Tidbits of Grand Forks - March 30, 2023

By Kathy Wolfe

Gentlemen, start your engines! It’s time to rev up some facts on some of our favorite muscle cars.

• These hot cars weren’t originally called “mus cle cars.” They were initially referred to as “Supercars.” The classic muscle car era was from 1964 to 1974, although some would ar gue that it ended in 1971, when manufacture of high compression engines with high horsepower torque ceased.

• The term “muscle car” usually applies to twodoor cars with rear wheel drive, with high performance V-8 engines, dual exhaust, aimed at young buyers with an affordable cost in the $3,000 to $4,000 range.

• There’s some debate as to which was the first muscle car, but many enthusiasts agree that it was the 1964 Pontiac GTO. With its 389-ci (6.3 L) V8 engine, it could go from 0 to 60 in 5.7 seconds. Its namesake was the Ferrari 250 GTO, which stood for Gran Turismo Omologato, although some claim it stood for “Grand Tempest Option,” as the GTO option could be added to the Pontiac Tempest hardtop, coupe, or convertible for $295. Other nicknames included The Goat, The Tiger, and The Great One. While GM expected sales of 5,000 the first year, GTO sales went beyond their wildest imagination with 32,450 cars. In 1966, the GTO was made a model of its own, setting a highest-ever sales record for a muscle car.

Quiz Bits

What is the name of Bart’s teacher on “The Simpsons”? What does the Japanese phrase “domo arigato” mean in English? In which city would you find Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello? Who topped the charts with the song “The Way You Make Me Feel”? How many former first ladies are still living?

MUSCLE CARS (continued):

• Oldsmobile’s response to the success of the GTO was the 442, an option package added to the Olds F-85 coupe for $285 or to the better-equipped Cutlass for $136. The 442 derived its name from its 4-barrel carburetor, 4-speed manual transmission, and dual exhausts. With its 310-horsepower engine, the 442 reached 60 mph in 7.5 seconds. Although the car handled better than the GTO, the sales were nowhere near the Pontiac numbers. Oldsmobile failed to market the 442 properly to young buyers as a fast hot rod as Pontiac had done, and sales were a dismal 2,999 units.

• The first Chevelle rolled off the assembly line in 1964 and was produced for 13 years in 10 different plants, 8 in the U.S. and 2 in Canada. 1969 was the best year for sales numbers of the Chevelle. In the 1960s, the base model price was $1,500, but with added options, such as trim, the price could inch up to around $2,500. In the late ‘60s, Chevy manufactured a Canadian version known as the Acadian Beaumont, with a different grille and trim.

• The 1970 Chevelle was the one to have! It had the most powerful engine available, with the 454-ci engine at 450 HP. The SS396 was 1970’s highest-produced muscle car, at 53,599 units. The SS454 LS6 model had 560 HP, 100 HP more than the other options, but could only come in as the second-fastest of the year, behind the Cuda, which weighed 500 lbs. less.

• Buick released the GS in 1965 as an option on its existing Skylark. The “Gran Sport” was a luxurious, comfortable, high-performance vehicle that used the full-size 401-ci V8 engine. About 16,000 were sold the first year. In 1968, Buick dramatically changed the look, with a reduction in wheelbase of 3 inches and 4.4 inches of overall length.

Muscle Cars: Because in 60 years, no one will open a barn and be excited about a ’98 Honda.

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MUSCLE CARS (continued):

• The 1970 Buick GSX had a 455-ci engine, one of the most powerful muscle cars, and a special package that added front and rear spoilers, body stripes, upgraded tires, and heavy-duty suspension. The GSX was only available in Saturn Yellow or Apollo White. Only 678 were built, making them a rare collectible.

• The 1968 first generation of the Plymouth Road Runner was based on one of Plymouth’s success stories, the Belvedere. Richard Petty had won 27 NASCAR Grand National races in a 1967 Belvedere. Plymouth scaled back the amenities on the Road Runner to keep it under $3,000. There was no carpeting, air conditioning, trim, radio, cruise control, or bucket seats. Those options were available at a premium. It was the cheapest and the fastest! While Plymouth had sales expectations of 20,000 in the first year, the company was pleasantly surprised when sales reached 45,000 units, third behind the GTO and the Chevelle in overall national sales.

