> True to some extend. It was not ALL about speed, correct. It was about
luxury
> and speed. Or may be, luxurious speed! All Imperials were known to have
> better handling and high speed stability than the competition, and often
more
> power. True, the average luxury customer did not care about speed and
that's
> one of the reasons Imperials never sold very well. Imperials always had a
bit
> of Chrysler 300 blood in their vanes! With little effort, a late 60's
Imperial
> can be turned into a nice and efficient speed machine. I am not talking
about
> 200 mph of course!
> D^2
As a furr'ner, I was somewhat taken aback, and still am, by the American
lust for more horse power. I read somewhere that American cars are the
oddity on the planet, in terms of size and thirst. When I went back to
Scotland for a visit last year I was amazed to see all the unrecognizable,
and tiny, cars there. MPG seemed to be the big issue, and cars seems in
general smaller and more efficient.
I think what controls American car sales is speed from zero and passing
power. Not matter what is being driven, there is a perceived need for it to
be able to tear away from a dead start and to be able to blow the doors off
any slower vehicle. Size matters, too, and the social statement the car
makes, so being in fashion and trendy ensures people end up buying
considerably more than they truly need.
What women want is key, and all the women I work with want to be in big
trucks, high off the ground. A young colleague of mine recently went from
an Acura two door sports car to a four door Chevy pick up. Though she
complains about the poor mileage, she feels a lot safer.
Our Imperials were designed to be status symbols. Whether they ever truly
made the grade in that area is open to debate. They had all the ingredients
but never quite made it, largely because, in my opinion, of Chrysler's
chronic mishandling of the make/brand.
I don't think my 58 is very fast off the line, but I don't tend to drive
that way anyway. Being pulled into my seat has never appealed to me. Being
used to anemic cars, I seem to prefer gentle acceleration. The car is a
phenomenal high speed cruiser, of course, and has passing power in spades.
Despite its heft, it will happily accelerate up long, steep hills, though I
don't get that many opportunities to test this lovely availability of power
all that often in my part of Texas.
I find that the car is chronically thirsty to operate in town. Terrible
mileage. But, on the freeway, it comes close to being almost miserly, as
the big old V8 chugs along at fairly low revs at cruising speed. I made
some disagreeable comments about "WOT" (wide open throttle) performance not
long ago. My point, which I managed to mangle, was that I never seem to
reach that state of affairs. I cannot ever recall flooring the gas while
driving, let alone leaving it there for sustained periods of time. Maybe
that's just me.
Hugh
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