A hard-boiled detective's car upgrade

Yeah, like squealing tires on dirt, or bullets that ricochet in the desert, or when 350lb Cannon leaps from his coupe and nails a guy from 100 yds with a snub nosed 38… :slight_smile:

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… and that coupe was a Continental Mark IV.
Even though we were led to believe that his car could engage in rapid pursuit on twisty roads, anyone–like me–who drove one of them when it was new would know that the handling of those cars was truly abominable, and the brakes were extremely weak.

I used to work with a woman who owned a nearly-new Mark IV, but she really didn’t like to drive. One day, when a few of us were going out to lunch, she volunteered to use her car, as long as somebody else would drive. I was given the honor of piloting her land yacht, and I was actually pretty excited to get behind the wheel.

My excitement disappeared as soon as I had to tackle some curves in the road, and it only became worse when I had to try to stop that behemoth. My own car at the time was a '74 Volvo, and despite all of its other “issues” the Volvo had fantastic brakes. And, even though it heeled over a lot on turns, the Volvo handled… decently.

By contrast with my Volvo, the Mark IV handled like a tugboat, and its brakes only gave a suggestion of adequate stopping power.

OK, how about this one: Any car that rolls off a cliff will explode. Bad enough when it happens on impact; I’ve seen TV shows where it happens in mid-air.

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Yup!
But, my favorite ones are those that… somehow… change from one make or model to another right after going over the edge of the cliff. I guess that they don’t think people will notice their cheaping-out, and using “stock footage”.

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CHiPs was one of the worst offenders.

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Yes, but Opera windows, the vinyl roof, and a velour interior. I get excited just thinking about it. :slight_smile:

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I believe EGR valves came with cars of that era and if so, they would still be required in order to “pass emissions.”

I seem to recall seeing on TV (Mecum Auctions?) information that Chevrolet released a limited edition “track only” version of the 1965 Malibu with a 396. According to Wikipedia, a 4 speed was an option in 1964 as well. I’ve seen a full size '65 Chevy decked out this way (basic wheels, radio delete, austere interior, etc.) supposedly for track only. A quick search of the internet didn’t reveal any information to me.

Interesting - I’m currently re-reading one of Tom Clancy’s novels, “The Bear and the Dragon” and he mentions several times that this is something that was done by the former KGB when tailing a suspect. Your acquaintance wasn’t a KGB officer by any chance, was he?

No, he was a very blue-collar NJ-born Italian American who was not well-educated, but had good instincts regarding his profession.

For me, it’s those 28 speed transmissions they seem to use, you know, the ones that upshift 10 seconds without ever downshifting?

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Just for the record, the Pinto was the disaster from Ford. GM’s disaster of the time was the Vega.

Who you tellin…lol They sure were.

I did not know that so I looked it up. 201 were built with the 396 and 4 speed to promote the up coming 1966 models. For 64, the hottest ticket was the FI 327 with 4 speed rated at IIRC 265 HP. It was the same engine that came in the Corvette but it was GM’s policy to rate any engine available in the Corvette 10 HP less in any other vehicle. So 275 in the Vette, 265 in the Malibu SS.

I lived that era and the first SS 396 Malibu I saw was in a 66. A lot of times those rare models were only available at certain dealerships like Yanco Chevrolet, and often only to certain customers. Even if you had heard about them, you could not order one. When they appeared in the car magazines of the day, they were already sold out.

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You got to witness the cars and engine wars of the 60’s @keith ? Man…I would have loved to live in certain era’s and somehow have the knowledge of today… A re-occuring daydream activity for me for some reason.

The roaring 20’s would be one. The 50-60’s would have been another… Not only could you make some “wise” investments, but more to just watch all the purdy cars go by and come out…

I could also totally cheat in the car inventions department…back in Henry F’s day…
and in the industrial revolution days as well.

Dont get me wrong…I’m no genius…even if I had todays know how and could somehow transport way back when… I still could not “out-do the doer’s” of their time. Make no mistake, some of the mechanical inventions of their day and in their time were true works of art and genius. I might get lucky in the face of necessity but I would spend most of the time marvelling at most of their technological inventions they came up with back in their own time with no cheating. Some of the inventions of the time were like space ships to the public at large… what a time to be alive man…

Now there’s an interesting case study

Lee Child . . . I believe it’s a pen name . . . started off very well. The first few Jack Reacher novels were REALLY good, in my opinion. Then Lee Child got a fat head and dramatically changed his writing style. Translation . . . the novels are now bad. REALLY bad. I read a few of the novels with the modified writing style, and then gave up.

Speaking of pet peeves, as regards chase scenes in movies and tv shows, here’s one . . .

During the chase, the car(s) get damaged and you see busted lights, smashed bumpers, and so forth

yet a few minutes later, the chase is still going on, and the cars are in pristine condition

you don’t even have to be a gearhead to notice an egregious error like that

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I know @db4690 … right? That is definitely one I cannot get past…and have to call BS… It honestly makes me walk away from the TV…I mean literally.

Speaking of which… watching that Ole’ Classic called CHIP’s during our quarantine… I have basically been through almost all of the Pet Peeves we have listed thus far… However with one exception.

The other day…Ponch had to climb into a car sinking in a mud slurry at a construction site…and…with the Disco music accompanying him…he goes into the mud and into the car with the “stuck” girl and her baby… He is up to his neck in mud…everyone is.

Seconds later, no water or shower in site, they are high fiving each other…(Disco fantastic music still playing) and nobody has so much as a splatter on their clothes…Poof …they are all clean ! LOL They DID however have a shmear of mud on random sides of their cheeks on their faces, so someone on the film crew was semi conscious it seemed.

BRILLIANT shooting guys, really had me there Whew!! The suspense I tell ya the suspense!!

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I got this information from this site: https://www.enginefacts.com/chevrolet327/ - “The Chevy 327 V8 was first introduced in 1962 and was available with four different horsepower options depending on what type of fuel delivery and performance setup was available. The three initial carbureted models produced from 250 up to 340 horsepower. There was also a fuel injected model that produced 360 horsepower.
For 1963 the 327 options stayed the same until 1964 when the horsepower was increased to 365 bhp for the top end carbureted model (known as the L76) and the fuel injected model received a boost of 15 horsepower which put it at 375 bhp (known as the L84). In 1965, a 4 barrel carbureted 327 V8 known as the L79 that produced 350 horsepower was put into production which gave Chevy five different versions of the 327 to use in various automobiles. Also there were no fuel injection models of the 327 offered in 1965 and afterwards.”

I hadn’t realized that the 327 fuelie went all the way back to 1962.

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All this talk about fuel injection back in the 60’s had me thinking.

Each time I try to give credit to a fuel injection system on an automobile of the 60’s, I have to stop and remind myself that the technology was nearing its second or even third decade of age. Many an aircraft engine had seen fuel injection prior to cars of course.

Its a shame how those early Rochester Injection systems were removed from the engine bay of many a Vette and some other US iron…not because it didn’t function well (it did) but it required knowledge to keep tuned and running true… The local garages tech’s couldn’t really touch or make much sense of the things and what with all those smooth running carburetors around, that they did have a handle on, they actually yanked out the fuel injection…and well the rest is known history.

All this happened back then, and yet, there were still many examples of MB’s 50’s fantastic fuel injected Gullwings still running back then…and still running today. All with their original Bosch fuel injection systems…and not only were they fuel injected, they were DIRECT injected ! A space ship under the hood might have been slightly more impressive at the time.

Makes one wonder what all the confusion was here in the USA… A bit sad actually.