• The Warner Brothers Road Runner cartoon was in fact the inspiration for the car’s name, and Plymouth paid dearly for the privilege of using the name and likeness -- $50,000. What would a Road Runner be without a horn that made a “meep-meep” sound? Plymouth paid an additional $10,000 for that license.

• Under the hood, the Road Runner had a 383-ci V8, but offered the option of a 426-ci Hemi V8 for an additional $714. Out of the 45,000 cars sold, 840 buyers opted for the Hemi to leave Wiley Coyote in the dust!

• One year after its debut, the 1969 Road Runner was “Motor Trend’s Car of the Year.” One of the rarest muscle cars in the world is the 1969 Plymouth Road Runner convertible. There were only 10 made!

...continued

Dr. Brian Jongeward D.C.

1. 2. 3.

39TH

Which movie was the first sports film to win the Best Picture award?

What golfer, known as “The Silver Scot,” won three major championships during the late 1920s and early 1930s?

Hank Bauer of the New York Yankees holds the longest hitting streak in the World Series (1956-58) with how many games?

4. 5. 6. 7.

What NASCAR driver’s 105 career wins in the sport’s top division ranks second all-time to Richard Petty’s 200?

How many games did Wilt Chamberlain foul out of during his 14 year NBA career?

Which player did the L.A. Lakers draft twice?

How many Super Bowls have had an attendance of more than 100,000 people?

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SPORTS QUIZ

Saturday April 15 • 9AM-8PM

MUSCLE CARS (continued):

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• The Dodge Charger was introduced in 1966, with production of just 37,300 units. With the roof sloping into the trunk’s tail, it was the largest fastback model available, and was nearly two feet longer than the Mustang. Production decreased in 1967, with total production at 15,788. The price of the 1969 Charger was between $3,000 and $4,000, depending on options. Customers could add the solid-state AM/FM Radio for $134.95, with $15.15 added for a rear speaker. The addition of the 426 Hemi engine boosted the price by $648.20. Production soared to 104,978 for 1969.

• Dodge was all about fancy colors on cars produced from 1969 to 1973. Their “High-Performance Colors” included Hemi Orange, Plum Crazy, Bright Green, Go Mango, Butterscotch, Green Go, Panther Pink, Citron Yellow, and the vibrant lime green color known as Sublime. Plymouth’s “High Impact Colors” for the same time period included Bahama Yellow, Rallye Green, Sassy Grass, In Violet, LimeLight, and the shocking pink color they called Moulin Rouge.

• As the popularity of muscle cars soared in the early 1970s, insurance companies responded with a soar of their own. They boosted premium prices on any vehicle fitting the requirements of the term “muscle car.” Although a car retailed for $3,500 to $4,000, insurance might cost up to an additional $1,500 a year. Stricter government emission standards, unleaded gasoline that produced a drop in power ratings, a fuel shortage that resulted in skyrocketing gas prices, a lower speed limit, and increased safety regulations that required larger, heftier bumpers all contributed to the decline of

TIDBITS NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE

The high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang, the Shelby Mustang was manufactured by Shelby American from 1965 to 1967 and by Ford from 1968 to 1970. All of the 1965 Shelby GT350s were painted Wimbledon White, but other colors, including blue, red, green, and black, were added to the 1966 models.

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• Did you dislike Brussels sprouts in your youth? Turns out they don't taste the same nowadays, thanks to Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn, who figured out which compounds in the sprouts made them bitter, then helped begin the work of selecting seeds that would produce more palatable results.

• The first gun was made in 1,000 AD in China.

• While ostriches can't fly, no bird on Earth can match their speed on land, since they can not only sprint at up to 43 mph, but cover more than 10 feet in a single stride.

• A 50 by 50 foot area of healthy lawn generates enough oxygen to supply a family of four.

• Every year, 1.2 million students drop out of school. That's 7,000 dropouts every day, or one every 26 seconds.

• Notorious gangster and bank robber Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd endeared himself to the American public by destroying mortgage papers at the banks he held up, freeing a lot of folks from their debts.

* The First Gulf War in 1991 technically never end ed. There was just a cease-fire. The U.K. used that legal loophole to justify entering the Second Gulf War in 2003.

• In 2000, Sony invented a movie critic named David Manning and used his fictional quotes to promote the company's movies. The ruse backfired when Sony ended up paying over $1.5 million to moviegoers in a class action lawsuit and over $300,000 to the state of Connecticut, where "David Manning" supposedly worked at a small weekly paper.

