Is Chrysler getting the attention it deserves?

Once again the automotive press is doing its utmost to avoid any mention of Chrysler, or, at the very least, any POSITIVE mention.

Case in point, the 2008 Viper. First US production car with 600 h.p. Yeah, it got its one month in the spotlight, and a little sprinkling again with the ACR announcement. Meanwhile, the rags have been stuffed with the 2009 Corvette and when THAT didn’t get enough attention, they start touting the 2010 or 2012 or whatever year the next big change is coming. Meanwhile, they don’t talk much about the 2008 Vette cause they know that even their densest readers will realize that they are again dunning Chrysler. And don’t blame the recent departure of Jason Vines, this has been going on long before that.

And The Indianapolis Motor Speedway once AGAIN is going to bore the few open-wheel race fans left in this country with yet another Corvette Pace Car. I always thought that the idea was to use a car that offered something new. It seems to me that the 2008 Vette is a warmed-over 2007 (see preceding paragraph). Maybe the name should be changed to the Corvette Motor Speedway at Indianapolis.

This is nothing new for Chrysler. I remember two consecutive issues from Car and Driver from late 1969/early 1970 when the new 1970 models were fresh and hot. In one issue they road tested the 1970 AAR Cuda. The review wasn’t too bad until they got around to the handling portion. While I can not recall the excat wording, it went basically as follows, “We were even going to say that the AAR was a good handling car until we tried it on the race track. While it did handle well on the street, when pushed hard, like when racing, it exhibited a fair amount of understeer. While some may say that this is a street car, not a race car. We feek that since it is the street version of their Trans Am car, it should be able to handle like a race Trans Am car”. They even went on to suggest that the front and rear tires be switched so as to have the bigger tires on the front. Basically, C & D did their best to run the car down.

Next month, C & D tested the new 1970 Camaro Z28. In THAT test, which was full of raves, they stated that the Z28 handles well on the street but on the race course it pushes its front end badly. But then that is to be expected as this is a streetcar, not an actual Trans Am race car.

Think I’m full of it? I dare anyone to track down those two magazines and post the handling statements from both tests.

Yes, I am only discussing low production specialty cars here, but these are the most obvious examples of what is happening today regarding a company that came BACK to America.