I see where you’re coming from now . . . you’re not looking at how many years the El Camino was built, but rather how much longer it stuck around, after the VW pickup ended production
Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to take the salt bags out of the trunk. I noticed I was a little light in the front end, but no snow today so no problem.
I dunno, @bing. The middle of September is upon us. It’ll be snowing in MN real soon now.
My Ranchero was rear wheel drive.
El Camino. 1963 through 1987. Pretty long run! Next door neighbor has a 1970. Lingenfelter 383 450hp M21 4spd 12 bolt positraction. Who cares what it could haul or tow?
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One disadvantage of front wheel drive? When I started driving, we had no front drive cars. I was in trucking for 40 years, regularly drove thector trailer between Buffalo and Watertown NYor Montreal via Watertown. To make a living doing that you had better be good and you had better be fearless. No front wheel drive heavy trucks. All of my reflexes are refined by rear drive vehicles. I can tell what any rear dive vehicle is doing on ice or snow and it doesn’t bother me. A front drive car will go a little faster on Ice and snow before it starts to slip but it is much harder to predict or control. At least for me.
As long as we were talking about low gears, in the 70s I drove some cab over Fords with 250 Cummings engines and 10 speed road ranger transmissions. You had 5 speeds on the lo side of the ranger and 5 on the high. What made these trucks special was a plunger marked deep reduction. When you pulled that plunger up it gave you 5 gears UNDER first. If you had a rig truly stuck with a heavy load and pulled him out with one of these Fords with a heavy toad on the trailer you could turn the heaviest tow chain into an iron bar that wouldn’t bend.
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The first FWD I actually owned was my 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS. 2.4L I4 5spd M/T. I had “test driven” several owned by friends and relatives. The only one I had any real experience with was a new 1976 Honda Civic. It was my friends car so I never pushed it’s handling performance. I had 30 + years experience with rear wheel drive when I totaled my 1991 Jeep Cherokee Laredo 4l I6 A/T with select drive (2 WD, AWD (which Jeep called Full Time 4WD), 4WDH or 4WDL I had driven it for 10 years. 90% in 2WD (RWD). My natural reaction to an emergency in AWD (skid) was of course based on RWD. I turned in the direction of the skid and applied a bit of throttle. That turned me into the curb Resulting in massive damage. I was OK.
I care what it hauled. That El Camino hauled ass.
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With that powertrain, it could definitely haul “donkey”.
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Ha ha
Oversized tires seems to be the big draw and it’s tough to do with a Ridgline