1958 "new car" road tests...

This is a promotional video by Chrysler comparing the suspensions of the 1958 new cars (with the exception of Plymouth, Chevy, Ford and Pontiac).

These are sedan road tests, but I am sure many of the station wagons would have performed the same with the suspension. This is a video by Mopar, so naturally they make the Mopars look better... lol. I think at the end of the video with the Cadillacs door and trunk opening, well I think that was rigged. lol.

I don't think I have posted this before. :confused:

1958 new cars getting the suspension "torture test" they call it. lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBoEoFmRsYo


This is one that is a little longer that shows another test before the one they show above... I think if you look closely, the other cars appear to be going faster than the Mopars...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrKAVfS3Ui0&feature=youtu.be

 

It seems Chrysler tested the competition's cars better than their own makers did

Did everybody used to talk out their noses drawling their words, back then?

 

I think that's Tom McCahill from Mechanix Illustrated doing the narration.

 

That kinda makes one wonder how we all lived without torsion bar suspension before Chrysler "invented" it.
How many of todays cars use this engineering marvel?

 

That was good, but man that Caddy looked like it was split second rom falling apart. Could you imagine being in the back seat when the door flew open?

 

Renault used them for a few decades:



http://arengineering.com/tech/torsion-bar-tango/

 

Uncle Tom was notoriously biased in favour of Chrysler cars. Of course, he put his own money where his mouth was, and bought Imperials himself because he firmly believed they were the better vehicle in terms of handling, and hence, safety. He was more than likely right. Any other comparisons I've seen, even ones done now, agree that the Chrysler torsionaire suspension was be far the superior out of the Big Three. It would be interesting to see how the Packard 4 wheel torsion bar suspension would have faired in that same test, though, as it was regarded as superior to all others, bar none.

The Cadillac behaving that way does not surprise me, though. It was on the X frame, and that is notoriously flexible. Add the size and weight of the Cadillac plus that it was a 4 door hard top, so the most flexible body style of the line, and it is not surprising that nasty things happened! As a kid, I remember riding with my Grandfather in his 61 Pontiac, and noticing that the Fords all seemed to move more on their suspension. They were 'soft riding' cars which is one reason he never owned one. He wasn't terribly fond of the ride in the Pontiac, finding it a bit on the soft side, too, but he did not trust the unibody of the 61 Plymouths when he had replaced his 53 Savoy (I think). I don't remember the 53 Plymouth, although that is the car that brought me home from the hospital. He got the 61 Pontiac a month later.

 

I agree that the Chrysler products of the day were probably the better handlers of there day.

But remember this is a Marketing Video. Just like todays advertising pick the small area that you product is better at, design a test that highlights that feature and make your competitors look bad.

Just look at todays full size truck ads. All of the players, Gm, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, & Nissan claim to have the best MPG, Towing Capacity, Payload, "standard HP"

And I agree that the 58/59 X-frames were not the best product GM ever put out. But they still worked well under normal conditions with the exeption of side impacts that they did not hold up well in any testing I have ever seen.

Interesting Video though. Thanks for posting it!!!

 

I had forgot about the '58 Caddy having the "x" frame. I do believe that the Chevy did as well, but I think that during those years, that the Pontiac, Olds and Buick had a perimeter frame with the "x" in the middle, which is probably why the Olds and Buicks in this video held up so well.

 

I wouldn't mind having any of these cars and I am not much of a Mopar fan, but of the 1958 cars, the Mopars are my favorite (but I love the '58 Buicks as much)! Give me that big '58 Imperial sedan or New Yorker and I will be happy!

 

Impressive for the day! now if they did test on fast-forward rust issues!

 

Yes! Those old Mopars did seem to have rust issues... even in the south. The flooring was very prone to rust out and much faster than GM and Ford.

 

If the Wiki is to be believed, Chrysler was about 1/4 of a decade late for the invention of the torsion bar suspension.

mike

 

I showed these videos to a friend of mine who is a few years older than me, and his family used to drive Plymouths in the late 50's early 60's and them switched to Pontiacs around 1963.

He states what I suspected that the Video highlights to 1 thing the Chrysler Suspensions handles better than GM or Ford. But the Plymouths rode like trucks, and did not handle well unless you actually "powered Thru" the curves, otherwise they pushed badly and rolled over at least as much as the competition.

Besides when is the last time you drove a car over a massive undulation at speed? I know the few times I had to take a car over anything like what is shown in these Video's I slowed down to almost a stop to do it.

I did enjoy watching and discussing these with him though. I have never driven any 1958/59 car myself so I have no direct experience to add to the discussion.

 

You really need to drive the Trans Canada HYW in the praries