Would you just look at that body structure? This thing was built like a tank, shaped like a hatchback, and tragically never produced. Heck, it never actually got real body panels.
All the time, I see cars and trucks that are not even ten years old, with brown and orange stains running out of the seams. Hatch windows rotten all the way around isn’t uncommon on vans or SUVs, and trucks that have spent any time on gravel need bedsides and cab corners, and that’s just the parts that I can see. Is it poor metal, poor sealing, or just poor design? Here’s a thought, is it all three, and is it intentional? Wouldn’t it be a super-villain level of genius marketing to intentionally make them fall apart, perhaps at the exact rate of the average payment plan? What better time to buy your next truck than when the doors fall off the one you just finished paying for last week? Ford has entered the brave new world of aluminum, and I’m interested to see how that works out in the future, as my faith in this new steel is sketchy at best. We all know that one person who’s holding on for as long as they can. New fenders, engine, transmission, radiator, front end work five times over, on its seventh windshield, and carrying a salvage title from that deer accident that the insurance company said was the end, but they bought it out and fixed it up despite advice from professionals. I don’t trade vehicles often, but I also don’t wear them out. For those of you that do, Porsche had you in mind when they designed the 1973 FLA.
In the seventies, the automotive world was all doom and gloom. It was “running out of oil”, had holes in the ozone layer, and was short on raw materials. Personal transportation in the twenty-first century? Not a chance. We’d never make it. Well, we did.
However, Porsche didn’t have a crystal ball, so they created the FLA to get some of us there. The FLA was designed to do two things: last for thirty years, three times the average automobile at the time, and be easily recycled when the clock runs out. The structure was some sort of “rust-proof” steel, not stainless, but encapsulated in some kind of coating. The prototype never received body panels, but aluminum and stainless were on the list for being both corrosion-resistant and easily recycled, especially compared to something like plastic. Aluminum wiring with silver connections replaced the standard copper for easier recycling. The rear-engine design is all Porsche, but the seventy-five horsepower slobbered, though a three-speed automatic is the exact opposite of what Porsche would normally do. In all honestly, if it weren’t for the wheels, nothing visually would say “Porsche” at all.
In the end, the car was scrapped for several reasons. First, it would have to be sold at a premium, not an easy task when every other Porsche outperformed and out styled it at that time. Second, wind the clock ahead, and this car is obsolete. Picture a 1992 Dodge Ram beside a brand new one. I understand that’s an extreme example, but a lot can advance in thirty years. I still kind of dig it, though. It looks like the skeletal remains of an upscale AMC Pacer, which is cool for someone like me, but a slap in the face to the Porsche brand, unfortunately.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
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