The Car Tangent, part 5...

The pace at which the Japanese auto industry evolved and adapted post WWII was staggering. Small commuter cars helped get the nation back to work but after a generation the middle class had grown and were looking for more sophisticated automobiles. The designers at Toyota carefully studied the trends in the US and England and offered contemporary designs domestically in the '50s and '60s. The cars changed shapes and features almost as fast as they did in the west.

The Japanese were exceptional at copying the designs of competitors the world over. The total disregard to IP and in some cases even patents and copyrights helped turn many industries into international players within a few generations. The Japanese created a powerful presence by emulating the West just after WWII. Once they got into a position of power they began leveraging their own businesses and technology to put a run on western auto makers. It was interesting that China got a lot of flack for copying the products and IP from the west in the last quarter of the 20th century. They grew their own industries by patently stealing the products they were meant to manufacture. Now as a major economy they also look to take a slice out of the automotive pie as well as other industries.

If a person were to study the trends that Japan followed in the auto manufacturing they would find many parallels with what their competitors were doing overseas. Japanese drivers were eager to have cars with more performance but not necessarily a huge price tag. As such designers looked at what worked in the US and Europe for performance, cost and power. BMW had a long and distinguished run as a sports car manufacturer. The styling, suspension and even body type of the classic 2002 (production number, not year) model influenced Mitsubishi. They managed to marry German technology and styling with US performance design. Japan was able to catch the tail end of the muscle car movement and put the aggressive shapes into their own designs in the '70s. The Galant for example looked like some sort of hybrid between BMW and Ford. Since the Japanese were splitting the elements of design from muscle car to sports car they could have a less expensive V6 or even 4 cylinder engine to offer consumers. It would be a sacrilege for a classic MOPAR car to be running with half the horsepower of the other Dodge lines but this wasn't Detroit and gas was still a pricy commodity. The Japanese did what they had to in order to have the best of both worlds.

In the quest for performance and price the Japanese created their own version of the muscle car. Highly tuned smaller engines in lighter body 2-door cars helped keep the speed junkies satisfied. The Datsun 510 and Fairlady cars were early examples of Japan keeping pace with the rest of the world. Nissan got wise to the Japanese baby boomers and saw that they also desired a powerful alternative to the passenger cars that helped pull the country out of the war. The Skyline was born from necessity and in the early days borrowed plenty of elements from the West. Stylistically is was just a little bit behind the curve. Japanese designers were still reacting to the trends rather than thinking ahead. That mentality did not really change unit the end of the '80s, when they realized that they were the nation the world looked to for the next big thing.

The Skyline and it's cousin the GT-R would rewrite the book on performance and price. Supercars and Muscle Cars could in fact come from Japan. The import scene would be a long time coming but the threat to US and European racing domination was real. The gas crisis in the '70s and the rise of safety mandates for US auto manufacturers meant and end to the muscle car era. There would still be performance cars here and there through the '80s but the golden age of raw horsepower on big bruisers was done. This was not the case in Japan where tuning helped make the most of smaller engines and safety and even mileage were factors well before the performance cars went into production.

 

Japanese auto makers demonstrated that they had engineers and designers that could compete with the Big Three at every stage of the game. New methods of production and closer relationships between management and employees meant that cars could not only be mass produced but workers would become more loyal to the factories. The quality inexpensive cars that were a hit with the Japanese working class would also become appealing to the western working class. The US auto makers on the other hand seemed to have little motivation to change the way things had been run since the end of the war. There was a clear distinction between the workers and owners, each of whom had begun fighting for a bigger share of the profits instead of working together to maintain their position at the top of the industry. Innovation, quality and loyalty seemed to fall by the wayside. As such Japan and some European companies were able to get a strong foothold in the US market. Driving culture however was more than either economical cars or outlandish muscle cars. Some cars existed simply for the sake of being driven. Sports cars were every bit as important to the identity of each industrialized nation as any car. How Japan and the US differed in this regard will be explored in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Car Tangent, part 2...

