Widest Car Ever Built NOT a Pontiac?

[Larry]

Why do you post these teasers when I have other things to do? 'Fraid they'll have to wait.... dive for the books!

Ford evidentially didn't mind promoting the "hip measurements" of the new body style '60 Ford. Old Cars Weekly justy had a nice write-up about the '60 Ford a couple of weeks ago.

Well anywho..... here's what I found out.

The Stadard Catalog of Americam Cars shows the 1960 full-size Ford (all models) as 81.5 inches wide.... now that's hippy!

Surprizingly, the same reference doesn't mention the width of the '59 or '60 Pontiacs. They do, however, give the front and rear thread width as 63.7 and 64, respectively. Ala, "WideTrack".

So, I broke out the old 1959 and '60 Owners Manuals. There I found the info we need to put this mystery to rest. Both 1959 and '60 Pontiacs have a total body width of 80 inches.

Now for those thinking that perhaps a '59 Chevy with the swoop-de-do sideways fins has to be wider... not so. The '59 Chev was only 79.9 inches wide.

So there you have it. We'll let Ford continue to claim that they had the fattest car ever in hip measurements. Now, who wants to get into a discussion about "Dagmars"?

[Larry]

Those could put an eye out! What a way to go. I'll give you 30-minutes to cut that out.... we could go on and on in bad taste humor.

Speaking of hippie designs, how about a '61 Dodge? My Dad used to say following one of those was like walking behind my old Aunt Bertha.

As with some of PMD's designs, how do these things ever get past approval processes? Is there something in the water up in Detroit?

[50scars]

Cadillac had some about 1961 or 1962 that actually were so wide that they should have had the truck lights (3 yellow ones on the front and 3 red ones on the rear), but nobody enfoirced it.