I bet the ’77 to ’79 Thunderbird used the front and rear bumpers of the Elite.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they were also used on the ’77 to ’79 Cougar.
Another Lido trick to hold down tooling costs.
I would be curious to know how the development budgets for the 1970s PLCs from the Big Three stacked up against each other. GM probably spent the most, with the deepest pockets and the most apparent sheetmetal differentiation. Chrysler did a beautiful job with the Cordoba, but the poor Charger looks like it got the leftovers. I’d bet that FoMoCo has spent the least.
Looks like VW South Africa kept producing and updating the T3 up to 2002, which from 1991 onward got Audi inline-5 engines with a whopping 120 to 135 hp!
In the late 1970’s there was a 1956 Facel Vega parked near the courthouse in down town Los Angeles, it sat there for a few years .
There’s a nice group in Palos Verdes that gathers near the ocean Sunday mornings, often a lovely Facel Vega shows up to make all the British Sports Cars look dull =8-) .
At some point in Austin history, the dealership changed hands and became Charles Maund Olds-Cadillac, and eventually moved north to a new facility located on U.S. 183 (Research Boulevard). They later added a Toyota franchise. They gave up or lost the Cadillac franchise sometime after Oldsmobile went away, but by that time, it picked up Volkswagen. Longtime Buick dealer acquired the Cadillac franchise afterwards.
These are the interesting tweener cars like the GM X and N Bodies that were probably sort of created by the fuel shortages and intended to take the midsize car range. (I bet at some dark points in the early 80s it was thought that the new A Bodies and upcoming Taurus would be the fleet toppers). But as time went on a lot of the bigger metal hung on, thus creating a proliferation of platforms. Of course GM did it even more extreme because they would often leave the old platform in production for years to fill some small size gap, such as keeping the Ciera and Century for the whole length of their intended successor’s lives.
Now that crossovers have largely superseded sedans you see hints of this, but with some exceptions you generally see the compact (Equinox, CRV, RAV4 and Rogue) outsell the “midsize” 2 row models. Ford already killed the Edge and now may killing the Escape, leaving a large gap between the pretty cramped Bronco Sport and the “standard size” Explorer. Meanwhile Chevy essentially matches its sedan size lineup from 40 years ago with varying crossovers as do most of the imports.
I worked as Trainmaster on the LIRR for many years. We put the Hy-rail trucks on the rails at grade crossings or places where the roadbed was built up for such purposes.
Ride parallel with the rails and put down the wheels… Smaller vehicles had hand jacks front and rear to lower the wheels / raise the car.
I rarely drive automatics and have never driven a column shift, I find floor shift automatics counter intuitive, why is reverse the first gear after park, and why pull back to go forwards?
Eric 703 is there really a standardised pattern for manual transmissions? With anything from 3-6 forward gears and reverse being one any of the 4 corners. With a Citroen 2CV or the ZF gearbox favoured by certain makers first and reverse were opposite each other supposedly to make parking easier, not rocking in snow. Some Fords and VWs had reverse top left next to first and with linkages so imprecise that you only knew which direction you were going when you let the clutch out – gingerly.
Not from the 50’s or 60’s, they’re GMT800 Chevrolet 2500’s or 3500’s with Union Pacific; I shot these in January 2007 in Tehachapi, California near the Tehachapi Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi_Loop which is worth a detour off the highway 58 to check out. This gives a good side-by-side comparison between identical vehicles with and without rail wheels.
Late to the party here Joe, but great post as usual. I wish that I had seen this earlier so that I could’ve commented in a timelier manner.
Anyway, I may’ve shared these here before, but I have two brief stories, both involving silver Elites with red vinyl landau tops and red interiors, which was a very popular color combination for these cars.
The Brand-New Elite:
A kid in my drafting class, let’s call him Charlie (because that was his name) came from a family that owned a Ford dealership. His father bought him (maybe it was a demo? Who knows?) a new Elite to use during our sophomore year (’75 – ’76). While many of us were driving a hand-me-down LTD, this guy had a brand-new car to drive. For his senior year (we graduated in ’78) he was granted a new ’78 Ford F-150 with 4WD, of course.
