Great Ideas that were killed by bean counters.....

Like I said in an earlier post-Musclecar buyers didn't magically disappear off the earth after 1974-the Automakers stopped making cars that these people wanted to buy. Thus the meteoric popularity of the Pontiac Trans-Am in the late '70's-"The Last Man Standing".  Engineers and other auto executives knew there was still a market for performance cars, and tried to bring out cool stuff, but a lot was killed by the brass, who thought they knew the buying public better. They didn't-these cars would have sold as fast as they could make them. # 1. 1974 Ventura GTO 400. Since the new-for 1973 Collonnade A-bodies were heavier and uglier than the beloved 68-72 style, Pontiac got the idea to take the GTO back to basics-a big engine in a light car. Even with 5 mph bumpers the Ventura only weighed about 3,200 lbs. This was about 600 lbs less than a Firebird and about 1,000 lbs less than a LeMans. Since the 350 was already an option on the Ventura and Pontiac engines are externally identical from a 326 to a 455, dropping in a 400 would have been cake. Think how badass that would have been-600 lbs lighter than a Trans-Am with the same horsepower? But the T/A was now the flagship, not the GTO, and the brass thought that would steal the T/A's thunder. It would have-a 400 Ventura would have outrun even an SD-455 Firebird! So the downsized Goat got a 350 with barely 200 hp and the only axle ratio was a 3.08.  And they wonder why they only sold 7,000 of them?  # 2. 1973-74 Big-block Nova SS. Chevy was thinking the same thing-the Chevelle line was getting big and heavy, and the Laguna was more of a luxury trim group than a performance package. They figured the Nova could be the performance leader like the Chevelle was only a couple years before. Dealers like Baldwin-Motion and Nickey were selling big-block Nova conversions with great success.  Since the 396 had been available in the Nova from 1968-70, it wouldn't require any new tooling. And if Pontiac did build a Ventura-based GTO-which had been talked about as early as 1971-with 400 or 455 cubes under the hood-The GTO would be King of the Street again and Chevy wouldn't have anything comparable. Even with only 8.25:1 compression, how cool would a factory built 454 Nova SS have been? But again-the brass worried-this hot-rod would easily outrun a Z/28 Camaro or a Corvette, and we couldn't have that. When the 400 Ventura / GTO idea was scrapped, so was the revived Rat-engined Nova.  # 3. 1977 "Nascar Edition" Olds 442. The aerodynamic Cutlass was dominating Nascar-and the Pontiac Trans-Am was selling in record numbers. The 455 Olds engine that was dropped at the end of 1976 could have been continued until at least 1979, just like its's 400 Pontiac cousins. Olds engineers decided to build a 455 powered Nascar styled 442 with a special handling package. With front and rear spoliers and 15X8 wheels shod with 255/60R15 Goodyear GT radials, and a two-tone black and silver paint job, It looked mean. And with a 455, TH400, and 3.42 gears it WAS mean. Especially when compared to the "Normal" 442 which featured a 165 hp 350 or a 180 hp 403 with 2.41:1 gears! The brass decided that performance packages were now "Appearance based" and that it probably wouldn't sell!  Hello? Pontiac sold 50,000 T/A's the year BEFORE "Smokey and the Bandit" came out, and 68,000, 93,000 and 117,000 the years after!!  Performance didn't sell?  # 4. 1977 360 / 401 AMC AMX. With the Javelin now 3 years dead,  AMC decided to build a performance car based on the compact Hornet. They came up with a handling suspension and a graphics package. Since AMC V8's, like Pontiacs, are externally identical, the engineers could swap a 304 for a 360 or 401 in about five minutes. Guess how freaking fast a 360 / 401, 4-speed, powered 2,900 lb Hornet would have been? A lot faster than the Vaunted Trans-Am, and even quicker than a Corvette. The bean counters bought the graphics package and suspension, but felt the car didn't need a big motor, that it would do just fine with it's 258 inch 6-cylinder or the 2bbl 304 V8 that wheezed out about 120 hp, and the only transmission was a 3-speed automatic. They were wrong, and the car didn't sell. It's decisions like this that bankrupted AMC.    # 5. 1977-79 460 LTD II Sport. With the Mustang now Pinto-based, and the Torino now a memory, Ford was keenly aware of missing out on the performance car market. The downsized 2 dr LTD II was a good -looking car, and with the sport package which included trick paint jobs and tape stripes, and chrome wheels and white-letter tires, it could look tough. If the engineers had followed through on their plan and installed a 460 and the Police Interceptor suspension-to Quote Dan Akroyd-"A Cop motor,Cop tires, Cop shocks" it would have been. Ultimately, the biggest engine you could get was a 351 / 400M with a 2bbl, which made them dogs. Like everyone else, Ford decided to just give up and let Chevrolet and Pontiac have the performance market in the late '70's and sell Camaros, Firebirds, and Corvettes in record numbers. Anyhow, these cars would have been way cool in my book, and fun to restore and have today. Mastermind