Thirty One Years Ago…

…as well as a heatwave and the American bicentennial celebrations July 1976 saw my arrival into the world. By way of a celebration I thought I’d have a look at the world of motoring in July ’76 as reported in CAR.

Lancia were promoting their Stratos, Citroën were making a fuss about the economy of their quirky cars (remember the Dyane and Ami?). The big news was the Chrysler Scamp, which the world would know as the Sunbeam. The Sunbeam didn’t go on sale until 1977 but July’s newcomers included the Renault 14 and Volvo 343 – not very stimulating. The Lancia Gamma was too new for its foibles to be discovered and the Lamborghini Silhouette seemed very stimulating indeed.

No issue of CAR in this period would be complete without a helping of supercars. Mel Nichols was dispatched to visit Maserati, De Tomaso, Lamborghini and Ferrari. After some difficult times in the fuel crisis things were looking up for the makers of exotic cars.

Almost every time I pick up an old magazine I find something that suggests the world hasn’t changed much in the passing years. So it was with an article on Formula 1:

And if you handicapped cars and opened up circuits to a bit more competition and a little less slowing down, assuring safety in other ways than by multiplying chicanes and other artificial curves and thus allowing more passing and more changes in race position…

How many times every year do people crave more overtaking in F1? What was the saying? Plus ça change...