The Cars We Drove In The 50s & 60s

[HowardRoarke]

What gets me is how reliable those cars were (for the most part), in so far as robustness in design and whatnot (something we've gotten away from).

I'm a die hard Mopar guy but I appreciate all of the old iron out there. Saw a full size early 70's GM convertible tonight as I was wheeling around in my '78 New Yorker Brougham. I was into the muscle when I was younger but now appreciate the big 'uns, and they are massive, well-built cars. Lincolns, 225's, Imperials, etc., that's what I like to see sometimes at car shows and cruise nights. '69 Lincolns with suicide doors and whatnot.

My /6 Mopars never let me down, and they are safe ones, as well. The crisp styling of the old cars, dripping with chrome and whatnot, is what sets them apart. Gimme a '61 or so Valiant with a /6 and no options and I'd be happy.

Newer body design on the production cars sucks, for the most part, although engine and transmission designs have come a long way. I see the aftermarket has exploded for new engine/trans. combos put into old cars. Some of the engines are better than the old days, but others are just not as robust, whereby on the old ones you could get by with a 2BBL carb on a small or even big engine and it would go 200K+, despite fuel injection being better for the engines (which makes them go even further). Some of today's engines just suck.

I refuse to drive:

1) A Toyota Pious.
2) Anything that takes 5W20 or 10W20 oil. I prefer straight 6's (like on my Jeep) and V8's, and they take 10W30 or so.
3) Anything that weighs under 3600 lbs (sorry car crushing Cash4Clunkers-perfectly-good-car-haters.).

Gimme an old '77 Chrysler Town&Country wagon and i'm happy as a clam (3 friends own them). Anything with HEI ignition (except for some of the garbage GM motors), a Ford str. 6, Ford Windsor motor Mopar /6, Mopar small and big blocks, AMC motors, etc.

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