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Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
The Big Three embraced muscle cars as a new found market to sell to - the youth market. They never made up more than 10% of overall sales, yet many times, they got a large portion of advertising dollars.
Many muscle cars were well thought out themed packages. But there were some decisions made during their heyday that defy logic. Why were these decisions made?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
The 1964 GTO set the pattern for what a muscle car should look like: hood treatment, lots of badges and engine callout emblems, bucket seats, a floor shifter and redline tires.
Why did Ford restrict their dual band redline tires to only the 1965/1966 Mustang? Why didn't Ford use single band redlines on it's other muscle cars such as the Fairlane GT and Torino GT like Chrysler and GM did?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
When Ford made it's W and R code 427 an option on the Fairlane in 1967, why weren't they available on the Fairlane GT? They were only available on the 500 XL.
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I can’t answer how these decisions were made specifically, but I can answer generally how the process works.
Typically there is some form of “execution team”, consisting of the various disciplines (ie, Engineering, Purchasing, Marketing, Manufacturing, Containerization, Logistics, etc) and led by some kind of vehicle line director, probably a Vice President or direct report to a VP, or divisional manager.
Each of these disciplines has their own agenda they are pushing, like ease of manufacturing or reduction in proliferation of parts, or cost savings, or releasing combinations so that they are built in one final assembly location, or whatever.
There are a lot of constraints placed on these teams that we can't recreate at this time; there is no way to know unless you were there. Since it is “decision by committee” you can imagine how these seeming schizophrenic results can be manifest, either if there is not a strong leader assigned (strong like a Delorean or Ed Cole) or even if the strong leader is not in the room when that particular decision gets made.
I've heard interviews of high ranking officials from back in the day. There wasn't really an overarching grand plan to create new niches in the marketplace or change the way the industry marketed and they way Americans bought vehicles. They were kind of playing it by ear and "just doing their job(s)".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
In 1970 GM's midsized muscle cars were the 442, GTO, GS455 and Chevelle SS. Why did the first three come standard with G70x14 tires while the Chevelle SS had only F70x14 tires?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
Why did Chevy wait until the 1972 model year to give the Nova SS raised white lettered tires?
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Tire decisions are easy. Any savings per tire is multiplied by 5 to net your vehicle level savings times production volume to get your program level savings.
Unless there is some compelling reason to go with a particular brand or style tire you normally take the cheapest tire under consideration and look like a hero.
K