1959: World events: While the Russians gave Ukraine and Belarus independence by March, the Tadjikistanian figting was turning into a war. What's worse for the Russians, nuclear bombing your own territory was viewed as a rather bad course of action, so that wasn't really an option, and the new parliament was divided as whether to continue the war. Besides that, Armenia and Azerbaijan had their own war - since April, they were fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. Two months later, India and Pakistan started another mountain war by fighting over Kashmir. In September, a rebellion against British rule started in Rhodesia. However, the Brits used their new nuclear weapons against the rebels, which, after the US said they would do that in their territories, and France said the same, was a deterrent for anti-colonialists. A month later, the US government made it legal to fire workers without a reason, which was seen as a deterrent from another wave of strikes. Besides that, European negotiations ensued, and Eastern Bloc getting into the integration, as well as Algieria becoming independent, was starting to be the dominant roadmap. Americas: The change in labor law made US automakers resume the construction of factories in Mexico. Chrysler's financial and quality troubles continued, and the company started seeking some goverment aid. However, the US government declined all appeals for a bailout. While they managed to sell Borgward to VW as unprofitable, it did nlt help the company as a whole. The company was unable to follow new trends, which the other makers could. The Chevrolet El Camino found competitors in the Ford Ranchero and Studebaker Compostela, while the Ford Mustang was rivalled by the Chevrolet Camaro, Holden Angeles and Studebaker Sportsman. After a few years on the market, the Packard Talladega was updated, now more daily-drivable, following the TVR-originated development on the sports car market. Europe: In the UK, Rover released the T5, a mid-engined 2+2 GT using the 3.7 performance version of their new V8, which had its less powerful variant, a 3.2 one, show up in the P5. Austin-Rover used its earnings to buy Triumph and Jensen. With many new 4-stroke developments rendering DKW and Saab's 2-strokes outdated, both companies started falling intl financial insolvency. Volvo, meanwhile, showed the new Philip, an I6/V8 luxury car, to the world. It became quite successful, and part of that success was in its 3-point seatbelts, which Volvo made sure to patent, despite the inventor's qualms. It faced fierce competition, with the latest rivals being the new Opel Kapitan/Admiral (the latter being Opel's rebadged LaSalle 40, joined by the Diplomat, an Euro version of the LaSalle Series 50), Peugeot 504, Alfa Romeo 2700 and Lancia Flaminia. In Italy, Ferrucio Lamborghini started working on a luxury car company that would try to outshine Delahaye, Rolls-Royce, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz and the US makers. Eastern Bloc brands were falling into financial troubles, as their products had trouble competing against new, and even used, Western cars. While Skoda, Tatra and Russian brands weren't doing that badly, and AWZ was not far behind, Poland's FSO was in real trouble, and started unofficially seeking a buyer, with the new Syrena underperforming. Asia: China's people's car program was cancelled again, and the focus was moved to creating a luxury car. Japan's goverment decided to allow free creation of automotive brands, and it quickly ensued. The first new company was Subaru, with a kei car (200), a cheap and low-quality (typical car for Japan) pickup truck - the Sambar and a licensed version of the recently-replaced Ford Anglia. Africa: The Egyptian goverment announced the start of its "national car" efforts, therefore prompting the start of independent African car industry.
