In the good old days, Detroit offered lots of models, trim levels, trim packages, power train choices, and options. I’ve heard all kinds of mind-boggling numbers thrown out as to how many unique cars any of the big builders could have built given the theoretical combinations on tap. But undoubtedly not everyone was happy even with that. How about a Bel Air SS two door sedan; or wagon? Or a short-bed Ranger F-250? Or a Corvair Lakewood Spyder? Or a …..well, this is were you come in. What unique model/trim variation would you have Detroit (or elsewhere) build for you?
’87-’91 Bonneville Coupe.
A new one I would want would be a 3800 Series IV (based on the new truck 4.3L) in the Lacrosse and Regal.
Just for me? Since you asked, how about the IBD Edition, with a James Bond esque switch activated trap-door seat hole. It could have a sprayer bidet and drying function, just like those Japanese toilets. I am 100% serious.
A 69 Javelin with a warmed up 6 in Big Bad Green and a manual box.I may be wrong on this but I’ve never seen a Javelin 6 manual.
All the manual 6 cylinder Javelins were 3-speeds.
Here’s a six cylinder Javelin…
But it’s an automatic…
For 1970-72, there was a 442 version of Cutlass Supreme convertible. I would have liked a Cutlass Supreme 442 coupe, w-30 and all.
A 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 sedan sounds like some seriously sneaky fun to me.
1966 Chrysler 300M with the 426 Hemi. It was proposed but the letter-model 300s were ultimately dropped after the 1965 300L.
There was rumoured to be at least one of the Hurst Chrysler 300s built with a hemi in 1970
Not directly from Chrysler. A dealer converted it. Regardless, I don’t want a 1970 300 Hurst, I want a ’66 300M. 🙂
Strangely, Johan once offered some promo diecast of a 1965 Plymouth C-body Fury Hemi convertible. I spotted this picture on Ebay.
A swan song 1970 Impala SS 454 Custom coupe or convertible. Ford and Plymouth still had sporty big cars in ’70, one more big SS would have been cool.
I go a step further, a 1971 Impala SS-454 coupe and convertible. And let’s have also a 1971 Pontiac 2+2 with a 455 as well.
Ford continuing a 1971 XL.
Plymouth offering the Duster and Barracuda with the Australian Hemi-6 pack.
The Cordoba originally launched as a Plymouth.
Anyone else fancy a 68 Town & Country woody with a hemi?In theory it was possible to order one but I don’t think anyone did
No it was not possible to order a Hemi in any C-body. A Hemi was never offered in a C-body from the factory. Any that were made were cobbled together by dealers in their own shop, except possibly some Chrysler internal test mule.
I know of someone that found a dealer willing to enter the correct option codes to custom-order a ’66 Monaco with a Hemi. The car that arrived at the dealer actually had a police-spec 440 in it.
I stand corrected,the 68 Town & Country is one of my favourite wagons especially the woody
I didn’t mean to sound overly negative, by the way. 🙂 Since we’re just playing “what if?”, a T&C with a Hemi would be cool. How about a ’68 300 wagon with the hide-away headlights?
No offence taken,I’m a sucker for hidden lights,I had a boyfriend with a black cherry 68 Cougar.I liked the car more than him!
And pushbuttons! 🙂
Yes! And bucket seats and console from a 300 as well…
Oh there is no end to this one…
Crown Vic with Coyote 5.0 and Town Car interior
1970 Chrysler 300 Hemi
1965 Chevelle SS 427 two door wagon
1985 Impala SS two door with Corvette Tuned Port 350
I always thought the Marauder should have had a Ford companion, it should have been called the Galaxie 500 with otherwise the same specs as the Marauder.
Nice idea, but let’s take it a bit further. How about a Panther Marauder/Galaxie 500 with a blown 4.6 ala the Terminator Cobra? With the Tremec 6 speed of course.
Yeah it would be nice if the Supercharger as was done on the show car would have made it past the bean counters.
Feeling Greedy:
1980 R-Body Plymouth Gran Fury 2-door coupe (which never existed), equipped equivalent to a Fifth Avenue (leather, landau quarter roof, full power accessories, etc.)
1986 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Grande with or 1988 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan with the ’91 Seville’s 4.9L V8. Or a 1992 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Touring Sedan with the Aurora V8.
An Oldsmobile sedan based on the Cadillac ATS.
1990 Eagle Optima concept car.
1990 Cadillac Voyager concept car.
1989 Plymouth Sundance RS convertible.
1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager LE with the current Pentastar V6 and 8-speed auto. In Candy Apple Red of course!
I could go on forever!
This is a good one. I’d like a 2003 300M with twin turbos and a manual six speed. If anything were on the table I’d like one with the SRT Hemi V8 and rear wheel drive, please.
