1977 Pontiac Phoenix: Regular Car Reviews

hey champ it's me uncle Paul tab were you doing homework what are you doing algebra differential equations forgive it here get that algebra is easy huh here's the answer watch 36-24-36 through the history we can give context to things retrived based on the Chevy Nova the Pontiac Phoenix followed in the same playbook as for with the mercury comet which was a badge engineering upscaling job to major it's me uncle pull-tab again what homework are you doing now history women's suffrage movement oh I know all about that what's the work she's back in the kitchen I'm just joking I'm just joking I'm just joking right but seriously make me a sandwich a Pontiac Phoenix from 1977 is nothing but a used up ineffectual superfluous Chevy Nova that's been given the old razzle-dazzle welcome to the malays eras heart of darkness Justin Kramer from the YouTube channel fuel injection sucks son of malaise arrow domestics that in the mid-seventies us Americans decided we rather sit on the couch than drive but what could we do the big 3 plus AMC hadn't figured out how to make free-flowing catalytic converters and efficient fluid dynamics it didn't really matter what engine displacement you had they all made nothing you had four engine choices for the Pontiac Phoenix which were the same engine choices for Chevy Nova's you could have a 151 cubic inch iron Duke in in line for a 231 cubic inch Buick v6 a 3:05 lg3 v8 that's the closest thing General Motors had to a five oh and the 350 cubic-inch Chevy v8 which is what this car has so if you couldn't sell a v8 car with performance or handling or even value all you have left our - Jack of Hearts name luxury and comfort so General Motors had to build a hand around that and that's what we they did with the Phoenix yeah it had the best engine and now in 2018 this 350 is D restricted and D choked but in 1977 it was a turd oh and the transmission the transmission is a thm350 aka the turbo hydra-matic 350 which is just shortened to turbo 350 has nothing to do with forced inductions that's what General Motors just called their transmissions they called them turbo this what it was was a three-speed non overdrive transmission made to replace the two-speed Powerglide in 1969 the turbo 350 transmission had weak points such as no bracing or support in the middle of the gear train and the clutch drum gets a case of internal Weeble wobbles because it's bushing is too small these problems didn't matter in 1977 because the engines were choked for emissions but they matter now and fixes are available in common because despite its tooling the turbo 350 is still used today for street rods and builds because it's so smooth tried to feel the 2:00 to 3:00 shift I mean watch this clip and I can't I I don't know where it is that was second I'm watching I'm watching the tachometer [Music] did it shift oh yeah chicken I felt one shift and I don't know which I did how to be one to two that I felt that's that's just how soft it is if you want to check to make sure you're in third down shift in the second they can see the changes here welcome to the inner textuality era of Pontiac the period where cars were being pushed out the door out of necessity like so many Brown logs being pushed through rumbling buttcheeks its midterm exams and it's five minutes till pencils down and math just take pity on me please I'm trying you see here's the thing with intertextual tea and other categories of literary theory they often manage to extend to the car world because a lot of the things they teach her universal inner text you allottee is really just a fancy word for saying that the meaning of a work is shaped by the connections it shares with another for instance the music of Elvis Presley had countless influences that helped shape our critical understanding of his work his sound was this strange hodgepodge of blues and country but also gospel and pop and it created a sound that was rebellious to some but conformist and old hat to others yet how many artists cite Elvis as an influence on their sound hell the Beatles were practically contemporaries of Elvis but they themselves have stated that Elvis and his fellow rockers like Buddy Holly Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry were influential to their artistry do we get the Beatles without Elvis do we get Elvis without BB King and Fats Domino intertextual 'ti is an open phone line it goes both ways because we discover meaning and understanding through the connections any given works share with one another Weird Al Yankovic parody songs are intertextual in a way in hell so our Romans they separate from the meaning of the original but their similarities and differences might shape the way you consume or enjoy that media kind of like how you probably needed to play Metal Gear Solid 5 or you'd miss several layers of subtext in the brazzers parody Metal Gear Solid the phantom pain so what the hell desires have to do with the Pontiac Phoenix the Phoenix is an intertextual car it literally could not have existed without its predecessors because not only was it created to replace them it was created from a lot of the same components which granted is an uncommon at all in the automotive industry you could say this about a lot of cars a of cars but more so than most the Phoenix is a car that doesn't feel like it has any sort of identity sure today it's you'll notice it as a malaise era car because you really don't see malaise there are cars rolling around anymore and even in car shows people don't save them because it's not a decade that we remember fondly because we see it in comparison to the smooth lines of the 60s the hard computerized designs of the 80s and the new aerodynamics of the 90s the 70s just sort of fits in this awkward period and even in its own time the Phoenix wasn't a head-turner because it wasn't supposed to be it's just a Malto meal version of the chevy nova built with the intention of taking over for the Venturer which itself was another car based on the Nova it's almost as though General Motors had a bunch of extra parts lying around and had no clue what to do with any of them so they decided to give Malibu Stacey a new hat and call it a day but simply the Phoenix would be far more impressive if we didn't have its predecessors to compare it against but that's not the way it works intertextuality is a two-way conversation between what is and