goingincirclez Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 (edited) OK... at first this won't seem Ford related. But there is a connection, however tangential. If any of you recall the recent discussion of "lux vs. faux lux" a few weeks ago... in comparison to where we are and where we've come from in the luxury segment and how it became a fad for all, hold on because I just found the Gilded Gauntlet of Gauche, for sale right here in Frankfort KY. I knew the 70's were bad, but good lord! Can you tell what it is... and what it was trying to be... before the 5th picture? I think this car has nearly every bad 70's lux cliche - taken to excess. Let's tally: - Vinyl roof? Check. Hell, it's even got a partly-vinyl DOOR! :lol: - Landau bar? Check. :rolleyes: - Opera windows? Not one, but TWO.. straight off a Ford Elite. B) - Chrome? Check... - Redonculous hood ornament? CHECK. - Tire Hump? Somewhere, a Mark IV is crying... :o - ... and WISHING it had a VINYL hump. :P - ...but at least the Mark IV did the "Rolls Grille" the right way... :huh: - ...I mean just look at that freaking grille surround! :blink: - Thank heavens the tint is impenetrable or who knows what terrors the contrasting RED LEATHER INTERIOR (which matches the painted brake calipers and inner wheel hubs! :o ) would spring... - The only thing missing is Coach Lamps. But hey, it's got vinyl doors, twindoperas AND a landau bar for the win. :wacko: Monroney Coachbuilders apparently sold and built 274 of these in 1976. From what little I can find online, Monroney began in the late 60's by building stretch Lincolns to order in the Chicago area, and tried to win more contracts direct from Ford around that time. But they somehow fell out of favor with Ford, and so began using GM chassis. But apparently they were used to Lincoln styling cues... Oy vey! Edited March 22, 2009 by goingincirclez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixt9coug Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 if you think thats bad i saw an Excalibur kit car based off of an mn12 Cougar today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retro-man Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 (edited) God help me .. since the economic melt-down struck, the 70's (the decade I raised my kids to believe had no redeeming qualities whatsoever) have started to look attractive to me. Yes, even that hideous hideous car ... in it's own way. What's happening? What's next, a penchant for Captain and Tenille? Climax? Peaches and Herb?!!??!!?? I just had a realization: Thinking about my parent's generation - the generation that cooked those cars up, and where they came from: that represents the decadent phase of post-war middle class prosperity. That was the grass grown full, shedding its seed, turning gold and withering - making way for what I like to think of as "The Dynasty Years" ushered in by Reagan. Which have now reached the end of their cycle. You want to see the contemporary equivalent of that car, go find yourself a Hummer stretch limo. Edited March 22, 2009 by retro-man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edstock Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 that represents the decadent phase of post-war middle class prosperity. That was the grass grown full, shedding its seed, turning gold and withering - making way for what I like to think of as "The Dynasty Years" ushered in by Reagan. Which have now reached the end of their cycle. You want to see the contemporary equivalent of that car, go find yourself a Hummer stretch limo. YES!! "The Dynasty Years" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Book 'em Danno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syrtran Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 if you think thats bad i saw an Excalibur kit car based off of an mn12 Cougar today. Just an FYI: Excaliburs were not kit cars. As to the gaudy Landau's of the '70s, it's a recurring theme - the Art Deco '20s, the tail-fin '50s, and the bling-dubs-and-gold-trim of the late '90s/early '00s. It'll happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomServo92 Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Add this guy and you have a complete "I Luv The 70s" package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BORG Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 (edited) The 70's were the decade that killed Detroit and the cars shown above illustrate why . Aestherically, no decade was uglier for EVERYTHING than the 70's. From architecture to interior decor to clothing and hair styles. Even the drab rusty colors of the era are putrifying. Not to mention everything was faux. Faux brick/vinly floors, faux wood paneling, faux butcher-block laminate counter-tops, faux wood/vinyl siding, faux wood grain on everything from you plastic TV to your automobile...just a HIDEOUS HIDEOUS time. Edited March 22, 2009 by BORG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 (edited) And that's why that generation of El Dorado made my list of worst cars ever. Frank Lloyd Wright was dead, Corbu was dead, Mies van der Rohe was dead, and Frank Gehry was only making chairs. It was the era when Philip Johnson repudiated modernism (AT&T building was designed in the late 70s), when Tom Wolfe wrote "From Bauhaus to Our House" (if you'll pardon the stretch, it was published in '81), when Robert Venturi wrote "Learning from Las Vegas" (1977) and clean, crisp, if bland modernism was replaced with something far worse: the knowing and condescending reappropriation of cliches. Martin Heidegger died in '76, the insidious critical philosophy of deconstructionism took root, and in general, all the big ideas of the Modern revolution were replaced with mannerist imitations. The seventies marked the palpable, visible, end of the Modern renaissance, and boy is it obvious. Subsequent fads in design, architecture, philosophy, art have been just that: fads. There have been no great ideas and even the last of the true Modernists: Gehry, Meier, and Koolhaas, are no more than brand names by now (well maybe not so much Koolhaas)---confined by their mammoth commissions to the styles that defined them and unable to change--even if one were to assume they were willing to change. We are living in a mannerist age, concerned with techniques, appearances, and surfaces. All the big ideas have gone away. It is the era of design by fabric swatch, paint chip, and carpet sample. The mass-manufacture of uninspiring facilities designed with no concept of human experience only human dimensions, with the only over-arching goal being completion of the project. Edited March 22, 2009 by RichardJensen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 The ideal condemnation of this style of art, design, and thinking? The name it has acquired: Post-modernism. It is defined only by what it is not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edstock Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 and clean, crisp, if bland modernism was replaced with something far worse: the knowing and condescending reappropriation of cliches. YES! