Car Carrier of the Day: GM X Bodies and One A Body Hauled By Another Chevy Titan
– Posted on September 4, 2020
-
-
-
American Brands: GM 
American Brands: Ford 
American Brands: Chrysler 
American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others 
Automotive Histories and Misc. 
Asian Brands 
UK Brands 
Australian Brands 
European Brands 
Cars Of A Lifetime & Auto-Biography 
Buses 
Trucks, Pickups and Vans 
Design 
Trains, Planes & Ships 
Motorcycles, Trikes, Bicycles 
Engines, Transmissions and other Tech 
Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment 
RVs, Motorhomes, Trailers, Campers
It’s funny how squashing that white Omega to its bump-stops and blocking out a diagonal line from the top of its C-pillar to its rear bumper makes it look like an ’81 Seville’s little brother.
Interesting how the Omega and Skylark looked far more Cadillac-like with their mini-Seville formal styling, than the Cimarron ever did.
GM was duplicating its efforts in most segments by 1986, with really questionable results. The X-bodies and their N-body successors were fighting with the J-bodies in the compact segment, the midsize A-bodies were competing with the G-bodies that they had nominally replaced, and the B-body Caprice was nominally in the same segment as the H-bodies in the full size segment, while the FWD C-body and RWD D-body coexisted in the Cadillac lineup. Then there were the E- and K-body cars, which seem to have distinct structural engineering compared to similarly-sized H-bodies.
It’s easy to imagine GM taking a more focused and committed approach in the 1980s that used a single, modern platform in each market segment, and invested more into the quality of these products – X/N-bodies for compacts, A-bodies and then GM10 for midsize, H- and C-bodies for large cars (these were actually meaningfully similar), the E- and K-body models moving to the H-body platform with perhaps a bit of extra structural reinforcement, and the T-body subcompact keeping up to date with its European variant (that is, the Chevette moving to FWD for model year 1980 or thereabouts, along with the Opel Kadett D).
In this alternative universe, an X- or N-body Cimarron would have kept stylistic kinship with the first-generation Seville that you’re pointing out.
Cool pic! This photo reminds me just how generic the shape of the X-body Omega and Skylark were. If you told a child with some art skills to draw a 4 door car, it would probably look a lot like these, then or now. I’ll bet a non-car-enthusiast member of the public at the time would have had a hard time even saying what corporation these cubes were made by. The lack of hubcaps helps to anonymize them further.
They also remind me of the cars you see in architectural conceptual drawings from the 70’s to the 90’s at least, where they have cars around the building that had a vaguely modern, blocky, unspecified shape. The MN12 Tbird and Cougars always reminded me of the 2 doors in those drawings.
Somehow they manage to make the lone Pontiac 6000 look kind of unique and slightly stylish.
And right in the middle of the this GM Land lurks an F-150:
Another Chevy Titan and its sporting the cast spoke wheels. Those were a pain to service, caused excessive tire wear if not carefully setup, had to pull the whole hub assembly on most to service the brakes. Not sure if there was a redeeming quality for using them, other than they might have been cheaper than disc wheels. Best thing that ever happened was the hub piloted wheels. Budd wheels were better than the cast spoke but they had their own problems.
Spokes were kind of an east coast thing. I think in the early days spokes could handle more weight. For some reason they still use them on container chassis.
Never saw too many Astros or Titans set up as auto transporters. The Brigadier was by far the most popular in the 70’s and 80’s.
Yes, the Brigadier was a good improvement over the previous truck even though it was still basically the same cab. Much easier service. You could almost have the engine out of the chassis on a Brig before you could get the radiator out of the HN-HJ models.
We had a lot of garbage trucks than ran spoke wheels, they would overload those trucks so bad That the sidewalls of the duals would kiss each over and eventually blow out. The worst offenders would start to crush the axle housings where the spring rested. We had some that would come in with multiple fractured crossmembers. That was a fun job to fix. The factory had a different crossmember to use but you had to drill some additional holes in the framr to install it. Always fun to do when there’s a stinking garbage body right above your head. It was a large national company that was having the problem so the truck manufacturer was all to happy to do this because if they didn’t they could kiss that business good bye.
Always liked the X body sedans (Olds & Buick). If GM had avoided the crippling short cuts, these could have garnered some Asian import buyers. Great potential, piss poor execution.
“Could a, would a, should a”!!
Always liked the X body sedans (Olds & Buick). If GM had avoided the crippling short cuts, these could have garnered some Asian import buyers. Great potential, piss poor execution. Arrogance in the 1st degree without mitigating circumstances.
“Could a, would a, should a”!!