What possible need was there for another car
like the Mustang?
1967 Chevy Camaro. Photo by Bull-Doser / Public Domain.
This is Henry Mecredy’s second Rag Blog article about design, function, and the social good in automotive engineering. Also see Mecredy’s March 24, 2016 article, “The Edsel Tragedy.”
In the mid-Sixties a huge innovation took place in automotive history: The Ford Mustang was introduced. Technically little more than a Falcon, the Mustang with its long hood and sporty appearance found a ready market.
Assuming briefly that the human creativity and effort expended on the Mustang project had a valid and important result; that it satisfied transportation needs as well as artistic and emotional desires for the millions who bought and still buy its various iterations and configurations, what is to be made of the Camaro, the second “pony car” and essentially a Mustang clone?
The Camaro has been and continues to be a success in conventional marketing and profit terms. Evaluated from the sports-analogy standpoint it is hard to critique. But of course the sports analogy assumes that there is no real cost associated with fielding teams, or at least that the costs are borne willingly to provide for the game itself. Such, alas, is not the case with the development of a new automobile.
1964 Mustang convertible, the first Mustang off the assembly line. Photo by Alvintrusty / Creative Commons.
The entire development of the Camaro was a complete waste from a social standpoint.
Assuming that there was some kind of need for a car like the Mustang, what possible need was there for another car like the Mustang? If there was none, then every person-hour expended on designing, developing, manufacturing, and distributing the Camaro in parallel was wasted. Not to mention the physical resources like tooling steel, factory space, and the like.
Give the “Principle of Interchangeable Parts” test to the Mustang-Camaro pair: List the parts that can be interchanged between the two. For example: Wheels? Nope. Engines or any part therof? Nope. Hoods? Seats? Glass? Taillights? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. This makes something of a joke out of the principle of interchangeable parts: it’s the basis of industrial manufacturing, but it doesn’t cross corporate lines! On the other hand, try to list the things that make owning or driving a Mustang different from owning or driving a Camaro. Good luck!
So the entire development of the Camaro was a complete waste from a social standpoint even though it has given a swell return from a corporate and investor standpoint. All of the talent, training, and tooling that was required to carry out the Camaro project was wasted socially: It duplicated what was done for the Mustang project, and meanwhile the opportunities to use it for something actually new and useful were squandered.
Possibly a democratically-managed economy would not have made this kind of investment.
[Henry Mecredy is a mechanical engineer from Austin and a Son of the Republic of Texas. As a child, he was influenced by a television program called Industry On Parade.]
It feels like buying freedom. The illusion sometimes overtakes reality.
I’d say the ooposite. Choice beats no choice every time and makes us feel good about our decision making. The democratically managed economy you crave would have an infinite number of pony cars. Mine is called the Seabiscuit. It has two wheels and runs on Big Macs, Whoppers and P. Terrys.
Gosh.
According the Henry’s tortured logic. The Rag Blog is a waste of time and effort from a social stand point. Every person-hour expended on designing, planning, writing, and managing the Rag Blog was wasted. Why? Because there were already and still are several progressive information sites around the web that provide very similar content, by the same or similar authors. Nothing new from a societal perspective was provided as a result of the Rag Blog being developed and written and maintained.
Therein lies the fallacy of Henrys claims. The Rag Blog may have a focus on improving society, but it was not produced solely to improve society. It meet the need for former Rag Bloggers to connect and share information. It helped a group with a similar world view to find a common home to explore and challenge those views.
So to was the Camaro .. Henry. Nothing worthwhile will ever come from an effort whose focus is to create something new and useful for “society”. Self interest drives innovation and improvement .. not lofty liberal goals of achieving maximum and optimal resource utilization for a one world society.
– Proud to be an Extremist2TheDHS
Gosh again! Stunning! Worthwhile! Not too hard to read! Germane! Incisive!
To me, it’s about industries competing and what most people don’t realize is that Camaros are better and faster. Also sexier too;)
Hmmmm. I see.