1960: World events: After monts of fighting, the Tadjikistani rebels finally surrendered in July, and Russia started regaining control over the area. The fighting in Kashmir remained unresolved. However, a revolution broke out in Cuba in May, and it was important in the presidential race. While the ruling Republicans managed to somewhat appease Patriot Party voters by abolishing minimum-wage laws, the revolution was used by both opposition parties as a sign of the Republicans' weakness. The 1960 election was a three-horse race between the Democrats, Republicans and Patriots. However, none of the parties attained a majority of electors, so after a brief constitutional crisis a second round was held in December, in which Harry F. Byrd (P) managed to beat John F. Kennedy (D). The fierce race was an opportunity for GNN, which now had enough domestic events for 24 hours of news. Algieria was given independence as part of European Commonwealth talks, which entered the "fine legal details" stage. Americas: With all-new fullsize, compact, midsize and truck designs from GM, Ford and UAM, new sales records were broken, although the coffers of all brands were exhausted, and the situation benefitted the lenders to all of them. UAM's four-wheel-drive systems in their fullsize and midsize cars, while having opened up to rather slow sales, started picking up by the end of the year, partially due to good reviews and rally performance. Meanwhile, Mopar's troubles continued. They didn't have money to show new generations of cars for that year, and it showed - their cars looked a bit old and overstyled, compared to the sleek 1961 cars, trucks and SUVs of the Big Three. In Brazil, GM's Brazilian wing started working on a cheap pickup truck, a car that would satisfy the developing country. Also, Nash went bankrupt that year, and its factory in Kenosha was bought by GM. Europe: The new Triumph Herald/Austin A40 twins and the Hillman Husky, both equipped with FWD, shook the British compact car market, and the Austin A20 did the same in subcompacts. This, together with the Hillman Imp, started showing European automakers FWD was the way forward. VW already had the memo. The new Type 4, a compact liftback/wagon, as well as the subcompact Polo hatchback both had front transverse FWD, and they quickly started taking the market over. In France, Citroen showed the new 2CV and 4CV, both FWD, but they were traditional fastback sedans with longitudinal engines. Meanwhile, Peugeot started reengineering the 404 prototypes to be FWD, and Simca did the same with 1300 and Aronde ones. In Italy, Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo merged into the AMI conglomerate, despite the new Alfa Romeo Alfetta and Lancia Stelvio supercars keeping the brands' competition. The new corporation began merger talks with Chrysler. In the Eastern Bloc, the only companies with good fortunes were the ones in Russia, thanks to a large and booming domestic market. The others, while selling enough cars to get by, couldn't get good profit margins. Asia: In the newly liberalized car market of Japan, Honda and Mazda sprung to the scene, both offering new kei cars. New brands weren't having that much trouble, thanks to the booming economy. In India, Hindustan showed the H1, an inexpensive pickup truck. It quickly entered production, and most of early ones went to the Kashmir front, as there were relatively few private buyers for such stuff in India back then.
1961: World events: In America, the new Patriot government followed on their predecessors' nuclear threats to all anticolonial revolutionists and in February, a nuclear bomb fell on Santa Clara, Cuba. This led to the revolutionaries surrendering 2 months later over a threat of a similar weapon. The same government passed laws that instituted steep tariffs on non-American products that could be made stateside and started retreating US foreign military involvement. By the end of the year, over 20% of US soldiers abroad were brought back to their home country, and the Army started facing reductions in spending, manpower and equipment. The wars in Kashmir and Nagorno-Karabakh were ongoing. While the earlier had a clear Indian supremacy on the battlefield, the latter was still a stalemate after 