The "What Do you drive?" thread....

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by marty59

I do recall some structural issues with 'em but yours does appear to be a nice clean example!

Well, yes, & no. When they were introduced for the 1961 model year, there was a resonance that manifested itself at hiway cruising speeds..The solution was to place 4 50 lb weights in the front fenders & the tail, they acted as harmonic balancers. Occasionally, a convertible could be parked on uneven ground in such a way that the doors wouldn't open easily.. The WORST thing was to be rear-ended in a collision, they tended to collapse at the rear edge of the back doors. My car, I've had it to an indicated 100 MPH, & it had PLENTY left, had I wanted to "Press the Issue"... But I backed down, as I thought, you're in a 25 yr old car w/questionable brakes, loosy-goosy front end, no top..So I slowed down to a mere 70, as if that would have made a whole HELLUVA lot of difference..The problem w/these barges was their WEIGHT... My pervertible weighs in at something like 5500 lbs..W/o me in it. The only heavier production cars were the Caddy Fleetwood limos..After a couple of panic stops from hiway speeds, stopping was an article of Faith.. But most of these were driven quite sedately, so they never really had to explore the limits of the car's suspension/braking abilities..