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SUPER CARS
car out of the test completely and preventing us from getting any 80-0 mph brake times. The Fairlane barely made its three laps before Gregory brought it in with great clouds of smoke issuing from the exhaust. He reported that the engine< was beginning to seize and felt it advisable to stop before it blew up. It did however, manage to limp through the brake tests, which put it one up on the Comet. Although the Comet was the fastest, the Oldsmobile 4-4-2 impressed Gregory the most and he got it around the 2.85-mile course in 2.06 flat. "It's far and away the best handling car of the bunch," he reported, and went so far as to say it was faster in the corners on a wet surface than the other five cars were in the dry! The only reason it was not fastest of all was its relatively low power, which Gregory reported was less than any of the six cars except the Buick. Conversely, the GTO had far and away the strongest powerplant, but a generally soft suspension and severe axle hop under braking prevented it from running better than third fastest, at 2:06.8. The Fairlane and the Chevelle both turned the track at 2: 08. 1, with the GT/A's substantial power plant offsetting its porpoising suspension and fading brakes. The Chevelle might have lapped more quickly, had it not been for an inadequately-positioned tachometer. His view of the tach obscured by a steering wheel spoke, Gregory reported that he lost speed on several occasions by accidentally pumping up the valve lifters when he lost track of the revs. The Buick was the slowest of the lot at 2: 08.5, due primarily to its two-speed automatic transmission, which was out of place on the Bridge- hampton circuit. The Brockway truck and Dutch Hoag |
were
tremendous. Carrying various members of the staff on wild laps, Hoag managed
to get the 22-ton giant around the track in 3:27Ma truly stunning demonstration
of driving and truck performance. Although the Gran Sport was the slowest in both the quarter-mile and road circuit phases, it sparkled in the 80-0 braking tests. Running two consecutive stops to test fade, the car recorded the quickest time, screeching to a halt in 5 seconds flat. The Oldsmobile recorded the next best time, at 5.1 seconds, and the Chevelle stopped in 5.2 seconds. The GTO was a bit unmannerly, but did manage to stop in 5.5 seconds. The only car of the bunch to exhibit fade on its second stop was the Fairlane (while the others improved) and it consumed 5.6 seconds in coming to a complete stop. The formal segments of the test completed, we then took the cars for intensive testing on the streetthat is, the ones that would still run. The Comet was loaded onto its transporter and trundled back to South Carolina for repairs, and the Ford was taken to a New York dealer for a checkup. Both were returned later for us to complete our evaluations. Several days following the Bridge- hampton runs the GTO gave up on a Manhattan street, the victim of a broken fuel pump drive. Shortly after that was fixed, the left upper control arm of the rear suspension ruptured and it was returned to the shop a second time. Ironically, it was the three most stock machines, the Chevelle, the Buick and the 44-2, that gave the least trouble. All of them operated dutifully for the duration of the test, with only the Oldsmobile showing any signs of late-hour weakness when both the transmission and rear end began growling before it was returned. The other casualty of the test was the Chevelle, which lost its fourth |
gear
synchromesh on the last day at Bridgehampton. After nearly two weeks of roundthe-clock involvement with the cars, we sat down with masses of notes, including several hours of taped interview with Gregory, and began the difficult task of evaluating and ranking the cars. The results follow. Masten Gregory had this to say: "The Oldsmobile was the only car of the bunch that I genuinely enjoyed driving. If I had gotten more practice time, I'm sure I could have gone fastest in this car. It was the most comfortable and would definitely be my choice for a transcontinental journey. Though it was too small, the 4-4-2's tach was one of the few that I could read easily, and its placement-on the left side of the dash, just below eye level-was one of the best. It was superior to the other cars in road- holding, so I naturally liked it more. It was more fun to drive at speed. I felt more comfortable in it, and I felt you could do much more with it without getting into trouble. I didn't think it had the strongest engine by a long way. Adequate-but not really what I would call the quickest by any means." Thanks to a minor relocation of the upper rear control arms on the entire 1966 F-85 line, Oldsmobile has come up with the bestmannered car of the six. It was the only one tested that didn't bother Gregory with rear axle tramp under heavy braking, and its near-neutral handling under all high-speed conditions impressed us immensely. If we had to register any complaints, they would center on the abrupt, on-off way in which the power comes in, Gregory found it difficult to feed in power in fast bends without going over the detent in the 4-barrel carburetor and bringing in the two additional |
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| The Fairlane was the only car in the test that wouldn't hold all our luggage. | ||