What is your favorite year for American automobiles?

[highway]

7 hours ago, disabled modeler said:

Your right... our family owned many of the Ponhco birds.   Firebird was the base model car they got all the rest of them from...Esprit...Formula...and then TA.  later years they had pretty much only the body treatment change to make one or the other...earlier years there was more differences than just the body trim package...HP rating engines...rear axle gear ratios...etc.  Someday I really want to have/build a replica of my old 75 TA...I loved that car.

I owned two myself Mark, a 79 Esprit and an 88 GTA and have loved Trans Ams ever since I was a kid but growing up in the 80s watching "Knight Rider" and the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies when they weren't classic movies helped my love for the Trans Am. Even though these are just pictures I found on Google Images, these are the closest I can find to the cars I had, and with my Esprit the wheels were completely red with only the chrome trim ring, mine had the rear trunk spoiler, and the one thing you can't see in the picture was my Esprit had the V6 removed and in its placed rested a 73 Buick 350. The GTA picture though is exact to the one I had though. 

[mikemodeler]

On 5/20/2019 at 12:18 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Sorry, I can't do one year. But the decades between 1949 and 1969 have more of my favorite vehicles than any other period.

Me neither. I could say 1963 as that is when I was born, but then again I like 1967 as that is the year the Camaro debuted and I have a fondness for them. 

[Deuces]

'57-'73... '69 was the best... ??

[Lunajammer]

On 5/17/2019 at 8:55 PM, Jon Cole said:

1959.

Iconic style that defined a generation.

Yup, '59.  Yeah, fins and all that, whatever. Regardless, all my life I've thought '59 was a transitional year that put a period on the end of 1950's styling and turned its head to the future. But short lived, because I think 1961 was also a transitional year that brought styling back down to earth, where it remained the rest of the 60's and beyond. Both years are my favorite.

[Lunajammer]

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Edited May 22, 2019 by Lunajammer

[disabled modeler]

16 hours ago, highway said:

I owned two myself Mark, a 79 Esprit and an 88 GTA and have loved Trans Ams ever since I was a kid but growing up in the 80s watching "Knight Rider" and the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies when they weren't classic movies helped my love for the Trans Am. Even though these are just pictures I found on Google Images, these are the closest I can find to the cars I had, and with my Esprit the wheels were completely red with only the chrome trim ring, mine had the rear trunk spoiler, and the one thing you can't see in the picture was my Esprit had the V6 removed and in its placed rested a 73 Buick 350. The GTA picture though is exact to the one I had though. 

Nice..!  I owned a 75 TA I built into a monster HP car...loved it with all my heart..miss her.  Hoping someday I can get to make a replica of her to have.  My accident I was driving my 83 TA in I had just restored and built up...did not have 100 miles on her when it happened...18 year old kid hit me with no insurance around 60 mph while I was at a red light.    

[jaxenro]

I had a 73 trans am. Imron black paint no decals, 455SD bored .030 over, high compression, edelbrock intake, 4:88 posi 12 bolt rear, etc. 

[afx]

1965 Mopars:

Edited May 29, 2019 by afx

[styromaniac]

Stylistically speaking...I think baby boomers like myself note 1957 as a good year...I was 4 years old when the 57 Chevy Bel Air debuted, along with the 57  Ford Fairlane, and that year's Corvette and T-Bird were pretty nice looking too.                                                These days just about all cars look to me like the design came from the results of the same wind tunnel tests...getting harder for me to tell them apart. I often go out to the parking lot and confuse my own car with everybody elses...or maybe dementia is finally setting in. ( too much fumes from the styrene glue )

Edited May 29, 2019 by styromaniac

[Brudda]

1970: Everyone had a part in it.     Think about it. Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Plymouth, American motors. Buick, Olds(442),Chrysler’s, Ford alone was crazy! Mustangs:  GT 350 and 500. Boss 302,429, Mach 1, engines 302(several stages) 351 winsor and clevelands( several stages).  390s, 428s , boss 429, crazy! My favorite year!!!!!!

[espo]

The one thing I have noticed with this question, every ones opinion is largely based on personal experiences early in life when we are most impressionable.   

[StevenGuthmiller]

Personally, I love the over the top styling from 1958.

But I really love the cars from 1961!

Chrysler Corp went a bit over the top with the Dodges and Plymouths in '61, but the GM cars were just beautiful to my eye.

 

 

Steve

 

 

[Bucky]

I've thought about it for a while.......I'm leaning toward 1967 as my fave year.

Just a sampling of the crazy rides available for 1967.

