1975 MG MGB

From 1968 through 1974 a whole swath of new federal requirements were applied to new automobiles sold in the United States intended to increase vehicles' safety and lessen their harmful tailpipe emissions. In addition, the fuel crisis of 1973 made consumers extremely sensitive to fuel economy and soaring insurance rates punished performance-oriented automobiles.

The MG MGB that came out the other side of this period was quite different to the model that had gone into it in 1967.

The most obvious difference was the large bumpers fitted to both ends of the car. Prominent, heavy, and clad with black rubber no matter wha color the car to which they were bolted was painted, these earned the late MGB the epithet "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Cars".

Side marker lights had been added back in '68, as well as a padded dash and other safety features, but new federal requirements dictating headlight and bumper height caused MG to raise the Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Car on its suspension, making handling wobblier. 

The onset of emissions reductions had done no favors to the car's performance either.

Under the hood, where once a pair of SU carburetors had been bolted to the intake, there now lived only a single Zenith-Stromberg. With an output of 62.9 SAE net horsepower at 5,000 rpm, that resulted in a 19% haircut from the previous peak power. 

Car and Driver's 1975 test car took all of 13.7 seconds to reach sixty and dawdled through the standing quarter mile in nineteen flat at 70.7 through the traps on the way to an observed ninety mile per hour top speed. Stopping from seventy took a whopping 207 feet. Fuel economy on both C/D’s urban and highway circuits was about 22mpg.

Price as tested, with only an AM/FM radio and chrome beauty rings on the wheels for options, was $4,620 in 1975 dollars, or $28,778 in current money.

The car in the photos was snapped in August of 2025 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens.

1977 Datsun 280Z

From its debut as the 2.4L 240Z in the 1970 model year, the displacement of Datsun's sports car increased through the 260Z of 1974 and finally to the 280Z for '76... (well, nerds will insist it was a '75½.)

The reason behind the displacement bumps was that tightening emissions standards meant lower compression ratios and that meant that in order to keep output in the same ballpark you needed more cubic under the hood.

New for 1977 was an optional 5-speed manual transmission. Four-speeds were still standard, and that still-exotic fifth gear would set the buyer back $165, which is the equivalent of over nine hundred bucks in today's coin.

The first four gears had the same ratios, and the final drive remained unchanged, so while there wasn't a benefit in acceleration times, the overdrive 0.86:1 top gear permitted more relaxed freeway cruising and offered a boost to gas mileage. Road & Track recorded 21.5 MPG over their mileage test loop which, while it didn't feature much freeway cruising, was still a two mile per gallon improvement over the four-speed car.

The 2.8L SOHC inline six had L-Jetronic fuel injection and was rated at 170 SAE Net horsepower and could propel the Z-car to sixty in 9.4 seconds and through the quarter in 17.3 seconds at 81 mph. 

The Light Blue Metallic car in the photo was snapped with a Fujifilm X-E1 and a Zeiss Touit 32mm f/1.8 lens in September of 2019.

1971 Chevrolet El Camino

The third generation of Chevrolet's El Camino ute debuted for 1968 and would be replaced by the fourth gen for 1973, so that makes this '71 example the second to last year for them.

From the A-pillar forward it was basically a Chevelle and, like the 1971 Chevelle, single large headlights on each side had replaced the previous year's smaller dual lamps.

The El Camino came in base and SS trims and the base motors were the 250 cubic inch Turbo-Thrift inline six or the 307 cube Turbo-Fire V-8. Optional choices included two different 350s making either 240 or 270 horsepower, a 300hp 400cid big block, and the 454 cubic inch big block in either 365 or 425 horsepower flavors, although the 454 could only be had with the SS package.

The Tuxedo Black example in the photo has the four-barrel, dual-exhaust 270hp 5.7L V-8 and was photographed with a Nikon Coolpix P7000 in New Hampshire back in April of 2015.