It’s too bad that I just missed Bicentennial Fever in America: the cheesy cartoons, the shared sense of pride and purpose, the auto manufacturers’ ability to exploit a holiday for potential profits…it must have been a magical time. It might be that the ’69 SC-Rambler was the first salvo in patriotic paint jobs, but the ’72 Mustang Sprint and ’74 “Spirit of America” Impala were not far behind.
Actually, the Mustang Sprint was the Alpha Male in a trifecta of flag-waving Fords in 1972. The “Sprint” was basically an appearance package for the Pinto, Maverick, and Mustang, and would not be the last ploy Dearborn attempted using these three specific vehicles. 1976’s “Stallion” package comes to mind.
Ford introduced the Sprint in February of 1972, and separated the option into two packages, A and B. How creative! According to my Mustang Recognition Guide, Package A consisted of the special paint job, the Mach 1-style grille and driving lamps, dual sport mirrors, white sidewall tires, trim rings, and a special interior. Our featured Sprint would have been a Package B car, which also included Magnum 500 wheels and 15-inch tires.
Those seats are the absolute visual representation of the rockin’ cheesiness I alluded to in the first paragraph. Americans would never stand for this kind of seat cover today, and no automaker would ever offer it. In fact, consumers are lucky to buy a new car with an interior that isn’t 100% basic black. Walk into your local Ford dealership and ask for a new GT with the “Sprint” interior option and see how far you get.
This Sprint has the console mounted clock, the fondly remembered through the rose colored earbuds of time 8-track player, and, of course, the special interior. Standard equipment was the “looking out from a bunker” feel that is currently in vogue, but in 1972, it took some getting used to.
Of course, Ford was not the only one to cash in on “Bicentennial Fever.” Chevrolet offered the “Spirit of America” line in 1974, including the Vega! Buick offered the “Spirit of ’76” lineup. My wife and I were wondering what Wheaties boxes of the time must have looked like, but we speculated that they were probably red, white, and blue somehow.
General Motors still owns a “Spirit of America” Impala, and proudly displays it at its Heritage Center. It’s obvious that GM’s paint scheme was a little more subdued than Ford’s ’72 Sprints, so maybe good taste was beginning to win the day.
I don’t think that taste, however, is what consumers wanted at this heady time in American history. Subtle pinstriping? Body colored wheels? Where are the flags? Where’s the brass band here?
Even the interior is subdued, by the standards of the day. We have white. We have red. Where’s the blue, GM? Where’s the blue?
Actually, the blue was an optional color on “Spirit of America” cars, and in harmony with a white vinyl top, must have been the kind of spectacle America expected at this time.
If I’ve hit on an ironic tone, it’s not entirely intentional. The other day, my wife and I were discussing how interesting it would have been to live through the bicentennial, when everything had that extra spark of ’70s cheesy fun. It seems like consumerism is taken a lot more seriously today for whatever reason, although I have absolutely no facts or statistics to back up that assertion.
Therefore, on America’s (historically fairly arbitrary) 238th birthday, let us celebrate a time when America had the guts to market neat cars like the Sprint and the Spirit of America, and it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek.
(note: Note: A rerun of an older post.)
For further reading, I’ll refer you to the following nugget by our own incomparable Dave Skinner.
249th birthday.
My understanding is that the ’72 Fords were Olympics themed. They were offered in Canada as well with a Canadian flag decal on the rear quarter.
Yup.
Fun times they were, also remarkably cheesy but that’s America in a nutshell .
-Nate
The Ag industry got in on the festivities, too…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/fieldside-classics/fieldside-classics-case-1570-spirit-of-76-tractor/
If I didn’t know you didn’t live through it, I’d never had guessed. Yes, cheesy bicentennial stuff was everywhere, as was that omnipresent star logo. The hype was already clearly ratcheted up to this level by 1974 and was even more so when 1976 finally rolled around.
I remember seeing the Spirit of America Chevys – the Nova seemed to be the most common, the Vega the next most. I don’t recall seeing the SoA Impala, but maybe I just missed it as it’s more subtle than the others. I don’t recall seeing the Fords at all. The red-white-and-blue everything looked badly dated by 1978, including these cars.
Make mine the Maverick please!
Remember liking the “Pinto” version and the “Nova”. They should have done a “4dor”, edition of the “Maverick”.
1974 was the first year of Chevy’s distinguishing the Impala from the Caprice with a unique front clip. At the time I thought the Impala got the better of that deal. Then, in typical Detroit fashion, the “luxe” styling was handed down to the prosaic model, and Caprice got a new look.
Standard equipment was the “looking out from a bunker” feel that is currently in vogue, but in 1972, it took some getting used to.
