[jr2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Motor_Corporation
On the bottom there's a chart with links to other companies...

Looks like a tank to me..

[aldo_14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Motor_Corporation
On the bottom there's a chart with links to other companies...

Looks like a tank to me..

What, exactly, is your point?

[jr2]

Someone mentioned earlier that the American cars looked like tanks... well, back then, they (almost) all did.

[aldo_14]

Someone mentioned earlier that the American cars looked like tanks... well, back then, they (almost) all did.

Not many people idolise 1950s Austins, though.

[Stealth]

i don't think they looked like tanks

with Honda elements, and Hummer H2s, i think we have the "tank" category pretty well populated...

aldo, still waiting on you to explain lol

[aldo_14]

Explain what?

[Stealth]

look further up.  i quoted you and asked you to explain

[aldo_14]

Ah.

The phrase "what the hell is up with kids these days" sounds a lot like my dad.

[Stealth]

oooh

well yeah, my bad, i'm not old, only 21 but i just wanted to poke fun at him

[Bob-san]

I'd like to see that Buick Bob-San. Only one I can think of was in Forza on x-box.

Again, I don't have a camera handy (it doesnt help that im 12 miles away either).

1986 Buick Grand National

Comments: 1986 saw significant changes to the Grand National that would make it truly one of the best American performance cars of the mid-1980s. Buick added an air-to-air intercooler, adjusted the turbo, modified the upper and lower intake manifolds, and redesigned the exhaust system. All of these changes added up to a boost in power to 235 bhp and 330 lb-ft. Other changes included a revised front air dam with an opening in the center to allow cool air to reach the Intercooler duct and a revised grille with fine vertical bars.

But for the first time, there was another Grand National, the LeSabre Grand National. Only 117 were built to qualify the body for NASCAR competition. All LeSabre Grand Nationals were black (although white was also planned), and came with a sport suspension, 3.8 liter S.F.I V-6 leather warapped steering wheel, 15 inch alloy wheels with Goodyear Eagle GT tires and rear quarter window close-outs. The "Grand National" emblems on the front quarters were just like regular GN emblems, except that the Power Six logo was all red instead of two-tone red and yellow.

Production: Grand National: 5,512. LeSabre Grand National: 117.
Engines: 3.8L V6 Turbo 235 bhp @ 4000 rpm, 330 ft-lb @ 2400 rpm.
Performance: 0-60 in 5 seconds.

PRetty much that, not as nice looking now.

EDIT: just something to add (so i dont doublepost).

I firmly believe that the best luxury cars came from the 1950s and the best muscle cars came from the 1980s. That isn't just because there's a '86 Grand National and a '56 Caddy Sedan De Ville in the family... 50s style and 80s power. Maybe 2016 will be a good year for a car... 

[Black Wolf]

"Yank Tank" on Urbandictionary:

yank tank
Noun.

1. British slang for a large and unweildy American car, usually an SUV. Examples include the Chevy Suburban/GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.
2. Ugly clumsy American car
3. British slang used to describe large, ugly, poorly-manufactured american cars. In europe american cars are seen as a kind of joke for people with small penises.

It doesn't mean it looks like a tank. just that it looks like crap. Look at what the brits and the Euros were doing in the fifties:

The BMW 507
The MGA
The Mercedes 300SL
The Aston Martin DB Mark III

Now those were classy, good looking cars. The American cars of the fifties and sixties were gaudy, ugly looking things, like the above one.

[Stealth]

ugh.  no, those were 2 door sports cars.  this was a luxury car.  big big difference.  you can't argue whether the 50s cadillacs were classy... it's a fact that they were

there's a reason people still say "that's the 'cadillac' of pools", etc.  they don't say "that's the aston martin of houses"

game. set. match.

[Stealth]

also i agree about 80s being the muscle car years.

shoot, even Cadillac joined the game, putting 500 cubic inch engines (the biggest serial production V8 in the world to ever be put in a car... held the guiness book of records till a year or two ago), pumping out 400 HP, in some of their cars.

[Flipside]

there's a reason people still say "that's the 'cadillac' of pools", etc.  they don't say "that's the aston martin of houses"

Admittedly, that's because they'd call it the Rolls Royce of houses

[Black Wolf]

ugh.  no, those were 2 door sports cars.  this was a luxury car.  big big difference.  you can't argue whether the 50s cadillacs were classy... it's a fact that they were

there's a reason people still say "that's the 'cadillac' of pools", etc.  they don't say "that's the aston martin of houses"

game. set. match.

It's utterly irrelevant what they were in terms of their classification as cars - I'm not talking about the performance (where I strongly suspect the Euros had the advantage especially if you're interested in things other than pure HP output) or anything - I'm simply talking about the general trends of styling and the overall looks of the things being produced in Europe vs. the US. The Yanks were making big, square, ugly looking things with stupid rocketship tailfins and silly chroming everywhere, while the euros and brits were building more understated, curvy things with less flash and more pure style.

As for the belief that they were classy, well:

class·y
–adjective, class·i·er, class·i·est. Informal.
of high class, rank, or grade; stylish; admirably smart; elegant. 