I Japanese cars were included I’d like an 85/86 NIssan 200SX with the turbo V6 out of a 300ZX backed with a 5 speed.
The 300-hp direct-injected V6 I had in my Impala rental car should really be an option in everything. I’d like it shoehorned into a Cruze wagon, please.
Oh, I’ve got an imaginary Jay Leno garage full of that kind of stuff:
First Generation Monte Carlo Convertible.
1955 Oldsmobile Nomad.
1968 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 Vista Cruiser.
When I was a child, the local fire chief drove what appeared to be a 1968 Vista Cruiser 4-4-2, but I’m certain that it was just a matter of a dealer with a sense of humor installing a 4-4-2 grill on an ordinary Vista Cruiser.
It’d be the next model year before I could decide, so many variations and engine sizes. I’d likely have my ’87 Caprice Landau offered as a Super Sport. All I’d want are buckets as comfortable as the 55/45 bench and a console, much like I’ve seen in the early B-bodies. Give it the Monte Carlo SS 305 if sticking to CAFE rules, otherwise, the 350 from the 9c1. Dual exhaust. Redline tires look great but can’t see them offered in the 80’s. Roll down back windows would be great too but not a big deal. Doesn’t have to be an all out screamer, just a subtle package that suits the nature of the car. In a way it’d be a reincarnated ’65 Chevelle since they’re the same size. So many times I wished they offered that! It’d be just the flavor the car needs.
1957 Lincoln Mark II Convertible.
There’s someone that attends local car shows with a Mark-II that was turned into a convertible. He said it is supposedly a “real” one in that it was either converted in-house by Lincoln, or Lincoln out-sourced the conversion, prior to the car being sold. However, the person he bought the car from wanted a ridiculous amount of money for the paperwork proving its authenticity, above and beyond what they wanted for the car, and he was unwilling to pay for it.
I’m sure I read the retractable 57 Skyliner was supposed to be on the Mk 2 Continental but the cost would have pushed the price out of reach and the suits stopped it.It certainly sounds like the sort of thing that would have given Robert MacNamarra sleepless nights!
Gem, they got as far as a fully finished prototype of the retractable, and there was apparently a conventional rag-top built by Derham coachworks in Pennsylvania and ended up being used by Bill Ford’s wife after being on the show circuit. It was originally white with a red and white interior, then painted pastel blue and retrimmed in white!
Thanks for the pictures Glen this must be the ultimate 50s convertible, for lottery winners only!
Fabulous isn’t it?
Years ago, 1968? in Carmel CA visiting my Grandmother came across a non-stock (looked stock though) 1965 Mustang fastback with large I6 with four on the floor…. had a tuned exhaust, two pipes on one side. Sounded really good, almost Jag like.
White Ford Aerostar Cargo, 4.2 liter GM Atlas 6, 5-speed manual, Red Vinyl seats, matching shag carpet, AM/FM tape deck, trailer hitch, purple tinted windows.
Why the GM I6? The Ford 300 I6 was available during the Aerostar era.
Either a ’76 or ’77 Ford Thunderbird, 76-78 Cadillac Eldorado, or a 71-78 Oldsmobile Toronado. I love 70’s American personal luxury coupes!
I wished GM could have offered full 350 4-bbl motors in 1978-79 Malibus and Monte Carlos, no restrctions.
Or, same year Pontiac 400’s in Grand Ams/Prix. Or better yet, Olds 403 in G body Cutlass Supremes.
Lighter bodies, big motors as the 60’s.
2wd 69 blazer withl-71? 72. 427 with a m-22 and a 12 bolt Ill take mine in black on black. please.
A Lincoln Mark VII LSC with an EFI 5.8L w/all the Cobra goodies and a 5 speed manual transmission.
Having a 5sp would have been a nice option for the VII as well as the VIII and they had all the parts in the bin to do the VII and most of them to do the VIII.
The 5.8 never would have flown though, since it couldn’t be installed in the normal manner on the assembly line. The norm was to bolt the engine/trans to the cross member and install them as an assembly from underneath. The fully dressed 5.8 was too wide to do that way it was alright for the very limited number of Mustangs that got it though.
The last gen impala is one I like but I wish they made it rear wheel drive. Still a compfy cruiser but could have been so much better.
An Impala Sports Coupe. Doesn’t have to be a hardtop, but in a larger car, the back seat passengers MUST be able to open their windows!
Yes, you can add an SS option, too.
Oh – change the Cruze to either Chevy ll or Nova. Thank you.
1978 Ford Fiesta SVT — turbo 4-banger with some suspension upgrades and wider tires would do just nicely.
Well, I wish Detroit, along with Fond du Lac made a marine engine out of the Atlas 4.2 inline 6. Large displacement and narrow design along with port fuel injection to replace the GM 292’s in my boat would be nice. Call them the MerCruiser 4.2.