2 years of fighting. In Morocco, an anti-colonial revolution erupted in May. The Spanish were surprised by the fact that their army was having trouble stopping the rebellion, and by the end of the year, fighting was still going on. Americas: The market was shaken by the fact that Italy's AMI merged with Chrysler, putting what was once a Big Three member under foreign ownership. The new owner pledged to turn a company losing money on cheap, but low-quality cars into a purveyor of quality products. The tariffs on foreign products heavily raised UAM cars' prices and made the company drop to #3 in the Big Three, yet remain profitable, thanks to the reputation for quality and being the only company with 4WD passenger cars, including the Hudson Conestoga, an "offroady" fullsize wagon based on the Hornet's long-roofed version. The corporation had no other choice but start working on moving production back to America. They chose the Southwest, due to low manufacturing costs there. Packard showed the new Florida, a blend of supercar performance and a luxury interior, which became a hit among the ex-Euro crowd. GM started making its own diesel engines, making all Big Four manufacturers, as well as the biggest "import" (cars were built stateside) maker, Volvo, have its own diesels. Ford showed the potential of the Euro-sports-car-tariff era's American performance market by lauching the Taunus, Fairbank, Ranchero and Bronco GT, all to good sales. Another "lifestyle" FoMoCo product was the Lincoln Continental, a personal luxury "quad coupe/convertible", with Lincoln's new OHC V8. The same company also begam working on a cheap family car for the Latin American market. Europe: In the UK, Austin-Rover showed the new Triumph Spitfire and Jensen 3700. They were both mid-engined sports cars, but each had a different purpose - the former was a cheap sports car with Austin A50 mechanicals, while the latter was a supercharged V8 supercar. In France, Citroen showed the new 13CV and 6CV. Both of these cars were admittely good, but the new 13CV wasn't seen as on par with the old one - the motoring press saw the new Delahaye 2600 as a better executive car. In Germany, Volkswagen, Ford and BMW all showed new mid-engined sports cars, the Type S, Capri and 1500S, which shared the trait of using family car mechanics to provide a relatively affordable sports car experience, Italian automakers joined that class, too. The new Fiat 800S, Lancia Delta and Alfa Romeo GT were three mid-engined coupes, placed directly above each other in AMI's model scheme. Also, there was the 2+2 front-engined GT, Lancia Aurea, taking the "fastest 4-seater" crown. Meanwhile, after years in the red, Saab was given a government bailout. This allowed them to continue operating and working on a 4-stroke, although the maker's future was uncertain. Ford ended up acquiring AWZ, the former East German state carmaker. This was done as much for cars (the corporation wanted to spin AWZ into a budget brand) as it was for Duroplast, their revolutionary new plastic material for car construction. Albania and Yugoslavia, both not wanting to keep buying cars from the capitalists, started working on their own car industry independently of each other. Asia: Japan's auto industry kept growing, with Mitsui and Daihatsu joining the pickup truck scene. The growth was reinforced by the expansion of Japanese makers into Third World nations, where the underdevelop, yet cheap Japanese cars struck a chord. China became another Asian nation with its own industry, as the FAW Hongxing, a luxury 4-door convertible, entered the stage. Mechanically, it was a rather lowbrow mix of a knockoff WWII-era Buick C-body chassis, complete with an off-brand Fireball I8, with a body exemplifying a mix of contemporary US styling trends. Still, the top brass of China, North Korea, Mongolia, Albania and Yugoslavia used them. Africa: In Egypt, the Nasser brand was established with the Nasser 1500, a simple midsize pickup truck. A few months later, Japan-Egypt diplomatic relations went a bit worse, as Toyota accused the Egyptians of copying its K-series head and block designs. The truth was in the middle - these designs were based on Toyota ones, but changed enough to be merely Toyota-inspired.