• The throne of Denmark is made of narwhal tusks, which were claimed to be unicorn horns, and is flanked by three life-size silver lions, inspired by the legend of King Solomon's throne.

Thought for the Day: "Go out on a limb -- that's where the fruit is." -- Will

Rogers

*Answers for both puzzles located on following pages.

People Worth Remembering: PRESTON TUCKER

He was a man ahead of his time, creating cars with features like no one had before. Follow along as Tidbits explores the life of this visionary carmaker.

• Infatuated with automobiles at an early age, Preston Tucker learned to drive when he was 11. At 16, he began flipping vehicles, buying cars, repairing them, and reselling. As a teen, he secured a job as a mail messenger at General Motors in Detroit, wearing roller skates to speed up his duties. At 20, he was working on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company, while running his own gas station and selling Studebakers on the side.

• Tucker became a full-time car salesman for Stutz, Chrysler, and Dodge, then a regional sales manager for PierceArrow, followed by the presidency of a Packard dealership. He was building race cars for Ford in the 1930s, but with the advent of World War II, he turned to inventing, creating and manufacturing gun turrets for Navy ships.

• Tucker returned to his love of cars post-war, with the goal of building his own automobile company. His design ideas were ingenious and futuristic, including a rearmounted engine made from modified helicopter engines, a third “Cyclops Eye” center headlight that turned with the wheels to improve visibility around corners, disc brakes, independent springless suspension, and self-sealing tubeless tires. Doors curved into the roof for easier entry and exit. Tucker incorporated many safety features – a padded dash, all instruments within the diameter and reach of the steering wheel, a roll bar within the roof, a laminated windshield designed to pop out during an accident, as well as seat belts and a chassis that protected occupants in the event of a side impact. He called his creation the Tucker Torpedo, later to be known as the Tucker 48 sedan.

• Tucker obtained an enormous factory in Chicago, a former aircraft engine plant where Cyclone engines for B-29 Superfortress aircraft had been manufactured.

• The Tucker 48 was unveiled in an extravagant ceremony and a colossal marketing campaign in 1947. The sedan resembled a rocket ship with its swooping fenders and six exhaust pipes. Investors and dealers were enthusiastic and signed on. Tucker raised over $20 million through the sale of stock and franchises. He also had the idea of raising funds by selling accessories, such as radios and seat covers that could be purchased prior to owning the car.

• But the company was in financial straits from the beginning. Tucker was selling dealerships and stock before the car was ready for production. More than 2,000 dealers had bought into the company that had no cars at the time, with the cost approaching $30,000 for the franchise. Stock was sold to the public. It was then that the Securities and Exchange Commission stepped in and launched an investigation in May, 1948. It was their claim that it was never Tucker’s plan to build any cars, although by this time 51 cars had been manufactured.

• With the SEC’s allegations, the stock price plummeted, investors were lost, and the dealership owners began filing lawsuits to recover their money. The factory was closed down on the very day that Tucker’s trial for stock fraud began. After a lengthy trial, Tucker was found not guilty, but the damage was done.

• Tucker died at age 53 in 1956, and in 1988, his story was told in the movie “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” with Jeff Bridges in the starring role. Tucker’s former factory is now the corporate headquarters of Tootsie Roll Industries, along with the 135-store Ford City Mall.

Word Spiral Answer: JAYWALKER

• On April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens more than 1,500 years after the last Games, which originated in Olympia in southwestern Greece. Two hundred and forty-one athletes from 14 countries took part.

• On April 5, 1955, Winston Churchill, who was instrumental in initiating the alliance between the U.K., the U.S. and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, resigned as prime minister of the U.K. His political career spanned half a century.

• On April 3, 1973, Motorola employee Martin Cooper made the first public mobile telephone call, on a Manhattan sidewalk, to Joel Engel of Bell Labs. Cooper later told the BBC that his first words were, "Joel, I'm calling you from a 'real' cellular telephone. A portable handheld telephone."

• On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron, aka "Hammerin' Hank," of the Atlanta Braves struck his 715th career home run, smashing Babe Ruth's legendary record of 714 homers. Over the preceding winter, Aaron had endured death threats and hate mail from people who didn't want to see that record broken by a Black man.

• On April 7, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a 50-year-old Virginia law making it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation. The practice is widely associated with the Ku Klux Klan and is still protected by the First Amendment at Klan rallies.

