Go to most car shows and the vast majority of cars you will see are the top end models. You will see many examples of the Z28s, Boss 302s, Superbirds, Superbees, GTs, R/Ts, SSs, Cobras, Shelbys, Judges, and every other performance moniker you can think of. Lots of chrome, power add-ons, superchargers, turbochargers, pinstripes, fat stripes, big fat tires on wire-spoke wheels, four-on-the-floor Hurst shifters; an nearly infinite array of hot-looking doodads that scream Performance! Handling! Cool!
What you won't see a
whole lot of are the base models. You know, the ones with the little straight-6 engines, drum brakes, squishy suspensions, plain-jane paint jobs, automatic transmissions, and basic cloth or vinyl upholstery. They're kinda like the
Hall and Oates of the automotive world: they don't get a lot of attention, but they sell gobs of units. Of course, some of those hot-looking monsters you
do see at the
show started out life as a lowly base model and were subsequently upgraded to look, act, and feel like one of the performance models. That's fine; there's nothing like taking an ugly duckling and turning it into a (fire-breathing) swan.
But many, many times there are base models sitting there that have been lovingly cared for and kept in immaculate, and often largely stock, condition by the original owners. They don't scream "Look at me!" while cruising down the street, but they deserve some attention since they very often capture the "time capsule" aspect of owning an older car. Most of what follows uses the Mustang as an example, largely because I know more about them, but the basic design and marketing of that car reflected the sort of two-tier thinking that went into making and selling one of the most popular and iconic cars in the modern period.
