the smaller car segment of the market is an area AMC knows and is comfortable with; they also have some? pretty impressive numbers to back up their position. When the 1970s began, the predictions were that cars below the traditional standard size (read it “large”) would account for perhaps 60 percent of the total sold by 1980.…

In the past several years, there has been a growing trend toward the use of front-wheel-drive, and most of this influence has come from outside the United States. Honda, Volkswagen, Subaru, Saab, Renault, Audi, Fiat and now Lancia offer models with front-wheeldrive to the American public. Yet, front-drive is nothing new and there are four decades of traction avant Citroens to prove its worth. So why is the concept only now sweeping up from obscurity? The answers have to vary somewhat with each manufacturer, but we thought we might go after some of the reasons through a pair of new cars from different arms of the same company—the Lancia Beta sedan and Fiat 131 Mirafiori sedan. In many respects, the two cars are very similar. Yet, the Fiat uses a…

The good news is that the 1975 Manta is the best Opel so far. In an era when nearly all cars have been given induced emphysema by the ever tightening strictures of the emissions requirements, General Motors’ German powerhouse at Russelsheim has endowed the well-tried 1900 engine with more, not less, performance. Through the use of the Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection system, the 1887cc single overhead cam four-cylinder engine now puts out 81 horsepower at 5000 rpm, up from 75 bhp at 4800 rpm developed by the recent carbureted versions. The usable power band has been broadened by bringing in slightly more torque at a lower rpm: 96 foot/pounds at 2200 rpm instead of the former 92 at 2800 All these figures don’t seem to amount to a great deal…

This is what BMW calls its 3-series: new two-door cars bearing the designations 316, 318 and 320 depending on their engine size (1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 liters or 97.6, 109.8 and 122 cubic inches respectively). Those numbers ring a bell. They’re remarkably like the ones BMW tacked onto its prewar line of six-cylinder cars which was founded, appropriately enough, in 1933 with a model called the 303 that developed 30 horsepower. At the end of the Thirties a strong demand for BMW’s fine aero engines stopped production of its 3-series passenger cars, but not before BMW had produced such great models as the 327 tourer, the 319 and 328 sports cars, and even a 320—a 1935 two-door sedan with a 1975cc engine delivering 45 horsepower. Now a new 320 has…

It’s a puzzlement. Here we have I I two very similar cars, the Chrysler Cordoba and Dodge Charger, both sporting similar option lists. Yet, one (Cordoba) sells briskly, while the other (Charger) is selling at a much slower rate. Why? That’s what Chrysler would like to know. A survey of buyers during the first three months of the ’75 model year indicated the typical Charger buyer was 35 years old and had a median income of $14,500. Twenty percent of the buyers were under 25 years of age and 30 percent were in the 25-34 year range. Sixteen percent were professional people, 16 percent were managers, 26 percent were blue collar workers, seven percent were retired and the remainder were not categorized. The survey also showed that the typical Cordoba…

In any given test year, there are always a number of cars that we’ve wanted to test but haven’t been able to, for reasons of scheduling or availability. In the lull between the end of one model year and the next, we try to look at as many of those cars as we can to see what we’ve missed. Two that have slipped through our fingers this year are the Peugeot 504 and the Toyota Corona Mark II. Although in many ways they’re as different as day and night, they’re really two sides of the same coin—the medium-priced, small luxury sedan. The Peugeot can best be characterized as a poor man’s Mercedes, the car Mercedes-Benz would build if they wanted to go into the lower-priced market—lower-priced, in this case, meaning…

A GEM FROM A JUEL This Ford is something special—a 1953 Mainliner two-door, with economical three-speed transmission. Runs and looks like new. Seats and upholstery is original and perfect. I bought it from a 70-year-old bachelor who didn’t hurt it at all. Right now I’m caught in the economic crunch, so I’ll part with this beauty for $700 or best offer. Price will partially cover sentimental value, and crying towel. Rick Juel, R.R. #3, Canton, SD 57013, (605)987-5141. GOOD GOD, THEY’VE STOLEN AUNT EDNA’S CAR! Surely your Aunt Edna owned a 1941 Chevrolet sedan, with a vacuum shift? After all doesn’t everybody have an Aunt Edna? What we have here is a mint condition Chev just like Aunt Edna’s. This excellent looking and running auto can be yours for the…

CHRYSLER’S LITTLE C-CAR Chrysler’s subcompact for the American market will be patterned after the new Simca “C-Car” the No. 3 auto firm is introducing in France later this year. The U.S. version will not have the European styling of the Simca but it will have the same underbody and front wheel drivetrain. Chrysler considered building a Gremlin-type car, a chopped down compact in other words. “But it wasn’t a serious contender because it doesn’t do all that you need in a small car,” says Chrysler’s engineering vice-president, Alan G. Loofbourrow. “You have a smaller package but you don’t have the weight savings that you get in a small car and you will probably not get the fuel economy you want. A smaller package size of necessity means completely new engineering.…

Right from the start, you have to understand this: I am among those people who consider the 1953 Studebaker Starline coupe the most beautiful car ever mass produced in America. Therefore, there’s little need to dwell here on its obvious charms, but I will also say that we’re lucky it got built at all, because everything that could have gone wrong with manufacturing the car in South Bend did, to wit: When they cranked up the pilot assembly line in December, 1952, the workers found that the coupe’s frontend sheet metal wouldn’t mate with the main body section. Try as they might, the men simply couldn’t make the two halves go together. The assembly line clanked to a halt again, and the public had to wait three months—until March, 1953—before…

Ah, the sweet taste of revenge? In quick succession Buick severed ties with Opel, General Motors’ German affilate, who, in turn, revamped the sucessful Manta range. The new Opel Manta is a styling knockout. While elements of GM’s Nova two-door and Monza 2 4-2 can be seen, the car comes off better integrated than either. Mechanically, the Manta is the same as before; Opel knows that you don’t mess with a successful package. Available engines include the 1.9-liter high-cam four, which, with electronic fuel injection, made the 1975 Manta tested in this issue such a rocket. At this time, with Buick slated to sell the Isuzu Gemini (a very good car in itself) as an Opel, it would seem rather unlikely that Buick would be selling new Mantas. Don’t get…

“This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way.”—Van Dyke Edgar L. Roy has been making I things all his life: He started his craft with a model steam boat when he was in high school, and has subsequently built cars, clocks, cameras and just about anything you’d care to name. It comes quite naturally for Roy, who made his living inventing medical hardware. There are model cars by the hundreds, but the absolute ultimates are the six small Simplex models currently nearing completion in the basement of Roy’s West Roxbury, Massachusetts home. Not only are they exact replicas of the 1911 Simplex, they are also fully working one-sixth scale…

There’s really only one reason why anyone becomes an automotive journalist. For most of us in the profession, it’s the only way we’ll ever get our hands on the cars we’d really like to own—the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, the Rolls-Royce convertibles. Sure, I’d like to have a Rolls, but if I scraped together all my cash, sold my typewriter, and pawned my class ring, I might be able to afford a set of Rolls hub caps or a half interest in that Flying Lady hood ornament that sits atop. Writing about cars, however, gives one an excuse to borrow them for thinly disguised joyrides masquerading as road tests. Now, “road testing” something like a Porsche in such a manner is usually enough to keep me happy for a week; road…