what was so what's the Phoenix identity it's it was supposed to be a luxury personal luxury Sportage kind of car you know like the Monte Carlos of the early 2000s yeah that this but the Phoenix was designed for a very specific period of time 1977 it's from an era when General Motors was cutting compression and using smaller carburetors and camshafts because of emissions regulations they were also putting in tall gear ratios to improve fuel economy this Phoenix has a 273 okay the smaller the rear-end ratio the slower your car is and supposedly the better gas mileage it is this comes back to that turbo 350 transmission it had no overdrive you get three gears and thirds one to one so the only way that you can have good gas mileage is to put a weak-ass rear end and not not weak as in structural but okay we've gone over this before but rear ends work like this it has a 273 ratio rear-end that means for every one turn of the hub the drive shaft or the input shaft coming the rear end will turn 2.75 times the higher the ratio the lower the gearing and the more torque you get the Vagabond falcon once had a three seven three rear end that ments a driveshaft turned three point seven three times for every one turn of the hub's that was pretty fast that was a low ass first gear car accelerated great spun tires really easy but then we moved it down to a three point two seven rear end which is sporty asked but it's fine on the highway you wouldn't run you wouldn't run a three point two seven rear and if you didn't have overdrive which the Falcon does so imagine not having overdrive being stuck in third gear that's what muscle cars were back then and they go all the way up to like 410 411 some of those old muscle cars you see burning out like back in the day all yeah they were really fast those things could hardly go 70 miles an hour the engine it was just explodes there was no overdrive gears anyway and it worked to a point by putting in real gentle ratios I mean you could get two point five six and in these nova knockoffs it works to a point because eric gets high teens on the highway like 15 miles per gallon on the highway that's ok all things considered but there's still a bigger issue of aesthetic this car isn't striking enough to really justify the car you're getting here because it's 1977 and star wars just lost the Best Picture Oscar to Woody Allen's insel Fantasy flick double chin to Uncle pull-tabs with five o'clock shadows are being arrested in porno theaters for doing exactly what you'd expect someone to do in a porno theater and General Motors is getting incestuous with their manufacturing the automotive extension of free love in the 1960s everybody's sharing parts and pretending they've made something new in the bargain like two sisters from lower Heidelberg with wing tattoos on the backs of their thighs and a boyfriend named Trent who they're both dating this is a fair assessment no you see the Chevy Nova itself wasn't intended to reinvent the wheels either the Chevrolet designer Clair mckitten said about creating the Chevy too there was no time for experimentation or doodling around with new ideas for meter the engineers or from us in design adding that it had to be a basic type car we've been over this they copied the Falcon and the Nova was a car that pumped out mechanical fashion with just an 18-month turnaround between green lighting and the first production model being completed and there's the comparison with the venture it was intended to replace the Phoenix was supposed to be more of an upscale model of the Ventura but it didn't appear to have enough meaningful differences from the previous venture to actually register as something different it's supposed to be comfortable and familiar to anyone who'd found a similar comfort and familiarity in the venture and the Nova so it's hardly even the phoenixes fault that it's unremarkable you could almost argue that it's unremarkable 'ti is purposely written into his DNA because it's intended to be the automotive equivalent an old friend so in the grand scheme of things I think that's the Phoenix identity a familiar but forgettable old friend that's the read we're getting from this machine it doesn't drive like anything like a softer version of every 60s car you've ever been in but without the charm I mean back in this back in the 70s none of this technology has changed since 1959 gosh darn it when you talk about American access oh this is like a this is right there in your bibliography because the interior that - there's no different than a 60s car they just slapped this oh this - piece on it and underneath it's all the same crap charming in the 60s but just embarrassing now but that's the great thing about intertextuality it defies an objective conclusion anybody can join in the argument and every informed opinion is valid so long as it can be supported in some fashion while we're watching YouTube intertext you ality is also the bread and butter of this place because it's all about borrowing from building upon and transforming existing works we borrowed this car whether it's through analysis criticism parody adaption or homage that's why intertextuality is so often mistaken for plagiarism because it's the literary language of borrowing except it doesn't require hard citations or even an outright acknowledgement of what you're even referencing it's taking to things that exist and using the connections between them to inform one's interpretation of the finished product as French literary theorist Roland Barthes states the meaning of a work doesn't necessarily reside within the text itself but it is created by the reader or the person consuming the text via the network other texts that work invokes so take a good long look at the Pontiac Phoenix what does it mean to you to me it means these great shots that mark from savage geese the YouTube channel savage geese he's here he's filming all the shots this isn't me this is him creating the footage for us thanks mark looks great doesn't it I hold my hand hold my cameras he's got rigs and stuff it's professional so here we are able to have these sorts of discussions these sort of arguments at all being able to do this is beautifully surreal like a car from the late 70s surrounded by modern machines at every turn [Music] well this seems right [Music] but if you something just [Music] [Applause] it might be soon it's much more than you soon [Music]

