REAR VIEW From the MT Archive ...

The summer of '75 was not a great time for the automotive industry, and we devoted as much ink to trends as motors.

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We looked at promising advances in technology, including five-speed manual transmissions, overdrive automatics, lean-burn fuel systems, automotive diesels, and synthetic motor oil, all of which have since come and some of which have since gone. We chronicled how the ABC TV network turned the 1975 Indy 500 into a television spectacular just hours after the race ended. We covered the strange story of Elizabeth Carmichael and the Twentieth Century Motor Car Company, subject of HBO's 2021 documentary The Lady and the Dale.

We also talked about cars present and future. Future included a slick Corvette and a pair of Ford-Honda joint-venture subcompacts that never materialized. Present included the debut of our electronic testing gear, which timed the police version of the Chevrolet Nova to 60 mph in 9.0 seconds and recorded an impressive 0.85 g on the skidpad (but only in right turns). We drove Ford's new Granada Ghia and the Checker Marathon, a civilian version of the famous taxicab largely unchanged since its 1959 debut, plus micro-motorhomes based on the Toyota pickup and VW bus.