This is an incredible 16 minute film of Fords concept cars of the era…including a feature of the Cougar 2. The whole film culminates with the creation of the Mustang. And, its available for download at the Internet Archive!
https://archive.org/details/styling_and_the_experimental_car
I watched the video, it was a walk back in time for sure. It’s amazing what people did back in the day versus the computer today. I thought a lot about the Twilight Zone while I was watching it, it must have been the music!
Thanks for sharing!
What you see is the beginning of what many call the highpoint of car design, meaning, compelling muscle car designs, features, etc. The same compelling feelings are true in the music of the era and immediate years to follow. Can anyone “put their finger on” or sum up what it is that constantly draws us to these times?
I’ll give it a shot. Life was much different and more importantly, much simpler back then.
Yes, huzzah!
The crazier things get, the more I find myself rejecting the junk that is shoveled on us these days.
The world is all about marketing. Things are more often made to sell, not because they are needed to do a job and built to do that job well, and for a long time.
It is exactly the level of design consideration shown in the video that we miss.
Like watching an old ep. of Dragnet
Tell it straight Joe Friday!
Everything today is a compromise. The height and shape of the nose of any car to be sold in Europe has to be tall and bulbous. They try to style around it but there you have it. CAFE requirements drive aerodynamics that give us jelly bean shapes. Back in the day there was only one thing that drove design: will people buy it?
Very cool thanks for sharing. Out of all the cars I liked the wagon the best. The map naigation system was cool, and now we have GPS.
I’m going to be killing some time on that web site. Check this out this movie from Beany’s drive in. https://archive.org/details/PA100018
I’ve got that Drive in video as well. That’s a beauty.
As for why the difference today vs then? I think it’s the switch from creating great product for consumers, to creating great product for the share holders. Once the bean counters and government regulations came into play, cars began to get more and more generic. Liner tooling life cycle couples with fewer differences in those tools all in an effort to reduce costs, while adding costs the government mandates.
Classic double edged sword.
Short skirts, no bras and no inhibitions
OH YEA. Those tube tops were a nice option as well!
The Cougar II looked to be an obvious rip-off/me-too of the Corvette, no? Maybe not remembering the cars name right, think it was the Cougar II, one of the cars shown in the video in any case.
I enjoyed the video, thanks for posting the link.
Topless was even better!
T.O.P.L.E.S.S., any problem with that?