Channel: RegularCars

Views: 405,826

Rating: 4.8737874 out of 5

Keywords: Regular, Car, Reviews, Uncle Pull-Tab, uncle pull tab, Pontiac Phoenix, Phoenix, Cevy Nova, Malase Era, Malaise era, GM Malaise, Chevy 350, TH400, TH700, Turbo400, Regular Car Reviews, pontiac Phoenix Review

Id: dNE0WJMwcZY

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/IComplimentVehicles]

The Malaise era of American cars has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Especially since I loudly favor harsh, lightweight, and tiny cars.

I think sometimes I might enjoy cruising down the freeway in a rolling couch a bit more than holding on to the steering wheel for dear life and muttering prayers.

[u/JermanDomesticMarket]

RCR commentary with SavageGeese production value is a match made in heaven.

[u/Danaldinho007]

A polo shirt tucked into cargo shorts? I didn't know Mr. Regular was a dad.

[u/ShoogyBee]

An American BMW coz it has the Hoffmeister kink in the rear door windows.

[u/Drando_HS]

It's too bad Malaise era cars are getting junked and are so rare. That fucker had a 350 in it. Get rid of the smog restricting devices and put on some modern headers, camshafts, and other power mods...

A Malaise era car with a Chevy 350 is perfect sleeper material.

[u/jberd45]

My grandmom had a '76 Ventura in the early 80s. I remember most that it was a 6 year old car then, but it was already at the end of its lifespan. Barely ran, was already rusting out. It looked like a 2 door maroon version of this car in fact. Same condition. After less than one decade. Compare that to today when a 6 year old car is still essentially new, or how a 25 year old car likely still runs perfectly fine. That to me sums up the malaise era: churning out something with little to no thought as to how long it's supposed to last.

[u/kyleb350]

Had an '84 in the same color with the "Iron Duke" engine and a 4 speed manual as my first car (around 20 years ago). I think it made a whole 90 hp. Car was surprisingly reliable. Thanks for the memories.

[u/Mayjaplaya]

The current-generation Miata's manual has a final drive ratio of 2.866; to compensate so it's not like a modern muscle/pony car manual where top gear can go up to 350 mph or something, there is no overdrive as 6th gear is 1:1 and every other gear is much more aggressive. 1st gear is over 5:1. Mazda said they did it because 1:1 is the most efficient ratio, so they made it the top gear for highway cruising.

[u/Philo_T_Farnsworth]

I like that there's half of a Jesus logo on the trunk. Seems about right for this car.