Which car replaced the trusty Comet? I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you in suspense for another week. You see, the Caliente convertible’s last trip from Art Center back to New Jersey in May 1972 included a detour to Washington, D.C., the site of Transpo 72, a huge transportation trade show sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Assembled on a 300-acre site at Dulles International Airport, the $10 million effort included the newest aircraft, high-speed rail, and mass transit concepts, as well as a variety of concept cars with enhanced occupant safety as their common focus.
As a Transportation Design major at Art Center, Transpo 72’s International Experimental Safety Vehicle Exhibit was my primary rationale for attending the event. The exhibit featured no less than twelve experimental safety vehicles, including entries from GM…
GM’s ESV. (Source: carstyling.eu)
Mercedes-Benz…
The Mercedes-Benz ESF 13 shown at Transpo 72. (Source: Mercedes-Benz Classic Archive)
Volkswagen…
Volkswagen’s ESVW. (Source: Volkswagen Newsroom)
And even Datsun and Toyota, also keen to share the spotlight at Dulles in May 1972…
Datsun and Toyota ESV concepts were also shown at Transpo. (Source: Car and Driver)
Yet another automotive OEM was present at Transpo 72: Volvo. The small Gothenburg, Sweden carmaker, established in 1927 as an offshoot of ball-bearing maker SKF, had entered the U.S. market only sixteen years earlier, in 1956. A few years later, engineer Nils Bohlin successfully encouraged Volvo to become the first automaker to add three-point seat belts as standard equipment, helping to establish a reputation for safety the brand still enjoys today.
Volvo’s Nils Bohlin (at left) demonstrates seat-belt use and narrowly averts an HR intervention. (Source: historydefined.net)
Volvo also chose Transpo 72 there, to show off its VESC (Volvo Experimental Safety Concept) vehicle. Like the other ESVs in evidence there, the VESC featured strengthened safety-cage construction, reinforced side guard door beams, an enhanced frontal crumple zone (which necessitated increased front overhang and overall length), a “friendlier” sloping front-end design with impact-absorbing front and rear bumpers, airbags for the driver and front passenger, a heavily padded instrument panel, impact-absorbing interior surfaces, and more conspicuous exterior lighting.
The Volvo VESC, displaying its prominent underbite.
In an earlier COAL, I alluded to an instance of “Volvo imprinting” that occurred at the tender age of eleven, when I had my first experience sitting in (and helping to shift) a nearly-new Volvo 544 owned by one of my mother’s work colleagues. Now, I realize (with the benefit of decades of hindsight) that examining the VESC at Transpo may have planted another subliminal seed. Compared with its experimental safety-vehicle peers, Volvo’s effort seemed more rational. Little attempt was made to embellish its safety features with then-current styling clichés. Despite (or maybe because of) that, its overall look was restrained and purposeful, the additional length, stouter A-, B-, and C-pillars, and revised front-end design combining to create a pragmatic and unified whole.
Under the skin of the Volvo VESC.
Of course, in mid-1972, Volvo was deep into a major revision of its 140-series product range, which would be introduced for the 1975 model year. Though unsuspecting observers might view it as a mere front-end facelift of the already nine-year old 140, the 240-series would usher in a fully redesigned front end structure, with McPherson strut suspension and improved crash-worthiness, topped off with a production version of the VESC’s more pedestrian-friendly frontal aspect.
The family resemblance to the VESC is obvious. (Source: www.media.volvocars.com)
Not long thereafter, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) selected the Volvo 240 as the benchmark vehicle with which to conduct a series of crash tests, leading to the issuance of the first 35-MPH frontal crash standard in 1978 (and buying 24 Volvo 240s in the process).
Back to the VESC. Seeing it in the flesh made a deep impression on me, that long-ago May day in D.C. It struck a chord with its intelligent approach to vehicle safety. It occurred to me that, assuming that I would eventually emerge from Art Center as a fledgling car designer, there might a spot for me somewhere beyond the Detroit Big Three.
But first, I needed new wheels to carry me westward again at summer’s end. All will be revealed in next week’s COAL, I promise.
The VESC probably was rather rational, because it re-cycled the Volvo P1560 prototype that was due to replace the 140/160 in the early ‘seventies.
Initially, it came in two sizes; a direct 140-successor and (I presume)180 with the PRV8 engine – which was a larger car.
