Task 1: Watch the Introductory Video to this Unit (5 minutes)

Task 2: Review the provided images and attached links for vehicles during the 1960's (15 minutes)

Task 3: Watch this Video on the 1960 Plymouth XNR Concept Car by Virgil Exner (5 minutes)

Task 4: Concept Cars of the Decade (25 minutes)

• Go to GOOGLE CLASSROOM and select a slide from the shared Google Slides document for this assignment

  • Add Your Name to the Top

• Explore concept car designs in the 1960’s

  • Research how these cars vary from traditional production models

• Select ONE (1) concept car to Research

• Research Your Selection

  • Who Made the Car

  • What Year was it Produced

  • What Features made it a Concept Car

    • What future trends were the vehicle/manufacturer predicting with there design

    • How do these features represent American culture at the time

• Create your One (1) Slide Sharing Your Findings

  • Include:

    • Car Name

    • Your Research

    • A Picture

    • A Video (If Available)

Speed mattered most as drag racing held its vast popularity into the early 60s. The engines developed and grew while the cars remained the same size. Performance models of cars were also being produced. The 1962 Dodge Dart was a cornerstone of early 60s muscle cars because it had a 13 second quarter-mile drag-strip run. As the desire for faster drag times grew, manufacturers focused their resources on creating faster cars. Dodge and Plymouth dropped their big cars and the 1963 Pontiac Super Duty had a lightening-hole “swiss cheese” frame. This meant grapefruit size holes were drilled into the chassis rails which made the car significantly lighter. (https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/muscle-cars-explained-history/ )

GMC introduced new pickup designs at the start of the decade—including a full-width hood, jet pod grilles, and a pinched-waist body crease. Ford expanded their pickup truck cab by producing their first crew cab vehicle in 1965, following the introduction of the factory-built Dodge crew cab in 1963. Japanese manufacturers Datsun and Toyota changed the pickup culture in North America in the 1960s by introducing the compact pickup truck. In the 1960s, pickup truck transmissions improved dramatically across-the-board as pickups were now designed to travel longer distances at a higher speed, while carrying a heavier load. (https://www.buyautoinsurance.com/pickup-truck-history/ )

The decade of the 1960s was a strange period for hot rods and custom cars as both would witness a demise in popularity. Many factors created the right climate for nearly ending customizing and hot rodding, and much of it had to do with what was going on in Detroit.

Production cars were becoming more stylized, with thinner roofs, shorter body sections, and more sculpturing than anything that had been available through most of the 1950s. With slim, tall fins; lots of glass; and tighter body sections, they took on a look that was a natural progression of American automobile design. The look was hard to match by custom cars based on 1940s and early 1950s cars. (https://auto.howstuffworks.com/hot-rod7.htm )