1962: World events: In April, China completed its first successful nuclear tests, giving the communist bloc its nuclear capacity back. However, four months later, the balance started tilting back, as the UK joined the "nuclear club" and India and Canada started working on it. The public opinion was also surprised by Lockheed Martin's space program managing to launch LMS1, the first satellite in history, above the atmosphere, on 24th June. The British, Russian and Chinese governments announced that they will start similar, but government-funded projects. On 18th November, the Pakistani government capitulated and gave Kashmir to India, following a series of battlefield defeats. The Moroccan and Nagorno-Karabakhi conflicts were ongoing, and another one started - in October, Belgium's Congolese colonial subjects began revolting. In America, the situation was getting quite dangerous. After the then-recent legal changes increased the poverty level, especially among the black, October protests in Birmingham, Miami and San Francisco turned into outright fighting, where a few police officers and a few dozen protesters were killed. In response, the FBI started following "subversive subjects". Americas: Following the tariffs, many import automakers pulled out of the US car market. Austin, Morris, Fiat, DKW, Saab, Hillman and Renault all did that, Eastern Bloc makers postponed their plans for it and VW started seriously considering building an American factory. Ford's new Duroplast fenders were a mixed success. While many potential buyers doubted their effectiveness, they became quickly popular in rust-prone areas of the continent. UAM and Chrysler's troubles kept continuing. However, both corporations were working on countering them - the former by building factories in the US South to avoid tariffs, and the latter by having AMI spend money on trying to bring Chrysler quality up and develop new car ranges. UAM also built the Packard Traveller, a Jeep-based luxury 4x4 vehicle, which became an immediate sales success. Meanwhile, GM introduced competition to Ford's GT line by introducing the Holden Angeles, Superior and Premier's SS versions, as well as making such for the Chevrolet Blazer and C10 and Oldsmobile 88. To face them, Ford showed the new Mustang, with its more upscale Mercury Cougar sibling. Also, the Corvette was updated, now as a front-engined 2+2 GT with the distinctive "boattail" rear. It was actually more successful than its predecessor, putting Ford in doubt about the success of their next Thunderbird, a typical 2-seater mid-engined sports car. After a few years of lobbying, NASCAR allowed "silhouette cars" - all of the Big Three fielded such 190-200 MPH stuff based on their pony cars (Holden Angeles, Mercury Cougar, Studebaker Sportsman). Chevrolet started making the B10, a simple cabover van using outdated Holden technology to provide a low price. Seeing the relative success of that, they started working on a cabover van for North America and Australia. Europe: In the UK, front transverse FWD's success was showing, with the new Austin A70, Morris Oxford, Hillman Minx and Ford Anglia, as well as its German Taunus cousin all using that layout. Also, Morris-Lanchester-Daimler started following Austin-Rover's "success through quality" model. VW showed the new Type 2, with its innovative layout where the engine would lay flat below the front seats. It was quickly seen as the benchmark in the van market. In France, Citroen showed the new 9CV and 16CV, two rather high-class luxury cars,,with the Porsche-Maserati engineering team still working on it. Also, the new FWD Peugeot 404 was shown, and it quickly became a common fleet car all across the country. Italy's Ferrucio Lamborghini started manufacturing cars under his name. His first model, the Islero, was seen as a car with good build quality, but a bit antiquated technology and low value. Czechoslovakia's Tatra announced that starting next year, they would cancel unprofitable automotive production to focus on trucks. Meanwhile, ZAZ was working on the 1400, a rather contemporary family car and what would be known as the world's first minivan. Asia: China stopped its carmaking efforts to concentrate on military technology, although Hongxing production was to be kept running. Hindustan showed the Ambassador, a midsize diesel sedan based on the then-discontinued 210 series Nissan Bluebird. It was of low quality, but opened to rather good sales, thanks to a low price. In Japan, Nissan introduced "Japan's first sports car", the Nissan Sports. Well, actually, it was just a 310-series Bluebird with double carburettors and lower suspension, but it was clearly a start.
If Ford is smart, they're going to start working on Duroplast rocker panels and floorboards for 1963. Floorboards might be an issue - Duroplast has a consistency similar to fiberglass.
Fenders are basically a test. The problem is that '64 Fords will be unibody, just like '63s, so many bodyshell elements have to be metal.
