more 70s details

[beccaelizabeth]

Have vague recollection of an LJ group for authors to ask the odd little questions. Am thinking am needing it.

This time I need to know at least two kinds of cars from 1975 - one posh but not uber-posh, one dirt common but roughly the same size. And things like what it would take to nick the posh one. Did car alarms exist? And also what cars the London Metropolitan Police were driving at the time, what they looked like, lights and sounds and stickers and stuff.

Because Ripper knows how to hotwire a car.

Comments

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

If this needs to be English cars, I've got nothing.

Julia, now American cars, yes...

[beccaelizabeth]

Is in London, so pretty much, yes.
but you can add interesting random data to my brain if you like :)

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

If I was going for posh-but-not-to-posh and an equivalent American cars of that vintage, I'd go for a Chrysler New Yorker and a Plymouth Fury: same corporation but completely different manufacturing standards and available options. If you wanted to go for more sporty cars, you could think of the Mercury Cougar and the Mercury Bobcat, or the Ford Mustang and the Ford Maverick...


I'd never heard of car alarms until the 80s.

Julia, it would help if John LeCarre talked about cars more

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

If I was going for posh-but-not-to-posh and an equivalent American cars of that vintage, I'd go for a Chrysler New Yorker and a Plymouth Fury: same corporation but completely different manufacturing standards and available options. If you wanted to go for more sporty cars, you could think of the Mercury Cougar and the Mercury Bobcat, or the Ford Mustang and the Ford Maverick...


I'd never heard of car alarms until the 80s.

Julia, it would help if John LeCarre talked about cars more

[makd.livejournal.com]

Don't remember car alarms in '75, for any type of car. But then, what do I know about cars. For American cars? in 1975, a Lincoln Townhouse was a luxury car her, and the common equivalent would be a Ford Fairlane.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

The comm you're thinking of is little_details

I can think of a whole bunch of cars, but I'll have to do some checking when I get home for which were 1975 and which were slightly later. Off the top of my head you've got Ford Capris and Cortinas, Scimitars, and the cheaper Rovers vs the more expensive Rovers, Jags, BMWs and Mercs. Of course how posh a car is depends on how old it is. An older version of any of those would be cheap to buy but possibly expensive to maintain.

For sportier cars I'd go with a new-ish Porsche for the posh version and an MGB (GT or Roadster) for the common version (they made over half a million by the time production ended so you'd be tripping over them everywhere in '75).

Give me a heads-up if you want more details tonight. I'll have to quiz Dad on car security in the '70s.

Gina

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Actually, your best bet for researching the cars as far as makes and models go is to get your hands on 'The Sweeney' DVDs or go to a few fan sites. Like this one (http://www.missingimages.com/thesweeney/motors/motors.html)

And a Mark II Jag is definitely worth stealing, then or now. (Or 1988, which is when I had Ethan steal one.)

Gina