The Old Survivor Daily Driver:
About nine or ten years ago, right around the time I discovered Curbside Classic, on my commute, every day for about 2 to 3 years, I would see this late middle-aged lady driving down I-95 between Baltimore and Washington in one of these. It could very well have been Charlie’s old car for all I know, but there it was. Every day. Without fail. It probably had the venerable 351-2V like I had in my LTD. You couldn’t kill that thing. Although one day, I no longer saw that car on my commute. Either it went to the smasher, or she got a different job and the thing is still serving her well.
Anyway, always happy to see here you on a Tuesday!
Pretty sure that Lunar Green Ford pickup is a 3/4 ton, not an F100, which was a 1/2 ton. Weren’t the 3/4 ton models called F250s, even back then? I know they had different axles, wheels, suspensions, and underpinnings.
Ah – you’re right… thanks for pointing that out. Zooming in on the original photo, I can see the fender badge says Ford 250. I’ll amend the text. Thanks again!
Despite growing up at a time when paper calendars and planners were getting more and more irrelevant by the year, I still employ both. The paper calendar for big dates and the paper planner for mundane tasks.
This was a great read. Thanks.
The photo of the 1984 Pontiac Bonneville container the drooping headliner so common on GM cars of this period. I had a ‘83 Cutlass and used a stapler to keep the headliner from drooping on my head.
I never understood the distinction between the “Bullet Bird” of ’61–63; and “Flair Bird” of ’64–’66. To me, they’re the same car with year-to-year sheetmetal changes. I guess the sheetmetal changes were more substantial for ’64.
They’re all gorgeous, the beauty being skin-deep, and into the passenger compartment. The moment you investigate under the hood, or what connects the wheels to the rest of the vehicle…you realize how incompetent the engineering was.
The Glamour Bird was better in that regard, especially once they dropped the ancient FE in favor of the 385-series engine in ’68. And as a 2-door, not a bad looker, until Bunkie went all Pontiac on it’s nose, and screwed-up the sides.
I recognize that the FE engine had the potential for greatness. Le Mans saw to that. But aside from a relative handful of side-oiler 427s, and the 428 CJ/SCJ, the bread-and-butter and even most of the mild-performance FEs were somewhere between dreadful and just-adequate. What Ford COULD build was impressive, versus what Ford DID build in quantity was…lacking.
I owned a ‘65 Rangoon red with a vinyl top (called Palomino…it was white). It was a landau like the one in the advertisement above.
It was a very good car, rode well, would glide along. I truly enjoyed that car, but age and health all take their toll and it was sold to a good home.
I miss that Planet Patrol dashboard.
Every car I’ve owned has had a sagging headliner. Some I just dealt with, the nicer ones I fixed. My theory, for what it’s worth, is they sag due to moisture which breaks down the glue. Therefore my process is to strip the board clean with a bristle brush. Then use polar fleece held down with contact cement, as both are water resistant. It usually takes a gallon, more for wagon type vehicles. So far so good. I did my Celebrity over 20 years ago, and even after the roof leaked again and stained the fabric, it never came loose again.
I was wondering what the Michelin Man was really smoking?
They used to have really good calendars where I drove trucks, everything from classic cars, to scantily clad ladies. Depended on whose shop you were in. Then they hired an HR director and all of them were gone! It might offend someone they said. Being the only woman driver at the time I said Who?
We had one for 2 years. Nothing special to report, other than one thing. An Elite with a Canadian emissions spec no cat dual exhaust 460 will burn rubber VERY well.
I bet the ’77 to ’79 Thunderbird used the front and rear bumpers of the Elite.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they were also used on the ’77 to ’79 Cougar.
Another Lido trick to hold down tooling costs.
I would be curious to know how the development budgets for the 1970s PLCs from the Big Three stacked up against each other. GM probably spent the most, with the deepest pockets and the most apparent sheetmetal differentiation. Chrysler did a beautiful job with the Cordoba, but the poor Charger looks like it got the leftovers. I’d bet that FoMoCo has spent the least.