As far as cars go, I would like to have seen a 1996 Lincoln Town Coupe and a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham 2-Door
Here are the Twin inline 6’s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e5lXFkwPGY&feature=youtu.be
Twin V6s/V8s are too wide and the MerCruiser 3.0 4 cylinder is too wimpy.
Yeah I’d have liked them to have offered a coupe version of the Aero Panthers.
HELLO I WAS WONDERING WHAT CAMSHAFT SPECS OR GRIND YOU HAVE ON YOUR 292 MARINE ENGINES,I AM REPLACING MY 250 MERCRUISER(165) WITH A 292 AND WAS WONDERING WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST CAM ? THE ENGINE IS GOING IN A 22’REINELL CABIN.. THANK YOU MUCH SAG7374@HOTMAIL.COM
OK, as appealing as a Corvair Lakewood Spyder wagon is to me, I’d skip it for the reasons mentioned in that article and go with the Pontiac version – a ’63 Tempest Safari: lose the (admittedly great) 326 V8, get the Olds Jetfire turbo version of Buick’s aluminum engine, risk explodation and use some super-secret order code to get the 4-speed manual from the Trophy-4 engine, A/C, heavy duty everything, whatever the best suspension and tires you could get were, paint it red and chill in an enchanted forest just like this…
Well…if we can jump years around a bit…how about the Jeep 2.5 four with EFI…which was derived from the AMC six family…in a Gremlin, in place of that era’s too-heavy, underpowered 232 six? Just for the halibut, keep the Warner three-on-the-floor. That computerized Jeep mill could handle it – it had more power than the 304 V8 of the Gremlin era.
A lightened front-end; the smoothness of EFI…and power to boot. On a singular car design, which on a good day was a joy just out of the perversity of it all.
Where to start???
A ’79 Dodge St. Regis with a 440.
A ’96 Thunderbird with a 4.6 liter and a 5 speed. I would have ordered mine that way if it had been available.
Any aero Panther with a 5.4 liter.
I’ll think of more as soon as I post this.
Middle sized ford or merc ( any approx fairmont size) with truck 300-6
Middle sized mopar like dart with aussie chrysler hemi slant six
Nova sized chev with the 4.3 or since we are dreaming the atlas 4200
Or I would be happy to have the Concord that I did own with the 258.
Any of these with a five or six speed manual would make me grin ear to ear.
If it can be a truck, I’ll just keep the S10 4.3/700r4 that I have now. Sorry but sometimes I think we don’t appreciate what we have till they are gone. Having the concord back would make me just as happy as the truck today. Neither has a stick and that would be better.
How about a 65 Chevelle 300 2 dr. Wagon dressed in a Malibu SS trim. A true 10 year newer Nomad.
A Chevrolet I would have liked to see: 1964 Chevy II Nova SS Convertible with 283 V8. The 64 was first Chevy II with V8, but two-door hardtop, convertible and SS were dropped. Due to popular demand, hardtop (Nova and Nova SS) was reinstated mid-year but convertible was gone forever.
While we’re dreaming… how about a 1973 Pontiac 2+2?
Take a base Catalina and add stuff GM already produced in 1973 like the Super Duty 455, Munchie 4-speed (clutch pedals/Z-bar out of a 6-cylinder Bel Air),
3.42 limited slip axle (borrowed from the GS Riviera), and the RTS handling package offered on the Bonneville.
The package could include existing ’73 Catalina options like dual sport mirrors, paint stripes, and Rally Gauge cluster. Base wheel treatment would be body color painted 7:” wide steelies with dog dishes with Rally IIs optional.
Small 2+2 emblems would look nice everywhere the “GrandVille” Script normally mounts (top RH of hood & decklid; just below the “Catalina” emblems on the front fenders).
Substituting a small tach in place of the clock would be freakin’ awesome and I won’t be greedy & ask for bucket seats and a console since a bench seat/4-speed is way cooler to me.
I would regret losing the clock so let’s have a vertical bar tach where the PRNDSL is now.
That would be cool to see the vertical tach on a car like the ’73. Would fit right in there.
Oh heck, why not a 4-speed ’71-’73 Riviera while we’re at it? The GS Rivieras came with a 3.42 axle and the Stage 1 was optional. Some Rivieras were already equipped with bucket seats and consolette anyway so a 4-speed shifter could be mounted just fore of the mini-console.. That would be cool.
How about a black, 1995 Ford Taurus SHO wagon with the 3.2 liter V-6? I would never get rid of that car.
how about a 1985 Fleetwood Brougham coupe…with the 1970 400 hp 500? From what I understand, the original downsized Cadillac V8 in the 77 model was the same basic engine, and the 85 is the same car as the 77….certainly would solve the problem of the aluminum V8 the 85 came with proactively…..
