Quote:
Originally Posted by LOWDOWN
Come on, now. Why was the original Z/28 such a vaunted car? Blindingly quick acceleration? No. Boss 302? No. Any Firebird Formula or Trans Am? No. Corvettes? Not really.
In 1979, 35 years ago, firebird outsold Camaro by a w-I-d-e margin. Over 100,000 TRANS AM's were sold. "Radial Tuned Suspension". WS6. NOT recent events, folks.
Original-era muscle cars were sold, largely, with taxi-cab trim and BIG mutha engines...and DRUM brakes...and OPTIONAL "handling packages" with anti-sway rear stabilizer bars. "Do those make it quicker in the 1/4-mile? No? Then I can't afford that crap..."
Don Yenko is credited with creating COPO 9737 - Sports conversion Package (Z/28 suspension/wheels/tires included), which EVERY YENKO Camaro produced in '69 had available. To give the car some semblance of "balance". And THAT was 45 years ago...
FE2, F41, Competition Handling Package (mandatory on all CJ Mustangs, along with Disc Brakes)... MAGIC components for folks who NEEDED some road-worthy balance in their lives...just to perhaps SAVE their lives...
"Handling" ain't some new-fangled camaro5-created "myth". It's been there all along, for the KNOWING...and the WISE.
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I think you mistake my post as meaning that new pony cars don't need any balance or handling. They do, it just doesn't need to be the main focus and priority. That's what 1LE and BOSS type cars are for, to fill that type of market. Even the great majority of those special cars will never touch a road course. I myself would rather have a good handling car with fantastic acceleration than a superior handling car with just good acceleration. I promise, that in the real world I am of the majority even if most people don't consciously know it. I don't even know ANYONE personally who have driven their cars to their handling limit in ANY type of environment and I know a lot of Vette owners. However, every single person that I know enjoys and frequently goes WOT in some sort of way. Yes, building cars that can go x time around a road course gets that brand good recognition from the Euro trash magazine writers, who in turn tell the reader it's a great car, who in turn automatically believes it's a great car and buys it. The fact of the matter is the VAST majority of those cars never experience their handling limit. They do quite often get driven hard in a straight line.