Research Help!

I'm doing a reasearch project tracing the history of Car design over the past 100 years. Basically, I need to talk about a car from each decade and the reasons it was produced like that, based on styles, social issues, new technology, etc.

I need everyone to tell me what they think the most influencial car of each decade is, or, failing that, just their favorite. As a bonus, if you think a car from the past is way overrated (and is actually a piece of crap), throw that in there too.

Thanks!

Well...I don't know much about the earlier cars but the Ford Model T was pretty important what with the assembly line and all. The Ford Mustang started the Pony Car craze
I can name some of my favorites though:
'57 Bel Air
'69 Camaro
'70 Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi or the Mr. Norm Dart with the Hemi
'86&'87 Turbo Buicks
'97+LS1 Powered cars (I know there are better cars but for the price they were pretty potent)
'04&'05 SRT4...inexpensive performance, it's gonna spark something...Chevy came out with the CobaltSS, Dodge will get another SRT4 from the Caliber, and I think Ford will go FI on the Focus.

Hope this helps some.

This is more of a sports car prospective, but I'll try to throw in some other cars
50's- 1953 Corvette or the MB 300SL

60's- 1964 Ford Mustang or 1964 Porsche 911

70's- 1976 Accord/Civic CVCC (holy crap, the Japanese motorcycle company can make cars too, arguably the biggest icon of the Japanese auto industry), or the VW Rabbit GTI (the first hot hatch)

80's- my personal favorite is the BMW E30 325i (beginning of BMW's rise), the 1986 Ford Taurus was the last successful American midsize family sedan.

90's- its kinda a wimpy car, but the Mazda Miata was iconic for the '90s. Fun car for the masses.

00's- kinda hard to say now

Ooh. A chance for me to be long-winded and its actually warranted :D

I don't have much knowledge of cars before the war (pre 42) so I'll throw in my favorites from the 30s but I have nothing to back it up other than they're pretty :) 36 Cord and pretty much any Duesenberg. The post war cars were a brilliant time for auto history. During the war most cars were repeats of the previous model year. Starting in about 46 the real boom hit. The economy was incredible, designers were coming into a new art-deco phase, and glorious works came from Detroit. Of all of these, I would have to say the Tucker made the most impact on me but one of the least impacts on the automotive industry. Preston Tucker designed a car that was safe, fast, and reliable. It was so widely UN-accepted and he was prosecuted for fraud due to some possibly illegitimate business practices. Almost all of the design elements he incorporated for safety and convenience have since been adopted by car companies in much later years. As far as I'm concerned he was the Gallileo of the car world. Unaccepted in his time, but a man with foresight.

The 50s had some of Harley Earl's best work at GM, especially at Buick. The 51 Century, Riviera, and Special were just sexy. The 53 Corvette was his design and was highly influential for GM, so that's probably my first pick from the 50s. It was Harley Earl who also introduced the whole idea of tailfins, which of course peaked with the 59 Caddy, my other pick from the 50s. I avoided the 57 Chevy because its impact wasn't until much later. At the time the 57 BelAir, 210, and the like were just another car at a dealership. Very popular, but I wouldn't say it was in influential car of the 50s since it wasn't so valuable and desired until much afterward.

The 60s was a great time for cars. Engineering was peaking with the then-current technology. The importance of the 64.5 mustang can't be ignored, as well as the start of the true muscle cars. The 64 GTO, the 65 Ford Fairlane, The Barracuda/Challenger, and the 64 Buick Wildcat rank highly on my list. Although I personally prefer the styling changes that most makes did in the 66-67 years. The Pontiacs went to their "Venturi" rear panel treatments as did most of the rest of the GM line. For that reason my favorites of the GMs are 66 and 67.

The 70s are tough. For the most part the gas crunch and emissions junk really started in about 72, so there were many 70 and 71s that were still true muscle cars. So although cars like the 70 Chevelle LS6 are shining peaks of musclecar expression, I sorta lump them in with the previous decade. The majority of the 70s were characterized by a major shift in design and engineering so I think it would be unfair to neglect that in favor of a few cars from 1970 that stand out. The big boats of the 70s always held a special place in my heart. I think instantly of the 76 Lincoln Town Coupe and Mark IV Continental, both of which were classified as a "personal luxury car"... with a 120" or 127" wheelbase and a weight somewhere north of 5000 lbs. The most power you could get that year was a 460 with 202 hp, so the 70's can hardly be marked as a performance time. Other favorites of the era were the 73 and 76 Caddys, in specific the Coupe Deville and Full Size. I also have a very soft spot for the 70s Caddy Hearses. It was in the 70s that Caddy introduced the worlds largest production passenger vehicle V8, the 500. I also like the Olds Vista Cruiser and Custom Cruiser wagons of the era with the glass roof panels.

I call the 80s the "70s hangover." The technology was there to beat the smog police, but the trends set were like blood in the water and the economy was not in such a place where expensive cars were good at making money for the manufacturers. It was the front wheel drive boom which made billions for car companies while not doing much for auto advancement. About the only cars from the 80s that I can call influential are the Mopar K cars and the Buick Grand National. I know Polygon will disagree, but the K-car was a travesty in my opinion. They were based on Dodge's first attempt at front wheel drive unibody cars. The unibody was (still to this day) the least stiff (harmonically) of any car ever produced. They used that chassis for as many cars as they could and they were not any masterpiece. They were a great sales pitch for Mopar making tons of money, but they didn't last long or put any smiles on driver's faces. Couple that with the prolific use of poorly designed turbos by Chrysler, and the K car ranks as my single most hated car ever. The weak 180 hp most of the turbo models made was too much for the early K chassis. Magazines were quick to pick up on it too which hurt sales a bit. The turbos were also very small making them feel strong from 0-30, but excessive heat made reliability questionable and the public wasn't ready for the 2500-mile oil change recommendation, nor were they ready for the short life of the turbo bearings. Polygon (another member here) has a great love of some of those cars, but he has gone to great lengths to build on Chrysler's shortcomings. Contrast that with the Grand National. They did their homework and put together a well-designed mid 13-second car on the showroom floor when mid 16s were common.

The 90s saw the true return of power to the streets. The prolific use of MPFI and properly tuned EGR and Catalysts made it possible to produce clean power. The even playing field of so many auto makers makes it hard to pick one influential car for me. I do know of several engines that pique my fancy, like the LT1 and LS1, the Cummins 5.9 in the Dodge trucks (actually an older design, but became influential in the 90s) and the Viper's V10.

There... proof that I'm full of s#!t. :)

Thanks for that!