Rearview: Motor Trend in June 1967, 1987, and 2007

Before we moved our archives a few miles up the road to the Petersen Automotive Museum for safekeeping, our library spanning Motor Trend’s entire history was one of my favorite places to kill time, flipping through the old issues that are now under lock and key. For our new in-depth monthly “Rearview” feature, I’ve decided to look back at some highlights from 50, 30, and 10 years ago. Let’s see what was going on in the pages of Motor Trend in June 1967, 1987, and 2007.

June 1967

Price: 0.50¢

Our June 1967 issue was dedicated to our used car buyer’s guide, dispensing our best tips for saving readers money and avoiding lemons. One of our top tips was to “shop the glitter lots.” No, that’s not a euphemism for buying cars from strip club parking lots. A glitter lot was the used car section of a new car dealer. Our rationale for purchasing at glitter lots is the same reason many of us today recommend buying certified pre-owned from new car dealers: The cars are all typically cared for and well maintained, and you avoid the sleazy tactics and subprime loans of many buy-here pay-here lots.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of advice 50 years later was our 24 picks for the best used cars you could buy. We broke up the used car market into six segments and four price ranges: Large Family, Small Family, Single Person, Commuter, Long-Distance Traveler, and Sports Minded. The price ranges: less than $850 ($6,220 in 2017 dollars), $850–$1,500 ($6,220–$10,980), $1,500–$2,000 ($10,980–$14,640), and more than $2,000 ($14,640).

Here were our picks and their 1967 Blue Book values:

Segment	More than $2,000	$1,500–$2,000	$850–$1,500	Less than $850
Large Family	1966 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, $2,775	1965 Plymouth Belvedere II V-8 9-pass wagon, $1,885	$1963 Mercury Colony Park 9-pass wagon, $1,250	1961 Chevrolet Bel Air V-8 4-door $835
Small Family	1966 Chevrolet Chevelle Deluxe V-8 4-door, $2,055	1965 Ford Fairlane 500 V-8 4-door, $1,555	1964 Ford Galaxie V-8 4-door, $1,345	1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Deluxe V-8 4-door, $805
Single Person	1966 Ford Mustang V-8 Fastback, $2,190	1965 Ford Mustang V-8 Convertible, $1,795	1963 Plymouth Valiant V-8 V-200 Convertible, $1,315	1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder Convertible, $700
Commuter	1966 Ford Mustang 6-cylinder fastback, $2,080	1967 Volkswagen 1500 [Type 3] (new) $1,717	1965 Rambler American 6-cylinder 2-door, $1,345	1964 Opel Kadett 2-door, $770
Long-Distance Traveler	1966 Dodge Polara 4-door, $2,160	1965 Ford Galaxie V-8, 4-door, $1,585	1965 Rambler Classic 550 6-cylinder 4-door, $1,465	No choice
Sports-minded	1964 Porsche 1600-C Convertible Cabriolet, $2,995	1965 Sunbeam Alpine Roadster, $1,735	1964 Datsun SPL-310 Convertible, $1,345	1654 MG-TF Roadster, $850

Other Highlights: A feature on state vehicle inspections and why they aren’t working.

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June 1987

Price: $2.50

I think our June 1987 cover will have to go down as one of the greatest (and most ridiculous) covers we’ve ever made. Not content to have a Ferrari Testarossa by itself, we also hired a man with a saxophone (because 1987) and a woman who seems to hate her footwear to share the cover with the iconic ’80s Ferrari.

Editorially we justified the excessive cover with the excessive amount of turbochargers fit onto the Ferrari’s flat-12 engine by California-based tuner Pegasus Automobili. Pegasus fit four—yes, four—turbos to the black-on-black Testarossa’s 4.5-liter flat-12. Good for a claimed 500 hp (up from the stock 380 hp), Pegasus opted for four small turbos running just 6 psi of boost rather than one large turbocharger. The end result is the same amount of power possible with a single big turbo but in a more responsive, less laggy package, which is exactly what you’d want from an engine that would otherwise have its powerband high up in the rev range.

Although it might be easy to dismiss the Pegasus Ferrari Testarossa nowadays as an example of tuner ruining a classic, we were actually quite smitten with the quad-turboed car, writing:

“It comes into its own element in third, fourth, and fifth gears where it’s the model of stability and precision and absolutely delightful. … This isn’t a race car, but it clearly exhibits some of the virtues.”

We didn’t get the chance to test the Testarossa, but the tuner claims at the dragstrip it averaged 12.59 at 121 mph after three quarter-mile runs.

Other Highlights: An American minivan comparison test between the Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari, Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager, and Ford Aerostar (we “helpfully” didn’t pick a winner) plus a visit to a demolition derby.

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June 2007

Price: $4.99

The Mustang Shelby GT500 KR and its 540-hp 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 might have gotten top billing and our cover for June, but the real story was our first-ever Best-Handling Car competition, the predecessor of our Best Driver’s Car.

Then, like now, the Best-Handling Car competition featured back-to-back driving of the latest and greatest street-legal driver’s cars over a week and through a variety of different exercises. We tested and auto-crossed the cars at former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, road tripped to Central California wine country to “borrow” some roads, and handed the keys off to a race car driver (Max Angelelli in this case) for hot laps around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

We had quite the assortment of cars for our competition, too. The contenders in 2007 were the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, BMW 335i Coupe, Honda Civic Si, Honda S2000, Lotus Exige S, Mazdaspeed3 GT, Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works GP, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR, Porsche 911 GT3, and Porsche Cayman S.

If you don’t want to know the winner, stop reading here and click this link.

I highly recommend heading back to read the whole story and comparing the results directly to our latest Best Driver’s Car competition. The advancement cars have made over the last 10 years is simple astounding. That year’s winner, the Porsche 911 GT3, lapped MRLS in 69.52 seconds, which would’ve been good for 12th in the 2016 BDC field.

Other Highlights: Our First Test of the Lexus LS 600h L, which we dubbed “The Ultimate Hybrid.”

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