A Plymouth Horizon with a slushbox, crank windows, and soft Corinthian leather.
2004-08 Regular Cab Longbed 4×4 F150 with the 4.5L V6 Powerstroke (aka VT 275) and a 6 speed automatic. I’d also want a Ute style flatbed on it for easy loading and more cargo capacity.
2006 Long Wheelbase TJ Wrangler Rubicon with the 2.8 I4 VM Motori Diesel and 6 speed manual. The rest of the word gets a Wangler Diesel made in Toledo, just not the USDM.
If I was not limited to Detroit I’d have a 2009 Subaru Legacy GT Wagon with their Diesel and a 6M trans.
2nd Runner up would be a Jetta TDI Spartwagen 6M with AWD and all the DPF/emissions tomfolery deleted.
I think I’ve mentioned this in other comments on this site, but I always wondered why Mercury didn’t offer a Cougar convertible in the 1967-68 body.
And all these other suggestions have inspired me: a wagon version of the colonnade Grand Am.
+1 for a 67/68 Cougar convertible,if only….
The sad thing about a Grand Am wagon colonnade, there was one prototype who was built.
Some folks even go further by creating some “what if”, a Grand Am convertible
http://www.tachrev.com/GrandAm1973-75.htm
1988 Mercury Sable two-door convertible for me please. They built just one.
Call me crazy, but as a child I dreamed of a C3 (’68-’70’s) Corvette wagon, a shooting brake, as the Brits say. Loved the ’65-’66 Mustang version, there was at least one of those made. The Volvo 1800es was awesome!
1992 Eagle Premier ES Limited with a twin turbo 3.0 V6 from a Dodge Stealth and a 5 speed in white with a blue leather interior. Or for the ultimate sleeper a stock Dodge Dynasty with the same engine.
Could you get me one too, but with an automatic!? Your ideas are both simply irresistible.
Well, since you asked…
1) A first generation Chrysler LHS trimmed and badged “Imperial”-you can keep the hidden headlights, but I want spread winged eagles, a bordello interior, and all the toys.
2) A ’71 Monte Carlo hardtop sedan. I’ve seen pictures of a GM styling exercise and it looks fantastic.
3) An ’89 Taurus SHO wagon. I came thisclose to buying my boss’ ’89 SHO when it came off lease in 1991 but the insurance quote gave me apoplexy. All the fun of a first-gen SHO AND a wagon to boot? Sign me up.
4) An LT-1 powered ’92 Olds Custom Cruiser. My late lamented ’92 with the low-suds 5.7 was a comfortable cruiser with a nicely laid out and sturdy interior. My ’94 Roadmaster wagon had the same good bones, but one could tell where GM had squeezed every nickel out of the interior and the parts you touched and sat on. The combination would be the best of both worlds.
1972 Pontiac GTO Convertible.
2 simple letters: SJ.
1974 Javelin with the quad taillights rather than the light bar with a 4-speed, disc brakes all around, and a non-smogged 401. Ditch the cheesy vinyl roof as well.
A first-gen Pacer with a rotary as originally envisioned.
A production AMX/3.
I like your AMX/3 idea, but that’s more than a model/trim variation. Closer to “What concept car do you wish had gone into production?” 🙂
Among new cars, a blue Chevy Sonic Turbo hatch with 6M and the LTZ wheels and sunroof but the LT cloth interior in “brick”. (Not just color inside and out but blue-orange contrast. And vinyl seats=bad)
All-time, probably a ’68-72 X-body with a Pontiac OHC 6 and 4-speed.
What, no Studebakers??? How about a 1963 Paxton-supercharged Super Lark R2, but with a Hurst shifter on the four-speed, bucket seats, big four-wheel discs and every possible tweak to shocks, suspension and tires.
289 hp from 289 cu. in., 7.2 sec. to 60, 132 mph tops. The sleeper of all sleepers.
(photo from Hooniverse)
OK, Mike – I’ll take a 1964 Wagonaire with the Packard 352 (out of the 57 Golden Hawk) but in R-2 form with the supercharger. And the 4 speed stick (with overdrive?), with bucket seats and a console.
And maybe both an Avanti and a GT Hawk as convertibles.
Even a 1964 version of the R2 Super Lark would be a hoot.
That’s a sweet three-car garage.
I never noticed until now – what a fortune Rolls-Royce could’ve saved themselves in the ’60s if they had just bought the Lark body dies from Studebaker instead of designing their own car that looked so much like a ’63 Lark…
I could do a ’74 (first year of disc brakes and 4spd trans) FJ40 Land Cruiser, but with an EFI 300 Ford six swapped in.