Neat article on a 1970's 'big boat'....

[SS1970chrysler]

My catalogs only show the glass covers for the 300 "letter" series which ended with '65.
'65 and '66 imperials should have the covers. Some had faux gold trim around them. '67 and up do not use them.

I do hope to someday complete my set of 1966 Chryslers.

 

[DavidZ28]

My favorite "boat" of the '70's is a '76 Caprice Classic sport sedan which I think could be had with a 454.

 

[SteveSRT8]

well, anyone who was around the old daze much knows that everything after 1971 is emasculated by emissions regs. Only Pontiac kept domestic performance alive with the SD455 motor.

So my interest declines rapidly after 1970!

 

[Jarlaxle]

The last of the 440's (1978) were still, in police trim, respectable performers. A Monaco or Fury with 2.76 gears & no lightbar would touch 135MPH.

The Buick 455 was potent, even with low compression, until 1974.

And, of course...the 400 (1978) & 455 (1976) Poncho in the Firebirds.

 

[Turk]

My 1st car (Boat) I ever drove was my Dad's light-green 1971 Ford Galaxie 500. Remember them?

Key to this one is it had a 400 CI engine, but the kicker was it was a "Trailering Special" with a geared down, low speed rear end.

OMG, it was quick and I'd beat MANY "hot Rods" in block-to-block racing in Downtown St. Paul in the mid 70's...

Oh, they used to get mad at me for beating them...

 

[Jarlaxle]

Same thing with my grandmother's T&C. Yes, it was a 5000lb tank with tall gears...but that big 440 would get up and MOVE! (It moved a lot better after my uncle and I recurved the distributor & supertuned the AVS carb!) It would beat a stock auto-trans 5.0 Mustang, or a 5-speed convertable, & more or less match a 5-speed GT hatch.

 

[Malo83]

Had a 74 Grand Prix with the 400/400 drivetrain that I REGRET! letting go

she was a Freeway flyer for sure, Big and Fast, this pic is a spitting image of the one I had.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[morris]

to:SS1970chrysler all so the 65 new yorker had glass, but not a newport. my 300 L had gold trim. you could still buy them in 1968

 

[SS1970chrysler]

I just got back from 160 mile trip with the '70 and averaged 15mpg combined. life is good.

Didn't feel a thing.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

My whole family had a few large V8 Sedans from the 70's..Mostly Fords but a sprinkling of Impalas.

To each their own with those awesome cars but our were overall troublefree..They are awesome long distance cars..The factory a/c in those cars could have easily cooled a 7 room house..None of those cars ever left us stranded on those very long road trips in the blazing summer heat..They were not bad on fuel either even with the a/c on all the time.

You could have probably put a Cruze inside the trunk of a 76 Grand Marquis or Impala and some other cars from the 70's.

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: Malo83
Had a 74 Grand Prix with the 400/400 drivetrain that I REGRET! letting go

she was a Freeway flyer for sure, Big and Fast, this pic is a spitting image of the one I had.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us



My Mom had a 77 Prix. Mann the dash on that thing was like an airplane cockpit! Only problem was it had the under powered 301 in it. Not sure what trans it had. But I loved driving that car.

 

[addyguy]

I've always felt somewhat 'ripped off' about this whole era of cars - my folks 'skipped' it!

Dad had a 1967 Mustang until 1978; then he bought a newly downsized 1978 Malibu. He did this on purpose, b/c he HATED big cars. The downsized 1978 G-bodies were a lot smaller than the boats like the ones we are talking about.

I alwatys liked the hulking landyachts our neighbours had (1974 Impala wagon; 1976 Buick Century wagon)....and we 'just' had the Malibu!

 

[artificialist]

My grandmother had one of those giant 70s Chryslers, and my father owned a 70s Toyota Corolla. He said it looked like he could park his Toyota on the hood of that Chrysler.

The 70s were a time where the small cars really were small, and the big cars were really big.

 

[Spazdog]

When I was forced by work to buy a car (I only had a motorcycle at the time and my DM decided that it was inappropriate for me to not own a car, I bought a 1983 Oldsmobile 98 Regency. I thought that was a land yacht.

Not to be outdone, my fellow "motorcycle only/no car" friend bought a 1974 Chrysler Newport.

Now that, was a land yacht!

Made the 98 Regurgitate seem agile in comparison.