The LTD II reused most of the Elite’s front clip other than the header panel, lights and grille
Looks like VW South Africa kept producing and updating the T3 up to 2002, which from 1991 onward got Audi inline-5 engines with a whopping 120 to 135 hp!
Well, I learned a new word in German that I had never heretofore seen – PRITSCHEN. Thanks for the essay and the German lesson. Vielen Danken.
Nice .
In the late 1970’s there was a 1956 Facel Vega parked near the courthouse in down town Los Angeles, it sat there for a few years .
There’s a nice group in Palos Verdes that gathers near the ocean Sunday mornings, often a lovely Facel Vega shows up to make all the British Sports Cars look dull =8-) .
-Nate
Elite seems a strange name for a car like this.
When I hear the name Elite, I think of these. I wish I could block them out, but there were way too many around back in the day to forget them.
At some point in Austin history, the dealership changed hands and became Charles Maund Olds-Cadillac, and eventually moved north to a new facility located on U.S. 183 (Research Boulevard). They later added a Toyota franchise. They gave up or lost the Cadillac franchise sometime after Oldsmobile went away, but by that time, it picked up Volkswagen. Longtime Buick dealer acquired the Cadillac franchise afterwards.
Nice variety ! .
In the early 1990’s I was looking at used pickups and came across a Ford F150 with these wheels, they claimed the frame was bad so it sold for scrap .
-Nate
These are the interesting tweener cars like the GM X and N Bodies that were probably sort of created by the fuel shortages and intended to take the midsize car range. (I bet at some dark points in the early 80s it was thought that the new A Bodies and upcoming Taurus would be the fleet toppers). But as time went on a lot of the bigger metal hung on, thus creating a proliferation of platforms. Of course GM did it even more extreme because they would often leave the old platform in production for years to fill some small size gap, such as keeping the Ciera and Century for the whole length of their intended successor’s lives.
Now that crossovers have largely superseded sedans you see hints of this, but with some exceptions you generally see the compact (Equinox, CRV, RAV4 and Rogue) outsell the “midsize” 2 row models. Ford already killed the Edge and now may killing the Escape, leaving a large gap between the pretty cramped Bronco Sport and the “standard size” Explorer. Meanwhile Chevy essentially matches its sedan size lineup from 40 years ago with varying crossovers as do most of the imports.
I too love well illustrated calendars .
-Nate
I worked as Trainmaster on the LIRR for many years. We put the Hy-rail trucks on the rails at grade crossings or places where the roadbed was built up for such purposes.
Ride parallel with the rails and put down the wheels… Smaller vehicles had hand jacks front and rear to lower the wheels / raise the car.
I rarely drive automatics and have never driven a column shift, I find floor shift automatics counter intuitive, why is reverse the first gear after park, and why pull back to go forwards?
Eric 703 is there really a standardised pattern for manual transmissions? With anything from 3-6 forward gears and reverse being one any of the 4 corners. With a Citroen 2CV or the ZF gearbox favoured by certain makers first and reverse were opposite each other supposedly to make parking easier, not rocking in snow. Some Fords and VWs had reverse top left next to first and with linkages so imprecise that you only knew which direction you were going when you let the clutch out – gingerly.
Not from the 50’s or 60’s, they’re GMT800 Chevrolet 2500’s or 3500’s with Union Pacific; I shot these in January 2007 in Tehachapi, California near the Tehachapi Loop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehachapi_Loop which is worth a detour off the highway 58 to check out. This gives a good side-by-side comparison between identical vehicles with and without rail wheels.
Late to the party here Joe, but great post as usual. I wish that I had seen this earlier so that I could’ve commented in a timelier manner.
Anyway, I may’ve shared these here before, but I have two brief stories, both involving silver Elites with red vinyl landau tops and red interiors, which was a very popular color combination for these cars.