1963: World events: The Spanish forces in Morocco kept on fighting, as did the Belgians in Congo, but the Nagorno-Karabakh war came to an end in July, when the Armenian government signed a peace treaty that gave the Azerbaijani 30% of the disputed territory. The European Commonwealth became a reality. It was a free trade zone including Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Benelux, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, San Marino, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gulf nations, Iran and Iraq. This caused a drop in oil prices in Europe. In the United States, protests against racial discrimination turned into outright riots in Birmingham, Atlanta, Tampa, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington and San Francisco. In all these cities, the military had to intervene and spend a few days quashing the rioters, and the President had to be moved away from the White House. That ended in the November introduction of the Civil Rights Act, which banned discrimination on the racial basis. Still, many Americans were left with a bad image of black people. Also, the US Army took further cuts, with most of their UK and Germany bases now closed. Americas: In January, AMI decided to sell Chrysler Co. to UAM, following steep losses. The new owner didn't care much for the outdated model lines and only wanted manufacturing capacity, so Chrysler product designs were sold to investors from Russia, Iran and Egypt, and the factories got retooled to producing UAM cars, leading to the end of Chrysler's history and UAM's car exports from Mexico to the US. The '64 model year, the first one without Chrysler Co., brought new fullsizes from all of the Big Three, from the lowliest Willys Fleetman to the best-equipped Cadillac Eldorado. The new things was Holden's entry into the fullsize market, in order to bring younger customers and make GM fullsizes have a more Australia-recognizable brand there, as well as Ford introducing Duroplast rocker panels, floorboards and doors in all their new cars. That was quite successful, and brought other makers' interest in polymers. GM also decided to "trickle down" its personal luxury stuff, introducing the Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Toronado and Holden Monaro, respectably fullsize, midsize and compact versions of the personal luxury quad coupe idea brought about by the Eldorado, all FWD, but with a sportier focus than the Eldorado and SS versions. They all quickly became popular. To rival the new Ford Mustang, GM and UAM both restyled their pony cars, adding Oldsmobile and Kaiser's premium takes on them and UAM spread out its APP line of performance trims throughout the range to rival GM's SS and Ford's GT stuff. Ford's new Thunderbird, while fast, failed to sell as many units as the Corvette, due to being a 2-seat mid-engined car. In Latin America, the previous-generation-Anglia-based Ford Corcel became a relative sales success, due to its competitive pricing. Europe: In the United Kingdom, Hillman introduced the new Imp, as well as the Stiletto, a coupe version of the Imp. While it was bigger than the previous one, that fact only gave it extra popularity and a warm welcome on the united Eurabic market. Besides that, Rover outshone the new Lanchesters by bringing about the new P6 and T6, which were the first uses of the rotary engine (although the P6 also had a piston engine version). They sold quite well for such novel technologies. In Germany, the market was doing well, now open to export, with BMW, Opel, Ford and VW all introducing new cars. While the new transverse-FWD Ford Escort, a model for both England and the mainland, and BMW 1400 had good openings, the Opel Kapitan was a bit mediocre, saved only by US sales as a LaSalle, and the VW LS1600 was disliked for being essentially a bigger Type 4 in the competitive midsize segment. France's new Renault 16 and 10, transverse FWD family cars, both sold well, but mostly due to their low prices. The last brainchild of the Porsche-Maserati team, the Citroen GT, showed up to the luxury market, and so did the Delahaye 4500. Poland's state carmaker, FSO, was sold to the new Russian conglomerate Rosauto, which also bought licenses for Chrysler's fullsizes. In Portugal, PAF introduced the 1400, which was actually a largely restyled version of the 1300. Turkey's Otosan, a manufacturer of buses and trucks, got the license for Chrysler's light and medium trucks, and started preparing production. Asia: In Japan, the Hitachi Delitora, a kei-sized van, became a quick sales success in the developing economy of the country, and started the "kei vans" class of cars. Iran began working on its own car production, with plans to start selling the newly-licensed Chrysler compacts under the name "Paykan".
Why are you such a FWD fanboy? RWD is better in everything if done properly.(i.e not like americans with solid axle rear) Also the russian cars should be pretty good now that the engineers aren't told what to do by the communists. They were good, it was just that the Ministry of Automobile Industry had to approve all the projects and the people who were in charge weren't the most intelligent ones. As with most of the administration and such, many people got to high ranks because their relatives were on high posts.
>Currently 1963 in alternate history. >USSR didn't collapse until 1991, which ended all communism (as in all countries in the USSR were no longer full-communist countries).
