1972
After driving that 4.5 in Massachusetts, I started to zone in on cars from that early 1970's era. Personally, cars from around '72 interest me more than any other year, regardless of the marque. Mercedes was producing incredible hand-built autobahn cruisers, cars that, for the first time ever, were capable of sustaining 90+ mph speeds for hours in luxurious quiet and comfort. Porsche was building 911's that many consider to be the best ever: lightweight, nimble, beautifully engineered, with aluminum suspension castings and batteries in the nose for equal weight distribution. Ferrari was busy refining the Dino 246GT-GTS, in all its curvaceous glory.
The American big three were building fantastic cars in their own right. Cars that have no equal today, like the Mustang Mach I, Camaro, Hemicuda, Roadrunner, etc. The muscle car phase was peaking. It was an odd mix of technologies. Powerful electronics of the space race suddenly appeared in everyday vehicles. Sophisticated, reliable and mature fuel injection systems were in place. Rapidly refining suspensions were mated with more compact and powerful engines.
Of course, it didn't last long. As the seventies wore on, smog restrictions strangled the engines and safety laws made sure everyone's bumpers were replaced with . . . well . . . something that didn't look so hot. The Volkswagen Beetle suffered particularly in this respect.*
1972 for cars was like 1972 for sex: after the pill and before AIDS.
* This beetle comparison is somewhat misleading, as the two beetles shown represent several design alterations over a number of years, and all before 1972. For the VW, the death knell came earlier in two stages. In 1966-67, US sealed-beam headlamps replaced the beautiful glass covers, and in 1967-68, the bumper design turned from the "plumber's delight" into US-spec safety bumpers. Neverthelesss, these two Government-imposed changes destroyed the balanced delicacy of the Bug's design, and similar visual damage occurred in subsequent years as designers simply couldn't integrate new bumper designs into their cars' lines.