I don't see anything that could be called elegant in those big, gaudy boxes. So that pretty much throws your ridiculous "fact" out the window.

Also, for what it's worth, I've never heard the phrase "the cadillac" of anything. It's a phrase I very, very strongly suspect is limited entirely to North America, which makes it worse than useless in a discussion about design issues sourced on a worldwide scale.[/color

[aldo_14]

I've never heard the term 'cadillac of' being used outside of the US (except in an ironic way) either.

[Stealth]

ugh.  no, those were 2 door sports cars.  this was a luxury car.  big big difference.  you can't argue whether the 50s cadillacs were classy... it's a fact that they were

there's a reason people still say "that's the 'cadillac' of pools", etc.  they don't say "that's the aston martin of houses"

game. set. match.

It's utterly irrelevant what they were in terms of their classification as cars - I'm not talking about the performance (where I strongly suspect the Euros had the advantage especially if you're interested in things other than pure HP output) or anything - I'm simply talking about the general trends of styling and the overall looks of the things being produced in Europe vs. the US. The Yanks were making big, square, ugly looking things with stupid rocketship tailfins and silly chroming everywhere, while the euros and brits were building more understated, curvy things with less flash and more pure style.

As for the belief that they were classy, well:

class·y
–adjective, class·i·er, class·i·est. Informal.
of high class, rank, or grade; stylish; admirably smart; elegant. 

I don't see anything that could be called elegant in those big, gaudy boxes. So that pretty much throws your ridiculous "fact" out the window.

Also, for what it's worth, I've never heard the phrase "the cadillac" of anything. It's a phrase I very, very strongly suspect is limited entirely to North America, which makes it worse than useless in a discussion about design issues sourced on a worldwide scale.[/color

to each his own i guess.... some guy said he'd rather have a new impala over a 59 cadillac.  so.... lol.... i guess some people will never be able to truly appreciate cars.  and by appreciate i mean own them, drive them, etc.  not just fantasize over pictures of cars (old or new) online.

and i'd heard "the cadillac of....*whatever*" in south africa too.  so i don't think it's just north america, although it may have originated there

[jr2]

"Yank Tank" on Urbandictionary:

yank tank
Noun.

1. British slang for a large and unweildy American car, usually an SUV. Examples include the Chevy Suburban/GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.
2. Ugly clumsy American car
3. British slang used to describe large, ugly, poorly-manufactured american cars. In europe american cars are seen as a kind of joke for people with small penises.

It doesn't mean it looks like a tank. just that it looks like crap. Look at what the brits and the Euros were doing in the fifties:

The BMW 507
The MGA
The Mercedes 300SL
The Aston Martin DB Mark III

Now those were classy, good looking cars. The American cars of the fifties and sixties were gaudy, ugly looking things, like the above one.

Hmm... the reason you didn't post any luxury cars to compare, I guess, is that the Europeans didn't make them yet in the 1950s?  If not, try and come up with a few examples... make 'em your favorite ones; just don't compare apples and oranges. 

[aldo_14]

"Yank Tank" on Urbandictionary:

yank tank
Noun.

1. British slang for a large and unweildy American car, usually an SUV. Examples include the Chevy Suburban/GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.
2. Ugly clumsy American car
3. British slang used to describe large, ugly, poorly-manufactured american cars. In europe american cars are seen as a kind of joke for people with small penises.

It doesn't mean it looks like a tank. just that it looks like crap. Look at what the brits and the Euros were doing in the fifties:

The BMW 507
The MGA
The Mercedes 300SL
The Aston Martin DB Mark III

Now those were classy, good looking cars. The American cars of the fifties and sixties were gaudy, ugly looking things, like the above one.

Hmm... the reason you didn't post any luxury cars to compare, I guess, is that the Europeans didn't make them yet in the 1950s?  If not, try and come up with a few examples... make 'em your favorite ones; just don't compare apples and oranges. 

Are you kidding?  Europe invented the luxury car - Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Bentley (for example http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Bentley_r_cont.jpg).  What the US did was come up with the concept of an arguably cruder, lower performance vehicle that was -crucially - cheaper and more mass-affordable; something which funneled back into europe in much the same was as Asian & European hatchbacks will gradually funnel into the US market.

[Bob-san]

I do not like that car in the least. That car reminds me too much of a over-shined tank.

There's something to be said about a Cadillac that I just can't say about any of those cars. The Cadillac Sedan de Ville was a "Full-Sized Luxury Car". You really can't compare a luxury car to a roadster coupe (Mercedes 300SL, MGA 1600, BMW 507) or a sports car (Aston Martin DB2/4). It is apples to oranges. The Cadillac style we are arguing over are the 1950s full-size luxury cars. At least try to meet one of those criteria when you match some European model to a Cadillac; please... choose a full-size car or a luxury car (from about +/- 2 years model year). That'll keep this fair. Perhaps Cadillac is out-classed in Europe. It is still an American icon for style, luxury, and class.

EDIT: Bad formatting...