I understand it was the uncertainty about the proposed US safety legislation that caused Volvo to lose their confidence and only its technology was incorporated into the 200-series instead. And the V8 lost two cylinders…
I went to Transpo. I remembered GM’s car had skinny A pillars (that didn’t pan out) and fat Bs, but not that the rest of the car was so ungainly. AI could do better. The rest of the show did not imprint on 11 y.o. me.
Funny that the Datsun looks like a Toyota, and the Toyota like a freak.
That guy helping Nils strap the lady in for the ride does give off an HR intervention is in the future vibe.
In “1972” it would a been “personnel”. No “H/R” in those days..
It is instructive that the federal government in 1972 was interested in the specific goal of transport safety, and primarily that of the user of the vehicle. Fifty years later its transport focus is instead the nebulous concept of climate change – regardless of the benefit, need or interest of the vehicle user.
The federal government back then was interested in other automotive related things as well besides safety that directly impact the “nebulous” concept of climate change.
1970
Congress passes the first major Clean Air Act, requiring a 90 percent reduction in emissions from new automobiles by 1975. President Richard Nixon establishes EPA, and the new agency is given it broad responsibility for regulating motor vehicle pollution. New cars must meet EPA emission standards for hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx). The law also directs EPA to set health-based “National Ambient Air Quality Standards” for six pollutants.
1971
EPA begins testing the fuel economy of cars, trucks, and other vehicles, the first step towards informing consumers about the gas mileage of their vehicles.
1972
Exhaust gas recirculation valves are developed as automakers strive to meet NOx standards.
etc.
I would have sworn that EGR valves/pipes were required starting in 1963. I thought the 1963 Family Falcon had it. Looked it up. You are right about 1972.
But I’m pretty sure that NHTSA is still a thing and still crashing cars etc.
You are thinking PCV valves…required in California in ’61 models, nationwide in ’63.
I was at Transpo 72.
My dad took me for my 11th birthday. Part of my enthusiasm for attending was due to my overall enthusiasm for trade shows and worlds fair-like things (Transpo? kinda…). But I also have to admit that my dad’s career focus at that time was transportation systems planning (he was an urban planner who in 1972 was working for AAA). So for him, it was work. Plus, being as it was at Dulles, it was local for us.
As more of a trains and planes guy in 1972, I mostly paid attention to the aircraft and the various mass transit exhibits. I recall being entirely fascinated by the Rohr prototypes for BART and what would become the Washington METRO subway cars. There was also the OTIS “People Mover” which I (and lots of other people) assumed would be simply what we would all be riding around in just about everywhere in the near future. (unless you spend as much time as I have at airports, that turned out to be a very flawed assumption)
Somewhere I have slides of a lot of that day’s trip. Thanks for the memories. 🙂
Fiat had an interesting line in safety concept vehicles, too.
Is that a young Phyllis Diller in the Volvo seatbelt promotional photo?
The GM safety car has some resemblance to the upcoming Colonnade cars.
Wasn’t it the PCV that was required for 1963?
No, that was the other Phyllis. Phyllis Lindstrom who had the Swedish connection 😉 She even drove a Volvo in the show, if I’m not mistaken.
So say others here at CC – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/features/cc-tv-the-cars-of-the-mary-tyler-moore-show/
Phyllis Diller just had “Fang”…and he wasn’t Swedish.
“Phyllis L” was married to “Dr Lars Lindstrom”. He would of been the “Swedish connection”.
In her own show, she is either “divorced” or “widowed”, lived in CA with “Lars’ Family.
I recall her driving a “Cordoba” I believe. Think the show only lasted two seasons or so.
At first, I really thought she looked like the comedienne. I had no idea… thanks!
How ridiculous, the assumption that a grown woman couldn’t fasten her own safety belts. If the boss wanted to cozy up to the blonde model, he could have just taken her out to dinner. It would be a better photo without the two guys crowding in.
OMG, my Dad and I attended that show! (at Dulles) – But we were there for the planes, more so than the cars…
I was only 12 (or maybe 11 going on 12 depending on what time of the year it was), but have vivid memories.. ok, a few might be fuzzy at nearly 64 years old now. 😉
Of course the Blue Angels performed, but there was another team, Red Devils maybe?
There was a display of vintage Blue Angles planes… Hellcats maybe?
Lots to walk around and see between performances.
But what really sticks out was the flybys preformed by a Lockheed L-1011 in Eastern Airlines livery… This plane was brand new at the time!
FFWD to now and I think there’s only one of them still flying and the rest are in the desert!
Man I feel old.
Does anybody know how many mph the VESC’s front bumper will withstand ?
Interesting, al these safety cars are beyond ugly .
-Nate