Fwd: <VV> Body Letters Alphabet soup

[Bill Elliott]

Corvair Decade sez Corvairs were X Body Cars, and at the time Tony was writing 
the book, he compared them to the 
X body car of the day, the REALLY ill-fated Citation. 

The Citation ill-fated? I don't think so. 

It was a pretty horrible car (except for possibly the X-11 versions). It did what the Corvair failed to do... it 
introduced an entirely new technology (front wheel drive) to both the automaker and the American public 
and successfully altered both groups... GM moving agressively to FWD (and going exclusively FWD for a 
short, very painful time) and FWD cars being bought in huge quantities by the American public. It's cars 
like this that forced the American car industry to change and apadt instead of simply admitting defeat to 
the Japanese like the British car industry did at about the same time.

It was 800 lbs lighter and much more econimical than its predecessors. It was the Car of the Year in 
1980...and the X-11 model was one of the better performing American cars of the era.

It also sold _extremely_ well (9 month waiting lists at one time) and was very profitable. It also served as 
the test ground for the 2.8 V6 which saw service in both Camaros and Firebirds as well as the Fiero.

Tony was right on with the comparisons at the time... 

But of course, I don't want one, as I started with in the big picture they are pretty horrible cars...  ;-)

Bill Elliott