On Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at 1:57:26 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wed, 8 Aug 2018 10:58:37 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I had a lady coworker ask me about older muscle cars. Her son was going to get his licence soon, and wanted to get a 60's to 70's "muscle car" to drive. My advice to her was get him a late model Corolla or similar. That old car wouldn't have ABS, airbags, crumple zones, door beams, etc. Maybe not even shoulder belts. Plus the brakes and handling aren't very good unless you do some resto-modding.

I like my old Torino, but I also respect it and its shortcomings. No way a 17 year old should be driving something like that for a daily.



No question. The classics are stylish (something new cars lack) but
they don't come close to the handling and safety of new cars. Plus,
the "muscle" car is a bit of a misnomer today. The
old rule of "there's no replacement for displacement" really doesn't
apply anymore. Some of the new cars with small, turbocharged engines
can out perform some of the old muscle cars of yesterday.

That said though, the low RPM torque of a GM 454 ci engine and
some of the Ford and MOPAR big blocks just has to be experienced to
appreciate.

No doubt about that. If I hit the lotto and decided I wanted an old
60s car, the first thing I would do is drop a brand new "box motor" in
it.
Judy really wants a 50s pickup truck but she wants the sheet metal
dropped down on a new Lincoln chassis. ;-)

I saw that very thing a few weeks ago. It was a late 50's Ford truck, but when I looked into the front wheel well it was obvious that it was a late model chassis. About then the guy walked out of the store and we talked. It was a Crown Vic chassis under the truck sheet metal.