• In 1972 - two years after its introduction, the Datsun 240Z still had a seven month waiting list.
• The Renault R5, known to us Americans later as LeCar, debuted at the 1972 Geneva Auto Show. It offered a fresh, groundbreaking design in the small car field and many of its various design details were incorporated into other automaker's offerings for the next decade or so.
• I had forgotten about all the cigarette ads the magazine used to carry. "There's never a rough puff once you come up to KOOL, with the smooth taste of extra coolness." "Tareton smokers would rather fight than switch." "Get hold of honest taste ... Old Gold." "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should." "Salem refreshes naturally." And so forth.
• Some things never change though: General Motors teased everyone at the 1973 Frankfurt Show, by unveiling the mid-engine, Wankel-engined Corvette. But, of course, they never built it. What else is new?
• The 1974 Honda Civic was really a small car - only 140 inches long and 1,600 pounds dry. But it cost a mere $2,000, had a 50 hp engine, got 30+ mpg and did 0-60 mph in a peppy-for-the-time 14.1 seconds.
• Perusing the 1972 classified ads at the back of the magazine, I found that one could be the owner of an early-1950s Bentley S-2 Mulliner-bodied Continental coupe for "best offer over $7,500." Or a '65 AC Cobra for $9,000. Or a '68 Lamborghini Miura for the same. Several Mercedes 300SL gullwings were available at prices ranging from $5-12,000. A '57 Porsche Speedster could be had for $2,000. And, if you had $5,000 to spend, you could be driving a 1938 Talbot-Lago Chausson-bodied three-position drophead coupe.
• In 1988, one of R&T's pundits wrote an article about future collectibles and predicted that, by 1998, a 1956-57 Continental Mark II would command sale prices of $200,000. He turned out to be optimistic by about $170,000.
• During the 1970s, Road & Track became as gloomy as the auto industry itself. The 12/72 issue carried the headline 'Farewell To Convertibles', predicting that drop tops would disappear due to changing market forges and draconian safety regulations. A November 1972 article carried the ponderous title 'The Cost Of Clean Air - Are We Going Overboard?' The article was full of depressing tables, graphs and charts. R&T editors loved graphs.
Many of the road tests from the period reported stumbling, stalling and carburetor troubles. Early '70s readers were advised to buy a car now because - a bad as they may be - they're only going to get worse as "complicated smog and safety rules" blossom. There was also a lot of grumbling by various writers about the massive and ungainly 5 mph bumpers which became mandatory on post-1972 models.
• An extended report on a 1971 Chevrolet Vega proclaimed the car "stylish and reliable but noisy and cramped." Reliable was a relative term - the Vega gave R&T "a lot of carburetor trouble" during its 24,000 mile test and returned a mere 18.4 mpg. But gas mileage is relative - the 1972 Jaguar XJ-12 sedan returned only 10.3 mpg.
• In September 1973, editor John Dinkel previewed the new Mustang II. He ran the clock on a Mach I with V-8 and 4-speed and recorded a 0-60 time of 13.8 seconds (not much faster than the Vega four-banger or the little Honda Civic). Dinkel drove five different Mustang II models and reported that "none of them were exciting."
The same year, Henry Manney III tested a Beetle Sport (a superficially tarted-up VW with stock engine) and got a 0-60 time of 18.2 seconds.
• Several knowledgeable people have told me that Mercedes used to "make bank-vault solid, dependable cars but the new ones are crap." R&T staffers might beg to differ. During a 1973 road test on a Mercedes 280, "on the first hard corner to the right, the right axle shaft came out of its wheel hub. Some lock washers had been omitted at the factory, it turned out."
Carb problems made the engine "rough running", the engine dripped oil due to a bad seal, the heat control became jammed and the A/C compressor clutch had so much play that it was frequently hitting the engine fan, making "a loud clunk." Nicht sehr gut.
• Road & Track was, I think, forced to lower their expectations and eventually tried to find some good in every model tested. The 1973 Datsun B210 cost $2,600 new got 27.5 mpg and did 0-60 in 16.7 seconds with a four-speed stick.
With a straight face, R&T said that the it bore "some resemblance to the Maserati Indy and Citroen SM." Huh? My parents had a B210; it was a rolly little marshmallow with meager pep. And it never looked like a Maser to me. But I learned from the Road Test Report that the Datsun's 67 hp engine had a one-barrel Hitachi carburetor. I never knew Hitachi made carbs but I can tell you that their televisions are damn fine - I've owned two of 'em.
By '81, with so many European cars being withdrawn from the American market, R&T was getting a bit desperate, testing things like the horrid Dodge Aires K wagon. (It took 14 seconds to 60 mph.)
• The folks at Road & Track once got into quite a pissing contest with Ralph Nader over his book which condemned the VW Beetle as fundamentally unsafe. R&T described the book's 'data' as "statistical masturbation" and offered a point-by-point rebuttal. The magazine was always a cut above the other car buff books, offering facts, engineering analysis and logic. And graphs. John R. Bond, the publisher, was an engineer by training. It showed.
In 1960, Bond wrote that the Wankel engine would never amount to anything. With the exception of the Mazda RX, he was right. John reasoned that it was "too dirty," foreseeing the eventual need for reduced tailpipe emissions.
As a young reader in the late 1950s, I thought John R. Bond must have been the coolest car guy on the planet. Being very ignorant about the realities of the independent specialty publishing business, I assumed that he was a multimillionaire mogul who had a stable of exotic Italian sports cars. And a Pegaso with desmodromic valves.
I was dismayed to learn that, by 1972, he was driving an AMC Javelin which was "running beautifully with 62,000 miles on the odometer." His wife Elaine had a yellow MG-TC - a conversation-starter of a car, to be sure. But a real tin can as modern sports cars go. It had the deadly trio of 1930s automotive technology, indifferent British craftsmanship and Lucas electrics.
• Road & Track tested the Caddy Seville diesel in '81 and recorded a 0-60 time of 21 seconds - identical to my 40 hp VW Beetle which I tested in 1964 using calibrated instruments. R&T's first-ever road test vehicle was a 1947 Ford. It, too, had the same 0-60 time as the Caddy diesel and got 14-15 mpg from its little flathead V-8.
My R&Ts are in the recycling bin because they're basically worth nothing. No one wants them. Even if someone did, the cost of shipping them exceeds their miniscule market value.
