Pontiac Trans Am

Duh.

AMC Gremlin

Actually, a ton of AMCs should come back. Remember the April Fools feature in Hot Rod?

Plymouth ‘Cuda

Ok, so Mr. Norm is building one, but still…

Plymouth Road Runner

Cause one Plymouth isn’t enough.

Oldsmobile 442

This pic is from Chip’s ride page.

Mercury Cougar

Would have been a total no brainer to base it on the S197 Mustang.

Edsel Citation Convertible

This look is totally here to stay.

International Scout

Coolest 4×4 ever. Pic is from Eric’s ride page.

Studebaker Starlight Coupe

Cause we need another car with a wrap-around rear window, and the Cube doesn’t count!

Tucker

Ahead of its time…

Maybe that’s why she’s the doctor and I’m the automotive writer, but I digress…

The fact of the matter is that I’ve never run out of gas on the road. (I’ll admit that I’ve have learned the hard way that a couple vehicles I’ve owned have less than smartly-engineered fuel tanks, leading to no-start conditions even with four or five gallons remaining when parked at various angles on steep driveways…but to quote the legendary Del Griffith: “I won’t be held responsible for faulty engineering.”) The reason I never run out of gas is that no matter how close to “E” the needle is or how many miles it’s been since the idiot light came on, I still inherently know that I’m playing with way more go-juice than the car would have me believe.

Continue reading after the jump!

Today provided another great case example when I ran my 2006 Toyota Avalon to the lowest I’d ever seen on its needle. The idiot light had come on days ago, the needle was pointing at “E” and the indicated “cruising range” on the info screen showed a scant “3 miles”. I pulled into Costco expecting to have to push the car up to the pump as I idled waiting for the slowest knuckleheaded F-150 owner to complete his fueling, receipt checking and painful resetting of all on-board odometers.

I also anticipated fully refilling the car’s 18.5-gallon tank. Except when all was said and done, the car only took 15.6 gallons. Who engineered this fuel sending unit, the boy who cried “wolf”? Hell, that sixteen-percent of actual remaining fuel would have enabled me to fill up at Costco in Seattle over sixty miles away.

To be fair, Toyota isn’t the only manufacturer to have totally flakey fuel gauges. My wife’s now departed 1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue’s idiot light was supposed to come on with 1.5 gallons of remaining fuel, but it usually illuminated at anything under five. I suppose that was better than 1997-2004 Corvettes, which had an amazing habit of reading accurately until the car hit a bump in the road with under a half-tank, causing the software designed to interpret signals from the twin gas tanks to get confused and drop the needle to the empty pin. With over 19 gallons of capacity and damn near 35 mpg on the freeway, it has infuriated Corvette owners who see an empty gas reading, but know the car can travel another 200-to-280 miles before filling up.

So here’s a note to manufacturers: if you want consumers to take the gauges and idiot lights seriously, try making them a little more accurate than a local five-day weather forecast.

As much as we love seeing these cars fry the hides in straight line action, watching them plow through the corners while host Bud Lindemann describes their wallowing performance as being “agile as a bobcat” is priceless.

Jack Watson is a rodding hero!

Whoever the test driver was for this show had the greatest job in the world. They really beat the hell out of this car in a multitude of ways. Our favorite parts are the moments when the car is tail out around the corners and frying tire all the way out of the frame. Torque is your friend.

Thanks to BangShift.com reader Scott Bares for the tip!

1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with 37,581 actual miles. Powered by the original 350 c.i. Oldsmobile V-8 engine coupled to the original three-speed automatic transmission. Finished in Metallic Brown with an excellent Tan vinyl interior. Equipped with air conditioning, tilt wheel, power brakes, power steering, factory radio with a CD player that is discretely mounted in the glove box. It is also equipped with factory rally wheels, Tan half vinyl top, white wall tires, manual windows, manual locks, sport mirrors and factory exhaust … Mechanically sound with no known issues to date. The brown paint looks great for its age but does show some very minor blemishes. All in all this is a solid rust free Cutlass that will take you back to the look and feel of the late 70’s.

See more pics at Hemmings