Yeah, I really hate the high-beltlines and narrow sight lines of today’s modern vehicles. One of the worst was the last generation Camaro but it’s a ‘feature’ of just about anything sold today.
As to the bicentennial-themed cars of the period, besides the AMC cars with red, white, and blue color schemes (the Javelin Trans Am specials were another), one that’s not technically the same, but sure looked like it, was the Dodge Dart Sport ‘Hang 10’.
AMC in early on the red, white & blue thing with the 1970 “The Machine”
AMC was way more ‘in your face’ with the red, white, and blue color schemes of the Rambler, Rebel, and Javelin.
The Big 3 were more subtle about it, with essentially white cars that had some more tasteful (mostly) blue and red trim.
A fascinating thing is how none of them released their patriotic models in the same year as another manufacturer.
Friend owned a notchback “A” package Mustang. 302 3 speed manual and a radio.
The year 1976 was notable in Canada because the Montreal Olympics. For that reason, we got all manner of Olympic themed cars., all from GM. After the games were over, they were sold on the open market. I recall seeing them everywhere as a kid, as I was living in Montreal at the time.
Fast forward to 2010 and Vancouver hosted the winter Olympics and GM again supplied the cars necessary for the event. There were lots of them around but time does not favour GM cars. I haven’t seen one in years.
Can’t believe I’m writing this, but of these, I like the ‘74 Impala hardtop the best. Chevy altered the shape of the rear quarter window somewhat, enlarging and squaring off the shape versus the 1971-73 models. In the ad above, it looks quite sharp, even with those porcine flanks.
It was the BUYcentennial SELLabration.
I remember these, especially the Fords. They did not bother me; my attitude then and now is the more cars sold the better for the economy. I did not want either the Fords or the Chevys; I drove a green Volvo then and was not motivated to buy.
It is July 4; I am proud to be an American and had fun at a July 4th parade/car show/fly by of two Colorado ANG F-16s. So, no issue with the Ford/Chevy patriotic marketing from me.
Was there ever a Renault, Volkswagen, Toyota, Volvo, Hyundai, Fiat, Skoda, Seat, Lada, etc. release of a model that celebrated national pride, colors and patriotism? I doubt it. Maybe there were some Minis or Jaguars painted with the union jack but c’mon. It is July 4 and this is America. I’m proud and I hope the Americans who bought those Fords and Chevys in the ’70s were too.
My driver’s ed car was the envy of my high school’s fleet of driver ed cars. While most of them were Pontiac LeMans, and other GM Colonnades, there was one fuul size coupe. It was a 1974 SoA Chevy Impala. Instead of a dark red dash and carpeting, it was a dark blue with matching carpeting. White vinyl seats, white exterior and white vinyl roof. Tasteful r/w/b pinstriping, sporty wheels and unlike the smaller Colonnades, a full size.
Sadly, it drove like a 1974 Impala. It’s tough to imagine today what it would have been like to drive these cars, and as a new driver, had no comparison, but I don’t miss them at all.
I was talking to my Mom on the phone earlier and funny enough she actually brought up her friend having a brand new spirit of America Vega they road-tripped from WI to FL. Both my parents were class of 74 so it adds up. I joked to her you’re lucky you made it and even though she’s never understood cars(though always encouraged my passion) she sure got that joke!
These cars are kind of an exception to my rule where when I hear people talk about buying their greyscale cars because of resale value vs actual colors I scoff, but these sorts of things are the exception, you bought a very expensive item you’ll be using on a daily basis themed around an event that will officially happen a few years? None of these went on to be collectors items, the handful I’ve ever seen in person (which I’ve seen maybe 3-4 Mustangs and about as many Novas, never the others), were all in clapped out survivor condition, basically treated by their current owners as any given patina car, not sought out in the slightest for this novelty. A few years ago I bought a USA hat from Walgreens because I needed a light hat and it happened to be this time of year, and I actually wore that hat a lot because it was good fitting and functional, but I’d feel silly throwing that hat on in the winter!
Or the Eldorado ‘Bicentennial Edition’ from 1976? Very tastefully done for an over the top car.
I was a completely car obsessed kid, and I vividly remember finding the Chevy “Spirit of America” flyer tucked into the Sunday comics section of The Birmingham News. I must have spent hours, if not days, pouring over the photos and specs of those red, white and blue special editions. But the Nova always left me scratching my head. Why the black vinyl top, mirrors and dash? The standard Nova brochure boasted ten (!!) available vinyl top colors, surely white, red or blue was among them. And would it have been so hard to paint the mirrors white and give it a blue dash? Even at that age, I was convinced then the person who planned the Nova Spirit of America was just plain lazy or color blind. Maybe both. And honestly? I still am.