I made automakers go FWD earlier than in real life, that's it. Besides, Russian cars can't be made too sophisticated, beacuse they would be too expensive for the domestic market. It already did in 1958.
The USSR was bad financially when it dissolved in 1991. Things were going good in the 50s and 60s. Now that they are democratic, this should mean that the economy is even better as foreign investors are allowed and it's capitalism instead of command economy. Just saying.
It is still better than actual post-USSR 5 years after communism fell (better economy, not getting a cold turkey transition to capitalism), but expect the industry to go more Skoda than BMW.
1964: World events: More colonial fighting ensued, with the Angolans rebelling against the Portugese government since February, and protests in Spain erupting against military spending. The protests were quashed, but the seeds of the rebellion were planted. However, in October, French, British and Russian troops decided to help the Belgians in Congo, in exchange for being able to build their own settlements in the colony, which would also be the start of Russian colonialism. By the end of the year, the rebels were being crushed. Another very important event was the European Commonwealth starting sanctions against China, Albania, Yugoslavia, Spain, Portugal and North Korea on November 15. This was meant to help topple their governments, mainly by cutting off oil from Russia and the Middle East. This quickly damaged their economies - what's more, Portugal, Spain and Yugoslavia had to deeply conserve these resources, as they barely had enough to get by. Desperate citizens protested, especially when the US cut their oil exports out on 29th November. Finally, on 27th December, the Spanish government was overthrown. Talks of establishing a joint Eurabian army began, though the idea wasn't as popular as originally expected. The organization also put tariffs on Japanese cars, pricing them out of colonial and Russian markets. In the US, the election was won by the Republican candidate William E. Miller, who pledged to maintain the civil rights. Still, the previous government already withdrew US troops from Europe and Japan, and greatly shrunk their Korean contingent. Americas: New midsize cars, as well as UAM compacts, debuted. All of them were switched to FWD by now, with GM stuff having longitudinal FWD, while UAM had transverse FWD, coupled with either an all-new OHC V6 or a V8. GM had a large hit in the V-Series, a cabover van/light truck, largely based on their existing pickups. In the same year, they made the "High Sierra" trims for their pickups, with many premium options, to position them as "lifestyle" vehicles. Another innovation of theirs was the turbocharged Corvette ZR1 and Camaro ZL1. With Duroplast giving Ford quite a bit of sales, GM acquired a license for laminate technology from Rosauto, trading it for licensing rights to their new midsizers and upcoming compacts. It was lighter, but a bit less durable than Ford's stuff, but it was also cheaper to mass-manufafture. Packard kept bringing new luxury stuff to the table, with the Caribbean joining the pereonal luxury stuff, and the Talladega getting improved once again and being the first 190+ MPH car. Europe: The new Triumph TR6 and Jensen Trirotor, two midengined rotary sports cars, debuted on the UK market - one as a more midrange vehicle, the other as an exotic supercar. Besides that, Triumph introduced the R1400, a more fleet-oriented version of the Rover P6. Austin-Lanchester-Daimler's sales picked up after quality improvements. The popularity of transverse FWD kept being a thing, with the new VW Polo, Opel Kadett and BMW 900 all using the layout. Mercedes-Benz also joined the bandwagon, with their new executive cars being longitudinal FWD. The idea of going "entry-level" among luxury makers began to gain ground, with both Mercedes-Benz and Hotchkiss looking to explore previously untouched segments. In Italy, Lamborghini debuted the Miura, a mainstream luxury car meant to compete against such stuff as Daimler's new 300, the Mercedes 300S or Delahaye 2500. Due to the high price and low build quality, it only managed to put the maker in deeper troubles. In the Eastern Bloc, thinfs looked different for different makers. While the new AWZ P700 was seen as a practical, yet cheap car for those looking for a bargain, the new Skoda 1200 reveived a cold welcome, seen as a warmed-over version of old tech. In Albania, Artinel, the new state-owned company, introduced the 1600, a body-on-frame pickup/van/wagon/sedan. The production was later lowered due to economic troubles. Yugoslavia's Zastava was meant to introduce the 101 midsize sedan,but end-year embargoes and protests delayed that. Rosauto swithched Polish FSO's body panel materials to the new laminate technology, and worked on introducing it on next year's licensed Mopars. Asia: Japan's car industry suffered a crisis with the new import restrictions. This caused losses to all the companies, and Hino and Suzuki failed. The others were granted bailouts by the Japanese government.