• On April 9, 2009, the U.S. stopped running its global network of secret prisons used to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects, sometimes with "torturous" methods. CIA Director Leon Panetta added that any remaining sites would be decommissioned. President Barack Obama had promised to shut the facilities down shortly after taking office.

• On April 4, 2013, American film critic Roger Ebert died of cancer just two days after announcing he would write fewer reviews due to the disease's recurrence. His thumbs up/thumbs down rating system with fellow critic Gene Siskel turned the pair into household names and became a popular part of American culture.

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• Although we often refer to several familiar automobiles as “muscle cars,” in actuality they were “pony cars,” which were shorter in length, lighter in weight, with long hoods. Although Ford is given the credit for the first pony car with its 1964 Mustang, the Plymouth Barracuda was actually released on April 1, 1964, 16 days before the Mustang. Pony cars leaped in popularity because they were sporty and affordable. The base price for the 1964 Mustang was $2,368.

• The 1964 Barracuda was really just a redesigned fastback version of the Plymouth Valiant, and was in fact known as the Valiant Barracuda until 1966. The feature that distinguished it from the original Valiant was its huge wraparound rear glass window, the largest piece of glass ever used on a production car. By 1966, traces of the Valiant were being phased out and the Barracuda fish logo was introduced. In 1967, the bubble top window was gone, along with all signs of the Valiant.

• The Plymouth 426 Hemi Barracuda was named the fastest vehicle of 1970, with a 13.1-second quarter-mile at a speed of 107.1 mph. The 426ci, 425-horsepower car could be purchased for around $6,000 in 1970. At a 2014 Mecum auction, one 1970 Cuda was sold for $3.4 million.

• The Barracuda wasn’t much competition for the Mustang, with Mustang outselling the Plymouth 8:1. General Motors jumped into the ring with the 1967 models, introducing the Pontiac Firebird and the Chevy Camaro. The Camaro came first, hitting dealers’ lots on September 29, 1966.With a price tag of $2,600 to $3,500, Chevy logged sales of 220,000. The Rally Sport included hideaway headlights, backup lights under the rear bumper and a special trim molding package. In 1967, Chevy introduced its first Z28 with its distinguishing stripes on the trunk and hood, the most expensive of the Camaro coupes, starting at $3,273. Only 602 were built that first year.

PONY CARS (continued):

• Mercury’s contribution to 1967 ponies was the Cougar, with a base price of $2,851, $390 more than the Mustang. Its wheelbase was 3 inches longer than the Mustang, providing more legroom, better suspension and sound insulation, resulting in a smoother and quieter ride. 151,000 were produced, and it ranked third in sales behind the Mustang and the Camaro. “Motor Trend” tagged the debut Cougar as its Car of the Year.

• Pontiac’s response to the Mustang, the Firebird debuted in February, 1967, coinciding with the release of the Mercury Cougar. The Firebird was a little heavier pony car, a little more luxurious, and more expensive. It was the creation of GM exec John Delorean, who had been tasked to come up with a vehicle that could compete with the other muscle cars. It was an immediate hit. The iconic Firebird decal that appears on the hood was created in 1970, but it wasn’t used until 1973. Nicknamed the “Screaming Chicken,” the decal option was an extra $55.

• Mustang sales were extraordinary in 1966, 607,000 cars, but with the competition from GM, sales dropped dramatically to 472,000 in 1967 and 317,000 in 1968.

• The Javelin was in production from 1968 to 1974, AMC’s answer to the Mustang. The Jav became a serious contender in the pony car field, particularly in the racing world. In 1968, AMC debuted the AMX, a two-seater car touted as an alternative to Chevy’s higher-priced Corvette. It was the company’s attempt to change its image from plain economy cars to high-performance vehicles. The AMX was based closely on the Javelin, but about 12 inches shorter, with a wheelbase one inch longer than the Corvette. With a base price of $3,245, it was $1,000+ less than the price of the Corvette. Sales of the AMX never took off, and in 1971, the AMX name was transferred to the higher-performing Javelin.

Quiz Answers

Yellow 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback.

1976 Firebird Trans Am. General Lee

Edna Krabappel

Thank you

Charlottesville, Virginia

Michael Jackson, in 1987. 5: Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.

Sports Answers

King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Frame is different.

Sleeve is shorter. 3. Bottle is missing. 4. Rattle is missing.

5. Fish is missing. 6. Teddy bear is missing.