[MrObsessive]

Gotta agree with you there Steve about GM’s ‘61’s. Of course, I AM a bit biased as those would have been brand new cars when I came along. ?

GM (and Ford the year before) were “coming back down to earth” which much cleaner shapes and were shrinking the huge fins which were all the rage just a couple model years earlier.

[MrObsessive]

Man oh man I’d LOVE to have this as a kit! I thought I read somewhere that Johan DID have one of these planned, but for whatever reason cancelled it. Too bad....IMO one of AMC’s nicer cars of that era.

 

[espo]

Funny looking at the AMC Javelin now as being very desirable but at the time they really didn't sell that well. The original design and prototype AMC had at all the car shows was based on the American body style. I have to agree with the '61's being great looking cars. I wanted a Catalina in the worst way. The first Impala I saw I really didn't like at the time, bit that changed in a couple of years and I would love to have one and have built several models of the '61 Impala. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

3 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

Gotta agree with you there Steve about GM’s ‘61’s. Of course, I AM a bit biased as those would have been brand new cars when I came along. ?

GM (and Ford the year before) were “coming back down to earth” which much cleaner shapes and were shrinking the huge fins which were all the rage just a couple model years earlier.

I liked the '61 Ford Starliner a lot as well!

The Mercurys and Lincolns didn't do much for me, likewise the '61 Imperial.

I really liked the other '61 Chryslers, like the New Yorkers and 300s, and while a lot of people might think I'm nuts, there's something about the Dodges and Plymouths that grabs me as well.

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Junkman]

2 hours ago, espo said:

Funny looking at the AMC Javelin now as being very desirable but at the time they really didn't sell that well. T

You can say much the same thing about the 1969 Shelby GT 350/GT 500.  So many left over that they had to do a quick paint addition (black stripes on the hood) and re-do the VIN so they could sell them as 1970s.  Also the Dodge Daytona/Plymouth Superbirds.  Just stinking up the lots.  Look at the prices for all of them now.

[MrObsessive]

Wow, that's a BEAUTIFUL Starliner! Interesting color though...........it looks yellow, but according to the color palette I'm seeing, Ford lists is as "Desert Gold". The lighting can play tricks on colors as well as any given monitor however. I have a VERY clean never painted builtup of this car and I'd love to paint it this very color.  

Well, they say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"! While I'm not a big fan of this car............I thought they looked strange even when I was a kid. I wouldn't mind having a kit of this simply because it IS different and I do like this a bit better than the Dodge. Just a bit............. 

Come to think of it, I believe this car and its sibling along with the ill fated '62's, may have been the catalyst that caused Virgil Exner to be shown the door.

[StevenGuthmiller]

6 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

Wow, that's a BEAUTIFUL Starliner! Interesting color though...........it looks yellow, but according to the color palette I'm seeing, Ford lists is as "Desert Gold". The lighting can play tricks on colors as well as any given monitor however. I have a VERY clean never painted builtup of this car and I'd love to paint it this very color.  

It's called "Desert Gold" but it is basically just a pale yellow.

I painted my '61 Sunliner this color.

It is MCW paint, so it should be relatively close to correct.

 

Steve

 

[Dann Tier]

1970 for sure!!….EVERYONE had killer performance and design!!! -and it was my birth year...lol

[NOBLNG]

On ‎5‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 8:27 AM, styromaniac said:

These days just about all cars look to me like the design came from the results of the same wind tunnel tests...getting harder for me to tell them apart. I often go out to the parking lot and confuse my own car with everybody elses...

That's why they put the panic button on the key fob...so you can find it in the parking lot.

[StevenGuthmiller]

3 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

That's why they put the panic button on the key fob...so you can find it in the parking lot.

I remember someone from one of the forums referring to today's cars as "drab colored jelly beans".

A perfect comparison if you ask me.

 

 

Steve

[Snake45]

26 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I remember someone from one of the forums referring to today's cars as "drab colored jelly beans".

A perfect comparison if you ask me.

 

 

Steve

I've referred to them as "used bars of soap." 

However, I HAVE seen an improvement in colors in the last two years or so. It started five or six years ago with metallic reds and maroons showing up, followed by some very attractive metallic burnt orange/brick red tones. Blues started reappearing a couple years ago, and even a few greens, and now it's a rare day that I don't see at least one newer car with an attractive shade of metallic brown on it. Bright orange is pretty rare but not unseen, but yellow and gold don't seem to have come back around yet. Yellow (pale/light yellow, anyway) and gold were both very common car colors back in the '60s, but I can't remember the last time I saw a new one in those shades.

[webestang]

1964.......the Mustang was born and so was I................