Originally posted by ThorSanchez I loved my MINI Cooper S. So much fun to toss around. But it was 11 years old, and my kids just got too big for the back seat. I swear that one day I'll have an old Austin or similar Mini.
---------- Post added 02-21-20 at 08:24 AM ----------
If we lived in a world where the only choices were Mini/Abarth suspension, or the floaty, vague, 30-degree-of-body-roll suspension on every American car made circa 1970, I'll get get new fillings.
I wouldn't automatically dismiss all American cars circa 1970 as having floaty, vague, 30 degree of body roll suspension.
There were some pretty good handling large American cars back then. Chevy offered a low cost option the F41 (memory remembers the option code ) which consisted of HD shocks, front and rear antiroll bars, etc...which made a significant difference in handling. Back then they also had police packages. Common ones from Mopar, GM and Ford offered heavy duty suspension parts, larger brakes, bigger cooling systems, etc...as part of their police package. For example Mopar offered 440 cube V8/ 375 hp highway interceptor and it came with the police package which included HD suspension components, HD cooling system... for the engine, transmission coolers and in many cases steering coolers. These were serious cars...well able to chase down a lot of American and dare I say it...Imported performance cars. Maybe not extreme Euro supercars...but then the police radio would get them...you can't outrun a radio transmission.
And yep...if you knew a friendly salesman back then and knew the right option codes o pick you could get a police package or something very similar in all the Big 3...Mopar, Ford and Chevy.