1965: World events: Belgium got control of Congo back, with some areas of the country going into British, French and Russian hands. Angola was about to break free, with the turmoil in Portugal, but a joint intervention from the UK, France, Russia, Benelux, Ireland and the Baltic states ensued. Finally, by September, the rebels surrendered and Angola was divided between the colation's members. Talking about Portugal, the fasicist regime was overthrown in February,,and a new government was quickly assembled in order to take control of the Angola situation. In Yugoslavia, the situation looked much worse. In June, protests turned into full-blown insurgency, with a low-oil, but violent war ensuing. Albania considered helping the Yugoslavian govt, but with problems of their own, they decided not to. However, in August, Yugoslavia's border non-communist countries, plus Italy, Greece, Turkey and the UK, decided to enter the country and help the insurgents. Overpowering the government, by the end of the year they were near having complete control of Yugoslavia and entered Albania to help its insurgent forces. Preparation of the European Military Command began - it was an organization that was supposed to help control such task forces. In the rest of the world, things were looking much worse. In the US, the Silent's Roar, a September demonstration in Washington, D.C. meant to protest rising inequality, turned into outright rioting. Next month, similar events happened in Manhattan, San Francisco and Beverly Hills, all condemned by the US government. In Japan, there was an economic depression caused by tariffs blocking many of the European Commonwealth markets, as well as the American one. Bailouts did not help, and only worsened the Japanese budget's condition. Americas: The march of FWD ensued, with Ford and GM's new compacts switching to that layout. Furthermore, Ford's new CEO, Lee Iacocca, hinted at the possibility of FWD fullsizes, as well as an FWD Mustang and Cougar. The new Mercury Marauder personal luxury coupe using that layout certainly did reinforce the possibility. GM gave its diesels further market gains by introducing turbodiesel versions, which got popular among the more frugal drivers. Its another success were the new trucks, which, with the V-Series being assigned commercial duties, started to be more geared towards private buyers, with more luxury options. As UAM neither had such cars nor composites, it slipped back to #3 in the Big Three, especially with the quality gap between it and the other two shrinking slower than the price one. The Latin American market kept accepting new US cars, with the new low-cost cars from Willys and Chevrolet getting warm welcomes. Europe: Cheap rotary cars hit the market in the form of the new Morris-Healey roadster, as well as the Morris Marina, an FWD compact made to replace the seminal Minor, which had a rotary in the top S version, and its Triumph Dolomite sibling. However, reports of high wear suffered by such engines started surfacing. Lotus and TVR both showed new cars. While the Lotus 9 tried to stay as close to the idea of a balls-to-the-wall supercar as possible, the TVR 7100 was a 2+2 GT with a cast iron Lincoln V8 up front, better for quick motorway runs than trackdays. Germany's Mercedes-Benz showed the new S-Class, now independent from the midrange line. While the S-Class was still an RWD vehicle, new BMWs were FWD. Ford of Germany stopped engineering its own cars, with the new Taunus being basically the new British Cortina. In France, the Citroen 2CV got an awaited update, which transformed it into a Renault 4-style hatchback, and Peugeot decided to try their fortunes with the 104, a "premium" small car. It didn't sell well, but due to good pricing, it generated good profits. The new Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Lancia Fulvia became benchmarks in the FWD department, trying to attract people who wanted a sporty premium family car. They were seen as the pinnacle of mass-market front driver handling, and a Giulietta ended up winning in Monte Carlo. ZAZ showed the 1400, a new family sedan. It was