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 I just bought a second hand copy of the MoMA exhibit catalog for their Bauhaus retrospective, and will be buying Hans M. Wingler's excellent 700p monograph shortly. Kandinsky, Klee, Bayer, Mies---as incredible an assortment of designers and artists as you could cram under one roof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edstock Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Kandinsky, Klee, Bayer, Mies---as incredible an assortment of designers and artists as you could cram under one roof. And then Adolf came along . . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2005Explorer Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 No discussion of 1970's cars can be complete without this gem! By far my favorite 1970's era car! It says "disco" and "polyester leisure suit" like no other! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retropia Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 30 years from now they'll be laughing at some of today's stylin' rides, like a gigantic SUV rolling on 20" chrome wheels with spinner hubcaps, blue headlights and chrome cattle catcher bars. They'll say, "What were those crazy people thinking?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 30 years from now they'll be laughing at some of today's stylin' rides, like a gigantic SUV rolling on 20" chrome wheels with spinner hubcaps, blue headlights and chrome cattle catcher bars. They'll say, "What were those crazy people thinking?" Yeah. Or compact cars with pointy unpainted fiberglass front fascias, unpainted gigantic spoilers, and fart can mufflers..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goingincirclez Posted March 22, 2009 Author Share Posted March 22, 2009 30 years from now they'll be laughing at some of today's stylin' rides, like a gigantic SUV rolling on 20" chrome wheels with spinner hubcaps, blue headlights and chrome cattle catcher bars. They'll say, "What were those crazy people thinking?" Yeah. Or compact cars with pointy unpainted fiberglass front fascias, unpainted gigantic spoilers, and fart can mufflers..... Almost, yeah, but see, those things are in large part always done by private individuals after the initial sale. As such, they don't count, because the car(s) above were BUILT and SOLD that way! I mean, can you get a "Fart & Furious" or "Blingsta mobile" off the lot, brand new and warrantied, from anyone? One-offs from So-Cal chop shops don't count... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomServo92 Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Yeah. Or compact cars with pointy unpainted fiberglass front fascias, unpainted gigantic spoilers, and fart can mufflers..... Or pickups with lift kits and enormous wheels sitting so high that a ladder is required to get in or out. Oh yeah, don't forget the muffler shop dual exhausts with gigantic chrome tips and a broken weld on one side so that the pipe bounces up and down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark B. Morrow Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Book 'em Danno That Merc was one of the best looking cars of its time and still looks pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bored of Pisteon Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Book 'em Danno His was a 1974 Marquis... NOT A 1975-78 VERSION. But you got to look back on all those 60's & 70's shows and a lot of Ford heritage shows in those cars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bored of Pisteon Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 The 70's were the decade that killed Detroit and the cars shown above illustrate why . Aestherically, no decade was uglier for EVERYTHING than the 70's. From architecture to interior decor to clothing and hair styles. Even the drab rusty colors of the era are putrifying. Not to mention everything was faux. Faux brick/vinly floors, faux wood paneling, faux butcher-block laminate counter-tops, faux wood/vinyl siding, faux wood grain on everything from you plastic TV to your automobile...just a HIDEOUS HIDEOUS time. But we know that deep down you like it since you lived through it. What makes you think things really have changed? You mean to tell me that theres a big difference? At least most of the "faux everything" was made with pride in this country. I'd rather take that than some cheap-ass shit, tacky quality lacking garbage made in the orient like most of you yuppie baby boomer consumers do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 The padded vinyl headlight covers were a bit much. Still, growing up, we had a '72 Galaxie 500 coupe (yellow with white top). The neighbors across the street had a light blue green Marquis (with I think a white padded vinyl roof), and I remember thinking their car was cooler because it had headlight covers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardJensen Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 made with pride in this country. Don't go too far. That stuff may have been made in the US, but it certainly wasn't made 'with pride' on any consistent basis. It was slapped together by workers that were, as a general rule deeply distrustful of domineering dictatorial plant management, while feuds raged in the back offices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F250 Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 His was a 1974 Marquis... NOT A 1975-78 VERSION. But you got to look back on all those 60's & 70's shows and a lot of Ford heritage shows in those cars! Well the show ran from 1968 to 1980 and I believe Mercury/Ford provided the vehicles every season. Check out the reflection of the paint on the hood of that black Marquis and the unusual sunroof in the vinyl top. In those days Ford actually went to the trouble of painting pin stripes on these cars, not cheap stick-on stripes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bored of Pisteon Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Well the show ran from 1968 to 1980 and I believe Mercury/Ford provided the vehicles every season. Check out the reflection of the paint on the hood of that black Marquis and the unusual sunroof in the vinyl top. In those days Ford actually went to the trouble of painting pin stripes on these cars, not cheap stick-on stripes. 1968 Mercury Park Lane used from 1968-1974. And the definition of the lines in the sheet metal show in the fenders and want not. These cars now just don't have those sharp defining lines in them. They look too flat! I've pointed that out before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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