| All good points and to do that they would have had to start designing early on. Thus there would have been spying and info gathering by Ford and GM and Chrysler, per 1960.
After the Dodge and Plymouth big block 400 plus horse power was produced in 1962 came the mid-sized 1964 Ford Fairlane called the Thunderbolt with 427 ci which actually put out 500 + HP. They advertised less HP for insurance purposes.
How does that not get recognized as Muscle over the 1964 GTO?
Then came the 1964 light weight drag Dodges with aluminum from ends.
Still Dodge and Plymouth were 2 years ahead in 1962 which really ramped up and cause or started the muscle car scramble and Ford and GM had to tool up. Chrysler was already in production. On Jan 24, 2021, at 2:57 AM, Bill Watson <chrycoman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In all the discussions about the 1962 Plymouth and Dart everyone seems to be overlooking the 3rd company in the Big Three - Ford. It was known in 1959 that Ford Motor Company was working on a new line of cars smaller than the Galaxie but larger than Falcon. And Ford used the Falcon as the base for this new car. The result was the Fairlane for Ford dealers and Meteor for Mercury. And I suspect the Fairlane was the source of Chrysler's initial reaction to base the new downsized cars on the Valiant. When the 1962 models came out in the fall of 1961, the big comparison test was Fairlane, Plymouth and Chevy II. But Chevy II was soon separated from that group as it was a compact. leaving Fairlane / Meteor vs Plymouth / Dart.
Also, Chrysler was not the only firm working on new mid-size line cars. Back in 1962 Ford and Chrysler both attracted attention for coming out with new "super" compacts. The term "intermediate" came a little later. Given the time line I suspect Ford and Chrysler knew GM was working on a new compact for Chevrolet by 1959. By then the Chevy II styling would have been pretty much tied up and ready to go. Just needed to have all the parts tooled.
What was probably not settled was GM's look at the new downsized cars, Fairlane and Meteor.. At that time GM was looking at the BOP compacts (Tempest, F-85 and Special) and what to do with them. They were on a 112" wheelbase which was 3.5" shorter than the Fairlane but sales were not as healthy as GM hoped. A more likely discussion in 1959 at GM would have been about the new intermediate cars and if Chevrolet should join the group.
Some figures to ponder : Fairlane - wheelbase 115.5" / length 197" / width 71" Plymouth - wheelbase 116" / length 202" / width 75.4" Chevy II - wheelbase 110" / length 183" / width 70.8"
Valiant - wheelbase 106.5" / length 184.2" / width 70.4" Falcon - wheelbase 109.5" / length 181" / width 70.6"
1964 Chevelle - wheelbase - 115" / length 193.9" / width 74.6"
Bill Vancouver, BC
When I was just turning 17, summer of ‘68, I wrecked my ‘58 Savoy and was riding in the wrecker to our local junkyard, where my step dad was going to meet me to drive me around so I could find another car. When we arrived, the yard boss (oddly enough both my step dad and the yard boss were named “Junior”) climbed into my car and fired it up. He said he’d give me $75 on it. He asked me if I was a Plymouth fan. Yep I said. He pointed out a ‘62 Belvedere 2 door sedan in the row of complete, titled vehicles. He said it came in for unknown non-running condition. We walked over and he tried to start it but it just spun over fruitlessly. But it did sound like it was good on compression. He pulled the distributor cap and someone turned the engine over and the rotor didn’t turn at all. We pulled the distributor out and the tab was missing from the bottom of the shaft. He got a magnet probe and retrieved the tab from the slot in the oil pump drive. Someone grabbed him a distributor from another 318 and we stabbed it in and eyeballed the timing. That was enough to get it to run and of course a little ear-wise adjustment got the timing close enough. He took me for a ride and I was hooked. So it was by accident to begin with, literally, but I’ve loved ‘62 Plymouths ever since. Excellent read, (if lengthly), concerning the downsizing of Dodge & Plymouths in the early '60's. By the way, forty years ago I thought '62 B bodies, from an aesthetic standpoint, were horrendous. Now, if I had more garage space, they would be #1 on my list.
--
--
--
Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
http://groups.google.com/group/1962to1965mopars?hl=en.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 1962to1965mopars+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/1962to1965mopars/CAOTJWxwhoQTUKSAeFoVf0F2p5Eg3wdRGUuNS-axw0SpOeG-h4A%40mail.gmail.com.
--
--
Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
http://groups.google.com/group/1962to1965mopars?hl=en.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 1962to1965mopars+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/1962to1965mopars/05BDD42C-3391-4FAB-88F1-2343F1E507E1%40gmail.com.
--
--
--
Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
http://groups.google.com/group/1962to1965mopars?hl=en.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 1962to1965mopars+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/1962to1965mopars/CAJnbh6RkR%3DLSoNyU5RjGDX%3Dyp1_o%2B8tyFuw49A%3Dk%3DP4Cb7jSKw%40mail.gmail.com.
--
--
Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks!
1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines:
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
http://groups.google.com/group/1962to1965mopars?hl=en.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 1962to1965mopars+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/1962to1965mopars/13F6CCC0-494E-4543-830B-F9D9B7234D6F%40aol.com.
|
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network