It was so big and heavy that even though it had 93 cubic inches more than the Olds, it wasn't significantly quicker 0-60. It had some torque though. Both cars had to go up one particular hill on Interstate 20 in 2nd gear. The difference was that the Olds had to kick down 2 gears and was screaming, the USS Newport had only kicked down one and was chugging along in it's midrange.

Neither could handle worth a [darn].

I remember watching that huge Chrysler attempt to corner aggressively. The camber on the outside front wheel would actually be visibly positive so much that I thought the ball-joints would snap at any second. Ball joints were fine. Car just had that much mass

It was a cool car. Should have traded the 98 Regurgitate for it. I was thinking that I actually got better gas mileage with my 307. I probably didn't.

 

[lovcom]

Guys, lots of idealization and romantization going on about the big Land Yachts (LY).

We are better forgetting this era in American car manufacturing because during that time the US made the absolute worse cars ever. And it was during that same time that the Japanese leapfrogged us in quality big time.

Lets leave that past in the past, because it is our shame and it shows just how terrible we made cars.

All those models were junk, and it is a reminder of what happens when we Americans get fat, lazy, arrogant, and stupid.

 

[wander2039]

Drove a 72 4door Torino for a few months. While comfortable all I can say is I was glad to get my Festiva back! $25 fill ups compared to $8 back in 1998 was a big deal to a HS student.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: lovcom
Guys, lots of idealization and romantization going on about the big Land Yachts (LY).

We are better forgetting this era in American car manufacturing because during that time the US made the absolute worse cars ever. And it was during that same time that the Japanese leapfrogged us in quality big time.

Lets leave that past in the past, because it is our shame and it shows just how terrible we made cars.

All those models were junk, and it is a reminder of what happens when we Americans get fat, lazy, arrogant, and stupid.


To be fair, anybody that was still making a giant frame on body road-beast was probably doing it worse than the US. Except maybe the Australians. They kinda had a need for a strong chassis car like that. They had enough problems with making a car like the unibody Opel Rekord suitable for Australian roads. I remember reading somewhere that the first design of the Opel Rekord based Holden Commodore would break in half if driven at speed on Australian roads. That's a German car that would literally break in half by the firewall. I don't think you would have that problem in a similar year Caprice, Cordoba, LTD, or Matador.

The Soviets certainly weren't doing any better. Have you ever seen a GAZ-14? Looks like an AMC Matador sedan mated with a Mercedes Benz 450 SEL.

 

[CBR.worm]

Originally Posted By: tpitcher
My 1st car (Boat) I ever drove was my Dad's light-green 1971 Ford Galaxie 500. Remember them?

Key to this one is it had a 400 CI engine, but the kicker was it was a "Trailering Special" with a geared down, low speed rear end.

OMG, it was quick and I'd beat MANY "hot Rods" in block-to-block racing in Downtown St. Paul in the mid 70's...

Oh, they used to get mad at me for beating them...

Man, that brought back flashbacks I haven't thought of in almost 40 years. I remember being in new york as a kid and a friend of mines dad always had big fast cars. He always had practical cars with the largest engine option and the lowest gear ratio available. I can hear him now saying the real key to performance was, '...the low geah reah end.' Of course he probably got 5 MPG on the highway.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: CROWNVIC4LIFE


You could have probably put a Cruze inside the trunk of a 76 Grand Marquis or Impala and some other cars from the 70's.


The 77+ B-body GMs shed about 800lbs over their 71-76 predecessors, but gained about a cubic foot of trunk space. Also had a significant reduction in wheelbase but maintained virtually the same interior volume.

1976 Buick LeSabre trunk capacity: 19.7 cu ft
1977 Buick LeSabre trunk capacity: 20.8 cu ft
2012 Ford Taurus trunk capacity: 20.1 cu ft
2012 Chevrolet Cruze trunk capacity: 15.4 cu ft

The older cars' trunk looked huge, but they were actually somewhat shallow. The gas tank is underneath them

Wouldn't suprise me if you found the interior volume of the current Taurus or Accord to be quite nearly as big as a 71-76 B-body GM.

 

[expat]

Remember those big, three seater, powered, bench seats?
If the driver was tall Everybody in the back suffered.

I also remember seeing those 1970's emission controls, talk about Rube Goldberg! There as a ,spring loaded flapper on the exhaust manifold that was intended to direct heat to the inlet manifold. I guess nobody thought that chunk of Iron, in the heat, stuck out in the open might rust fail to open.