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The Many Ways in Which Cars Were Stupendously Unsafe 60 Years Ago
Car and Driver ^ | DECEMBER 5, 2017 | JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN

Posted on 12/06/2017 7:49:25 PM PST by sparklite2

Unpadded metal surfaces, blunt knobs and rods, steering columns that impale—and seatbelts weren’t even on the options list. We may think highly of the 1955 Chevrolet, but like all cars of the era, it didn’t think much of its passengers; here we use it as a lens through which to view the state of automobile safety of the time. Yes, 62 years later, things have become much safer.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.caranddriver.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Travel
KEYWORDS: clickbait
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To: Fresh Wind
There were probably people in the 50s who longed for the boxy cars of the 20s because for the same reasons.

Yeah, they were called Hot Rodders.


161 posted on 12/07/2017 4:51:39 AM PST by Sirius Lee (In God We Trust, In Trump We Fix America)
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To: sparklite2

A family member had a ‘36 Ford Fordor. I loved that car.


162 posted on 12/07/2017 4:56:20 AM PST by mewzilla (Was Obama surveilling John Roberts? Might explain a lot.)
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To: Fightin Whitey

“Head on Collision Sends 10 School Kids Flying out the Back of a Pickup Truck”

https://youtu.be/65C3LaKPkOY?t=50


163 posted on 12/07/2017 5:01:23 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: Sirius Lee

Yeah, but that wasn’t nostalgia, it was because 15-30 year old cars were cheap as dirt.


164 posted on 12/07/2017 5:04:19 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: sparklite2

Car and Driver at one time was the best of the automotive magazines when David E. Davis was at the helm.

This piece was written by some bubble wrap soy boy snowflake enchanted by automobiles that look like metalic suppositories that escaped from the latest Pixar Cars film. Take a long head on look at the new cars in the parking lots.

Hell, everything was potentially more dangerous but people strangely enough understood the limitations and vast numbers of drivers drove accordingly on roads that weren’t super highways in all kinds of weather avoiding the the crashes he envisioned.

I thought I was going to read about the sloppy recirculating ball steering, drum brakes, bad tires, excessively soft suspension systems for any travel at speed vaguely resembling a road race. Who remembers all the tire remnants littering roadsides? When was the last time you saw a motorist jacking up his car to change a flat? A neighbor patching an inner tube?

So he produced a click bait short piece tha took, umm, 15 minutes to draft up. At it shows.


165 posted on 12/07/2017 5:05:29 AM PST by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: sparklite2
We were forced to watch these in high school drivers ed.

Signal 30

Mechanized Death

166 posted on 12/07/2017 5:07:25 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: sparklite2

Oh yes. Fortunately it didnt rain often in Los Angeles.


167 posted on 12/07/2017 5:40:54 AM PST by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Yes and yes.


168 posted on 12/07/2017 5:42:00 AM PST by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: Fresh Wind

Yes, bad things happen, and stupid things too.

Sorry you had to discover this so suddenly.

Maybe you should just stay under the cubbers today.

Hare Krishna!


169 posted on 12/07/2017 5:42:57 AM PST by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey

Mom and Dad met at Moscow. As did Dad’s brother and his wife. Mom grew up in Potlach. Her parents eventually retired in Hayden north of CdA. Dad’s brother is the only one left. He’s 97 now and still in Twin; been there since after the war.

Living in ID was for real men and women, no doubt.


170 posted on 12/07/2017 5:57:03 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: sparklite2

FWIW I remember my dad in the early 50s talking about how flimsy our ‘52 Buick was compared to cars of the 20s and 30s. “Those cars had 1/4-inch steel bumpers.”

What people don’t remember are how much better tires are today. Blowouts and the accidents they could cause have become rare now.


171 posted on 12/07/2017 6:01:24 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: Covenantor

“tire remnants littering roadsides”

Totally forgot about that. Today, it’s the very occasional big rig tire that has unwound itself and left the carcass behind.


172 posted on 12/07/2017 6:01:41 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: freedumb2003

Not really true. My wife used to drive a ‘55 Chevy as a daily driver, and she ran it into a Tahoe. The ‘55 had substantial damage but the Tahoe didn’t.

The ‘55 Chevy is still one of the coolest cars ever built, though.


173 posted on 12/07/2017 6:02:20 AM PST by dinodino
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To: Fightin Whitey

Allahu akbar back at ya!


174 posted on 12/07/2017 6:09:30 AM PST by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: sparklite2
I'm smitten with the f150. Got one to replace my 1995 Yukon - can't afford the new Yukon and wouldn't want it if I could.
175 posted on 12/07/2017 6:18:38 AM PST by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: sparklite2

It was a 1956 De Soto. My brother remembers it well. It was purple.


176 posted on 12/07/2017 7:59:10 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: RegulatorCountry

It was a 1956 De Soto. My brother remembers it well. It was purple.


177 posted on 12/07/2017 8:00:03 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

De Soto was a separate make and brand of Chrysler Corporation, it wasn’t a Plymouth. They were manufactured until I believe 1962.


178 posted on 12/07/2017 8:11:49 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: sparklite2
A bear in his natural habitat ... a Studebaker.


179 posted on 12/07/2017 8:18:33 AM PST by BlueLancer (ANTIFA - The new and improved SturmAbteilung)
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To: laplata

That “throwing out the arm” thing is intuitive for parents.

My momma did it.

Now I do it.

No one taught me. It just happens!


180 posted on 12/07/2017 8:21:51 AM PST by T-Bone Texan
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