On 6/7/24 07:18, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Before we do any more automotive analogies of the "personal computer"
definitions, . . .
Could somebody explain to me
What is a "muscle car"?
A semi-archaic term used in reference to cars defined primarily by power
output relative to the average at the time the vehicle was marketed.
What is a "sports car"
A semi-archaic term used to describe a car which is designed to handle
well at the expense of ride comfort and size.
A muscle car was typically relatively good at the quarter mile, but
frequently miserable on the track.
A sports car frequently was not particularly powerful. The series one
Lotus 7 shipped with a Ford Sidevalve engine rocking in at 36HP, the
Series two upgraded to a Ford Kent, initially making...39HP.
I have heard the Ford Mustang, which seems like a Foulcon with
cosmetically redesigned body panels, referred to as each of those.
In the special case of the Mustang, it depends on when you ask the question.
The Mustang was literally originally marketed, I kid you not, as a car
for secretaries. As you suggest, it started life as a generation-two
Falcon with a body kit (this isn't strictly true, the original 1962 T-5
Mustang was a two seat, mid-engine thing of which I believe two were
built). As initially designed, it was never intended to be a high
performance vehicle, although the Falcon chassis actually handled
remarkably well for the time. It was for all intents essentially a
parts bin car, using interior, chassis, suspension, and drivetrain
components from the Falcon and the Fairlane -- enough so that people
trained to build or maintain either of those vehicles could find their
way around a Mustang without any real additional training.
I think that the Mustang came stock with one of the wimpiest six
cylinder engines that Ford had. If you special ordered the optional
four cylinder engine, would it still be a "muscle car"?
The original six rocked in at 2.8L making a whopping 101 HP, this was
almost immediately replaced by a 3.3L pumping out 120HP; the other
option was a 4.3L V8 making a miserable 164HP, followed in the same 1964
1/2 upgrade by a 4.7L grinding out 210HP. Pretty awful numbers for
today, but by the standards of the time, not terribly bad given the use
of dizzies and one (for the six) and two barrel carbs; for comparison,
the 3.7L I6 in the first generation Camaro made 140HP. Ford wasn't
uniquely bad at extracting power from gasoline, but it wasn't until the
Mustang-spawned horsepower wars of the later 1960's and very early
1970's that they started to make semi-respectable power.
Handling seemed to be pretty much unchanged from the Foulcon. Did you
need the dealer-option racing stripe to be a "sports car"?
The Series I Mustang is very much a Falcon with a body kit, but despite
being sedans, Falcons handled quite well, and with the lighter body of
the Mustang was quite respectable. By the commonly used terms, the
series one Mustang was a reasonable sports car, but decidedly not a
muscle car. Move to 1969, the Mustang gets larger and heavier, but the
4.9L V8 is making a more respectable 290HP while the insane 7.0L is
cranking out 375 while not materially affecting weight or weight
distribution. The Mustang in now both a muscle car and a sports car.
Of course it was all downhill after that, until emissions regulations
required manufacturers to make things run properly and computing power
evolved to make it possible.
We can at least all agree that the Ford Mustang was not a "personal
computer", nor "Personal Computer", although almost any Personal
Computer could fit in the back seat or the trunk, but probably not in
the glove compartment. A mini-computer, disunirregardless of whether
it was "Personal", would require the convertible model, with the top
down.
Not sure about that. We stuck a Nova 840, a couple of Diablo 30's, and
assorted other bits and bobs in a 1960's Mustang, and I once dragged an
Eclipse S/130, Diablo model 30, and a Hazeltine 2000 home in a early
1970's Toyota Corolla. All sans racks, of course...
--
Christian Kennedy, Ph.D.
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