Cars that could have saved the day for manufacturers....That the Bean counters didn't believe in...

It's funny how automakers make the same mistakes over and over. As the phenomenal success of the Pontiac Trans-Am in the late '70's proved, and the Fox Mustang in the '80's and 90's, the "Experts" are almost always wrong. Performance car buyers didn't magically fall off the earth after 1972-the car companies stopped making cars that they wanted to buy. You can't say that "Smokey and the Bandit" did it for Pontiac. T/A sales doubled or tripled every year from 1973-1976. In 1976 alone nearly 50,000 Trans-Ams were sold. "Smokey and the Bandit" wasn't released until June 1977. Almost the end of the production year. Yet they sold 68,000 T/A's that year, a huge increase from the record year of '76, with very little help from the "Bandit's" box-office success. In 1978-the first year "Bandit's" influence could be felt-sales increased to 93,000 units, and and 117,000 in 1979. But only a fraction of those were sheep who wanted a car just like the movie. The reason the T/A was selling in record numbers was it literally had no competition. Like a judge or politician who keeps getting re-elected because he's running un-opposed. I personally love '70's T/A's I had two of them in the '80's, and I'm looking for another one. But the fact is-by 1975-the Challenger and 'Cuda were gone, the Road Runner was gone, the Charger was a re-badged Chrysler Cordoba, the GTO was no more, the Javelin / AMX was no more, the Z/28 took a 2 1/2 year hiatus ( from late 1974 to April 1977 ) the Mustang was more Pinto / Capri than Mustang, the 442 was little more than a tape stripe package that could be ordered on any 2 dr Cutlass,( even with a 260 inch V8 that wheezed out 120 hp. Great in a 4,000 lb car. And there was no manual transmission option. Even if you ordered a 350 or 403 you got a slushbox and 2.41:1 gears. Snooze.) The Chevelle SS was gone, and you couldn't get a Rat motor in a 'Vette after 1974. Only the T/A-like Buford Pusser standing up to corruption in the South-"Walked Tall". You could get a 455 with a 4-speed until 1976 and the 400 was available until 1979. If you wanted a sporty car with a big V8  you had one choice. Scoff now at their sub 7 second and 0-60 times and 15 second 1/4 mile times-yes I know a 2014 V6 Mustang is faster than that-but they were the fastest cars available at the time, and if it weren't for them standing Janus-faced-selling in record numbers while everyone espoused fuel-economy and front-wheel drive-we wouldn't have 400 hp Challengers, Mustangs and Camaros today. Ditto for the Fox Mustang. Ford realized they stepped on their dick with the Pinto-based Mustang II. In 1982 they brought back the 302, and the rest is history. Same thing-while it was rumored that the Mazda built front-drive Ford Probe was going to be the new Mustang- the nose-heavy, tail happy, under-braked "5.0" sold millions-outselling Camaros and Firebirds combined almost every year-because they were not only faster but several thousand dollars cheaper. Anyhow here's why certain divisions are out of business. # 1. Chrysler pulled the plug on the E-bodies at exactly the wrong time. GM used basically the same body for the Camaro / Firebird from 1970-81 and sold millions of them. If they had kept the Challenger / 'Cuda line beyond 1974-they could have competed with Pontiac and got a big slice of musclecar sales. The 440 was available in big cars and trucks through 1978-so they were smog-legal. Do you think a 440 / 4-speed Challenger would have competed with a '77 Trans-Am? Does a bear crap in the woods? And Like GM did in 1982-the F-bodies were downsized-but they were still V8, rear-wheel drive, and through the '80s you couldn't get a 400 Pontiac anymore, but the 305 and 350 Chevys moved them along pretty good, and they sold a ton of them. They could still used a 318. What did Mopar guys have?-the 4-cylinder, front drive Chrysler Laser and Dodge Daytona. Yeah, a guy who once had a 440 / Six Pack Super Bee is gonna lust after that!!  # 2. AMC stepped on their dick twice. First when they dropped the Javelin after 1974. Like the Camaro / Firebird they could have continued it until the end of the decade with minor changes, but they didn't. By '77 everyone realized they needed a Trans-Am fighter. That's why Chevrolet resurrected the Z/28, with great sales success. 1978 was the best Camaro sales year ever. The AMC engineers came up with an AMX package for the compact Hornet. It had special graphics and front and rear stabilizers bars-they handled good. Since AMC V8s are all externally identical and a 304 was an option in the Hornet-they wanted to take the 401 out of the big cars and put it in the AMX- a bolt-in swap-like a 350 Chevy for a 305. Since the Hornet only weighed about 2,900 lbs- a 401 powered AMX would have smote a 3,800 lb 400 Pontiac T/A in biblical fashion in a drag race. It may not have been sexy-but like the '68 Road Runner-it would have been lean and mean,and sold like hot cakes. The brass ok'd the suspension and graphics package, but nixed the engine swap-they thought people only cared about looks, not performance. ( Sure. That's why GM was selling Camaros, Firebirds, and Corvettes in record numbers ) The only engines were a 258 inch six or a 304 V8 with a 2-barrel that wheezed out 120 hp. And they wondered why they didn't sell. # 3. Pontiac did the same thing in 2004. The GTO didn't sell because it looked like a Grand Am with a spoiler. Car and Driver said it best- when they called it the "Best car nobody's buying". "It runs like a Corvette, handles like a BMW, and looks like a rental car." Now if they'd done what Ford did with the Mustang, Dodge did with the Challenger and Chevy did with the Camaro-make it look like a '60's or '70's model-they'd have had people lined up around the block. I guess they never learn. Mastermind