The Brand-New Elite:
A kid in my drafting class, let’s call him Charlie (because that was his name) came from a family that owned a Ford dealership. His father bought him (maybe it was a demo? Who knows?) a new Elite to use during our sophomore year (’75 – ’76). While many of us were driving a hand-me-down LTD, this guy had a brand-new car to drive. For his senior year (we graduated in ’78) he was granted a new ’78 Ford F-150 with 4WD, of course.
The Old Survivor Daily Driver:
About nine or ten years ago, right around the time I discovered Curbside Classic, on my commute, every day for about 2 to 3 years, I would see this late middle-aged lady driving down I-95 between Baltimore and Washington in one of these. It could very well have been Charlie’s old car for all I know, but there it was. Every day. Without fail. It probably had the venerable 351-2V like I had in my LTD. You couldn’t kill that thing. Although one day, I no longer saw that car on my commute. Either it went to the smasher, or she got a different job and the thing is still serving her well.
Anyway, always happy to see here you on a Tuesday!
I don’t really understand the appeal of the “Landau” concept at all.
What is it supposed to represent? Is it retro? Was Ford trying to recapture the excitement of the horse & buggy era? Where was Landau before all this?
It was mainly an association with formal cars (limousines and, er, hearses).
Pretty sure that Lunar Green Ford pickup is a 3/4 ton, not an F100, which was a 1/2 ton. Weren’t the 3/4 ton models called F250s, even back then? I know they had different axles, wheels, suspensions, and underpinnings.
Ah – you’re right… thanks for pointing that out. Zooming in on the original photo, I can see the fender badge says Ford 250. I’ll amend the text. Thanks again!
Despite growing up at a time when paper calendars and planners were getting more and more irrelevant by the year, I still employ both. The paper calendar for big dates and the paper planner for mundane tasks.
This was a great read. Thanks.
The photo of the 1984 Pontiac Bonneville container the drooping headliner so common on GM cars of this period. I had a ‘83 Cutlass and used a stapler to keep the headliner from drooping on my head.
That “Ford” in the initial pic looks rather new.
I never understood the distinction between the “Bullet Bird” of ’61–63; and “Flair Bird” of ’64–’66. To me, they’re the same car with year-to-year sheetmetal changes. I guess the sheetmetal changes were more substantial for ’64.
They’re all gorgeous, the beauty being skin-deep, and into the passenger compartment. The moment you investigate under the hood, or what connects the wheels to the rest of the vehicle…you realize how incompetent the engineering was.
The Glamour Bird was better in that regard, especially once they dropped the ancient FE in favor of the 385-series engine in ’68. And as a 2-door, not a bad looker, until Bunkie went all Pontiac on it’s nose, and screwed-up the sides.
I recognize that the FE engine had the potential for greatness. Le Mans saw to that. But aside from a relative handful of side-oiler 427s, and the 428 CJ/SCJ, the bread-and-butter and even most of the mild-performance FEs were somewhere between dreadful and just-adequate. What Ford COULD build was impressive, versus what Ford DID build in quantity was…lacking.
I owned a ‘65 Rangoon red with a vinyl top (called Palomino…it was white). It was a landau like the one in the advertisement above.
It was a very good car, rode well, would glide along. I truly enjoyed that car, but age and health all take their toll and it was sold to a good home.
I miss that Planet Patrol dashboard.
Every car I’ve owned has had a sagging headliner. Some I just dealt with, the nicer ones I fixed. My theory, for what it’s worth, is they sag due to moisture which breaks down the glue. Therefore my process is to strip the board clean with a bristle brush. Then use polar fleece held down with contact cement, as both are water resistant. It usually takes a gallon, more for wagon type vehicles. So far so good. I did my Celebrity over 20 years ago, and even after the roof leaked again and stained the fabric, it never came loose again.
I was wondering what the Michelin Man was really smoking?
They used to have really good calendars where I drove trucks, everything from classic cars, to scantily clad ladies. Depended on whose shop you were in. Then they hired an HR director and all of them were gone! It might offend someone they said. Being the only woman driver at the time I said Who?
We had one for 2 years. Nothing special to report, other than one thing. An Elite with a Canadian emissions spec no cat dual exhaust 460 will burn rubber VERY well.