MotorTrend March 1977

AIR BAGS-A NON-DECISION After seven years of debate and countless delays, the longawaited "final decision" on air bags announced by outgoing Transporation Secretary William T. Coleman in December turned out to be a non-decision which pleased few and did little to settle this cronic controversy. Calling his decision "as difficult as any I have made as secretary of transportation," Coleman concluded that while he is convinced that air bags are "technologically feasible, would provide substantially increased protection to the public and can be produced economically," he feared that the public reaction to mandated installation of air bags would be strongly negative at this time. He proposed, instead, a limited "demonstration program" designed to prove, once and for all, that air bags work and to build public confidence in the devices.…

CHRYSLER: Small Chrysler Corp, is wrestling about what to do with its big cars over the next two years. The firm will have its 1979 “R-Body” cars ready for introduction in the fall of 1978. These will be new “family-size” Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler cars, built off 116-in.-wheelbase bodies—or about the same size as new GM regular-size cars, and slightly bigger than the downsize regular cars planned by Ford for its 1979-81 introduction. The problem for Chrysler is what to do before the competition’s cars are introduced. Its main big-car plant in Belvidere, Illinois, now building full-size (C-Body) Chryslers, Plymouths and Dodges, will be changed next summer to production of new Plymouth and Dodge subcompact L-Body cars, including a 5-door vehicle similar to the French Simca 1308. Plymouth and Dodge…

L-88 FOREVER! Thank you for your fine article on Corvettes (December ’76). Having owned Corvettes (two) for about eight years, and knowing where one of those legendary L-88 Corvettes is, I’d like to share with you some of my experiences with this particular car. I’m not entirely sure about some of the details in your article, but I can assure you this car came equipped with 7-in. rims with a center hub and beauty rim treatment similar to that of 1968 through 1977 Corvettes. Yes, it had a 3.70 rearend, rock-hard 4-wheel disc brakes, lowered suspension, the M-22 close-ratio transmission (it is not as noisy as most people say), the high-energy ignition and those fabulous aluminum heads. This car, however, came with a tri-power carb setup and aluminum manifold, radiator,…

FALL INTRO FOR ’78 CELICA Like it or not, the Toyota Celica will be completely redesigned for the 1978 model year. The new Celica will be introduced in Japan early this summer, with American introduction due in the fall. Reportedly, only one Celica body style will be offered—a hatchback (whoops, liftback) coupe. A large percentage of the preliminary design work was done by Calty Industrial Design, Toyota’s U.S.-based design studio. While the Celica has shed its Mustang-esque styling, it is still identifiable as a Celica. One welcome change is the added visibility made possible by a huge increase in the car’s glass area. Rear % vision, specifically, is greatly improved. Among the more important developments, it is rumored that an independent rear suspension will be used on the Celica GT…

Now that the 1977 and 1977½ new car introductions are over, it's time to see what Detroit has in store for 1978 and, more specifically, what GM has up its corporate sleeve. The General's programme of size and weight reduction across the board continues in 1978 with a new series of mid-sized cars in the Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick ranges. The new intermediates, or A-body cars as they are called within GM, will all be built on a uniform 108-in. wheelbase, as opposed to the 112- and 116-in. wheelbases now used. This size reduction will make things at, say, a Pontiac dealer even more confusing than they are now. This year, a Le Mans 2-door coupe is on a wheelbase 4 in. shorter than a larger, more expensive Bonneville…

Two years—which equates with 24,000 miles in the minds of those engaged in the manufacture of automobiles—may not seem like a long time. But when you compress those two years into one, and use Los Angeles as your principal compressor, those miles can represent the distance between infancy and temperamental middle age in the life of a car. We are referring to one particular 24,000-mile car, the Pontiac Sunbird we introduced to you last May as our long-term test vehicle for 1976. Here we are in 1977, and the 24,000 miles are on the clock. The Sunbird passed this milepost peacefully somewhere in California’s Napa Valley one misty morning. But the total history has been a good deal more eventful: Irritating mechanical problems, a couple we regard as characteristic, another…