The Ford Mustang was one of the most reputable performance cars but had begun to stagnate in the ‘90s. Once the envy of adolescent boys the cars had begun to look dated against the crop of imports that were tearing up the streets. The 1965 Mustang that my father grew up admiring was much more impressive looking than the ones I saw in 1985. All of the attitude seemed to disappear in the generic shapes that seemed very popular in the '80s automotive designs. Thankfully the “Pony” was given a new lease on life at the turn of the century. The fifth generation Mustang made its debut in 2004. It brought back the styling cues of pre ‘80s Mustangs, the aggressive stance and horsepower as well. Like the Nissan IDx I had mentioned in the previous blog there were enough cues to harken back to a racing legacy while still keeping everything street legal. Sales picked up and became a steady source of revenue for Ford. By 2014 a sixth generation would be introduced, again preserving many classic elements while updating the technology behind the ride. Ford was not the only US auto maker that went back to a legacy.

Dodge actually resurrected a car that it killed off in 1974. The Dodge Challenger was synonymous with the muscle car era of the late ‘60s early ‘70s. It was big, fast and brutal. It took a few years before Dodge tried to bring back the name. Between 1978 and 1983 Dodge sold the Mitsubishi Galant Lambda under the Challenger label. The four cylinder engine and boxy shape were nothing like the muscle car of old. It faded away, especially once Mitsubishi gained a foothold in the US and could sell and distribute its own cars. Dodge was adrift for years and only recently had found its stride once more. It began by bringing back the Charger, the sister car to the Challenger in 2006. Dodge made it clear that they were going back to their roots when they announced that the Charger would not be the last muscle car to be resurrected. The third generation Challenger debuted in 2006 as a concept car but went into production in 2008. The Dodge Dart which last saw action in 1975 would also be brought back. In 2013 the Dart would replace the sporty Neon and Caliber passenger cars. The Challenger was a flagship muscle car and seemed to get the strongest push. It was modeled on the classic 1970 R/T Challenger. When it was previewed it received a strong reaction from the public and press, as much so if not more than when the IDx was unveiled in 2013.

The designers at Dodge had managed done a good job bringing back the classic styling of the Challenger. The devil was in the details; the lines of the body, headlights, hood scoops and stance were very familiar. This was nothing at all like the Mitsubishi Galant that Dodge had tried to pass off as a Challenger two decades earlier. This was an honest to goodness remake of an icon. Fans that missed out, or were not even born during the first wave of muscle cars were experiencing a renaissance.

The Muscle Car became a part of the American identity in the mid to late '60s. The powerful production car appealed to many baby boomers as they were entering adulthood. An entire cult of speed and power seemed to rise up overnight. The cars from that era pulled the fledgling NASCAR out of the golden era of pre-WWII rounded bodies with white wall tires and into more streamlined and more powerful performance vehicles. The Daytona, named after the famous racetrack in Florida, the Superbird (a modified Road Runner), the Challenger, Barracuda and Charger became synonymous with speed. Each manufacturer offered its own special performance packages to take already powerful car to absurd heights. Dodge for example had its in-house MOPAR brand, the MOtor PARts for performance. MOPAR was to Dodge what NISMO was to Nissan. These cars became branded with bright colorful decals to let everyone on the street know what they were up against.

The Super Bee for example was a limited production car based on the Coronet. It was meant to rival Plymouth's Road Runner line. Dodge and Plymouth were sister companies and their respective performance groups MOPAR and SRT (Street and Racing Technology) were constantly trying to come up with better performance packages. Dodge had a "Scat Pack" which appealed to drag racers. It included changes to the engine, exhaust, frame and suspension which made the brutal muscle cars even more menacing. The Super Bee logo was derived from the Scat Pack Bee logo. The iconography of the cars of that era, from cartoon Road Runners, to Cobras, racing bees and even the word HEMI became ingrained in US culture. A few decades later there was a new beast on the block. Dodge created a Ram Truck with a powerful HEMI motor and decorated it in the livery of the classic muscle cars. The result was the Rumble Bee, a perfect marriage of the new and old. There were two "Swarms" of the truck released, the 2004 and 2005 models, and then quietly discontinued. By the time the driving community was catching on it was too late. The limited production muscle cars had returned in a way and those that got on board were rewarded by the exclusivity. Dodge used the positive reaction to the Rumble Bee to build a case with the parent company, then Daimler Chrysler, to pursue a return to the Charger, Challenger and Dart as well as the performance packages. It was a long time coming and would have arrived sooner if not for the sluggish reaction that the US auto industry had during the '80s. When it came to the evolution of the automobile the rest of the world was not asleep. Japan, Germany and Italy had adapted to change quickly. Those nations had to especially as they were rebuilding from the ravages of World War II. How those nations forever changed the landscape of car culture will be explored in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!