Practicing For A Midlife Crisis
How the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am established a bizarre market niche
Everyone is familiar with the cliché of the overweight balding man in his mid-fifties who one weekend morning leaves the family home in a sensible commuter mobile and returns a few hours later in some fire-breathing crotch-rocket. In the USA, these midlife-crisis-mobiles can be expensive German imports or, for more blue-collar types, a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. In Europe where there’s less money to indulge in automotive compensation strategies, men with flagging libidos may have to content themselves with exchanging the sensible family people-carrier in for a racy two-seater with a folding roof. Only the very wealthy will be able to splash out on a Lamborghini or an Aston-Martin.
For the most part, crisis-mobiles were lots of show but very little go. Especially after the introduction of emissions regulations in the late 1970s, the ancient cast iron V8s that sat in the engine bay of nearly every US car were neutered to the point of flaccidity. Moreover, this was a very good thing because US cars had handling so bad that the phrase “land yacht” actually over-stated how well they handled on the road. In 1981 I happened to test-drive a bright pink convertible Chevrolet with white faux-fur seat trim. Acceleration was leisurely, the thing lurched and…
