"Muscle Car Confidential: Confessions of a Muscle Car Test Driver" + other road tests

[RetiredFirefighter]

problem with this is there were no 2004 quad-cabs ...

Then what did C&D test? A prototype?

The article never said it was that. They speak of its existence in literal terms:

"To accommodate the four-door configuration, the cargo box didn't shrink, so the wheelbase had to be stretched-in this case 20.0 inches to 140.5-and the overall length similarly increased nearly 25 inches to 227.7"

 

[Prange]

The Reality of Vintage Road Tests.......

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vin...road-test-stats-greatness-through-estimation/

 

[RetiredFirefighter]

The Reality of Vintage Road Tests.......

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vin...road-test-stats-greatness-through-estimation/

Interesting article.

Glad that former Chrysler engineer Patrick Bedard came to C&D in '67 and they began to provide accurate test results. My drag strip testing of stock Fox body Mustang GT's before I modded them matched C&D's times exactly. But MT, R&T and MW were notoriously slow until they too later became accurate.

As for Joe Oldham, his book claims to have distinguished between cars he actually tested vs. the one's he estimated. But this article stated that even some of the one's he said he tested were a lie. Wow.

Good to see this fudging of road tests was cleared up after the mid/late 60's.

 

[06SRT10NR]

Then what did C&D test? A prototype?

The article never said it was that. They speak of its existence in literal terms:

"To accommodate the four-door configuration, the cargo box didn't shrink, so the wheelbase had to be stretched-in this case 20.0 inches to 140.5-and the overall length similarly increased nearly 25 inches to 227.7"

would've had to have been a pilot vehicle, there had to have been a few, but unable to locate info at the moment
or they got the model year wrong