Best handling American car built in 60's or 70's?

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
My FIL had a Fox body Mustang.
It was from new one of the worst handling cars I've ever driven.
The Muscrat II was no more than a heavier Pinto in drag.
It was in no way a good handling car and yes, I drove one owned by a GF back in the day.
Any car can be made into a capable racer.


Curious as to what year they were. '87 was about the first year that the GT handled anything close to reasonably well, prior to that, no.

 

[fdcg27]

FIL owned a pretty early one.
Now, I also had a buddy who had a TRX package car and it drove pretty well.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Originally Posted By: spasm3
cosworth twin cam vega?


That's my vote. I've owned two, and still have the '75. With a set of Eagle NCT's on it, I could take 25 mph entrance ramps at 55.


Do you remember when Car & Driver turned one into a rally car as one of their projects?

I remember reading it, i can't remember exactly what they did to it.

 

[Claud]

Chevrolet Chevette?. Not a fast car, but that wasn't the OP's point. It handled very well (for an American car of its time).
American cars traditionally had plenty of straight line performance, but were barges when the road got twisty.
I remember Falcons competing with Mini Coopers and Lotus Cortinas at British tracks. The Detroit Iron would storm away on the straights, only to watch the home grown cars drive around them through the bends.

Claud.

 

[Robenstein]

Originally Posted By: Claud
Chevrolet Chevette?. Not a fast car, but that wasn't the OP's point. It handled very well (for an American car of its time).
American cars traditionally had plenty of straight line performance, but were barges when the road got twisty.
I remember Falcons competing with Mini Coopers and Lotus Cortinas at British tracks. The Detroit Iron would storm away on the straights, only to watch the home grown cars drive around them through the bends.

Claud.


The same can be said for the Corvettes that went up against the Porsches and Ferraris on road tracks in the Duntov era at GM. The much bigger mills under the vette hood helped them keep competitive.

 

[fdcg27]

No.
Every IRS Corvette was a good handling car.
The old Porsches had pretty evil handling while the old Ferraris were all about the engine not about handling.

 

[Robenstein]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
No.
Every IRS Corvette was a good handling car.
The old Porsches had pretty evil handling while the old Ferraris were all about the engine not about handling.


He was heavily involved in the maturation of the C1 generation, and that is what I was mainly talking about since GM pulled the plug on factory racing right about the time the C2 came out in 62. So I was referring to that generation as they were factory race cars, and the C1 suspension is pretty awful.

 

[fdcg27]

Gotcha.
I've never driven a live axle Corvette but I've always heard that they had pretty evil handling.