a decent success in the burgeoning Russian market, but the economy wasn't so good as to give it record-breaking sales numbers. Also, Rosauto started making their licensed versions of US cars. Interestingly, a lot of them were exported to Western European countries as a cheaper way of American motoring. After the Spanish situation stabilized, the SEAT 900, a smaller sedan, reached production. For Spanish conditions, it was a surprisingly successful vehicle. Yugoslavian and Albanian car production was understandably halted by the war. Asia: Japan's crisis kept on going, and, in a surprising turn of events, it managed to drive Subaru, Honda and Isuzu to bankruptcy in that single year. Many observers compared it to the 1929 depression. Iran joined the carmaking scene, with Paykan starting to produce licensed out-of-US-production Plymouth Valiants, and Israel and Pakistan announced plans for also joining it. Africa: Nasser scored a hit with the N500-4, a small, slow and simple, but cheap, offroader with a 2-stroke engine. It became a great domestic and export hits and opened the company to better fortunes.
1966: World events: By March, the coalition managed to overtherow the Albanian government, as well as set up a framework for Yugoslav democracy. 7 months later, they set up a similar democratic system in Albania. After all these operations, the Euro-Arabian Military Command (EAMC) was founded in November. It was a joint organization networking all the Euro-Arabian Commonwealth member forces. It maintained ties to NATO, but didn't try to hide that it was trying to be its Eurasian counterpart. The Silent's Roar kept ongoing, with riots happening in 1966 where they took place in 1965, and Chicago, Detroit, Tampa and Boston being added to the list in '66. The FBI and CIA started invigilating the organisation and President Miller called it "anti-American". A tariff war started between the USA and the EAC. In April, imported potato starch, brandy, dextrin and cars were saddled with a 30% tariff. Two months later, Europeans introduced a 40% tariff on US machinery and cars. In September, the US answered with similar tariffs on electronics, and in November, the EAC tariffed US electronics and jewellery. In Japan, the economic depression led to the rise of the nationalists, with writer Yukio Mishima becoming important in the movement. Also, the LMS6, the first communication satellite, was launched, and Lockheed-Martin set space weapons as its next goal. Americas: After the next year Ford Mustang was announced to be an FWD car, outcry ensued among Ford enthusiasts. Ford still maintained the idea that the Mustang should share the Falcon/Fairlane FWD platform, and the new design was greenlit just as the also-FWD new Ford Thunderbird, now a midsize personal luxury car, showed up. However, it was only interim, as Ford was working on a new independent suspension RWD platform to capture the more youthful "Peacock Revolution"-era buyers. UAM and Ford showed new vans and trucks - the Ford Econoline and F-Series, as well as the Studebaker Transtar and S-Series. Similar to GM stuff, the vans were geared towards the fleets, while the trucks, optionable with a lot of creature comforts, went towards the "weekend warriors". One of such things was the Studebaker S100 APP, a high-performance off-road pickup truck - a car that quickly got a cult following. The same company, seeing the success of its 4WD cars, built the Hudson Conestoga - an "offroady" fullsize wagon, which helped them maintain their Rocky Mountains sales lead. UAM discovered Ford's plans and started working on its own RWD sporty platform. Europe: The new British rotaries started turning out to be unreliable, which gave the new rotary-engined midsize cars from Morris, Triumph and Rover a rocky start, and gave their transverse FWD rivals from Austin and Wolseley a good entrance into the market. Rolls-Royce showed the next Silver Seraph/Bentley Continental. The ultra-luxury market saw the new Delahaye 5500 and Mercedes-Benz 600, two ultra-luxury sedans/coupes/convertibles with state-of-the-art tech. The rivalry sparked an interest in these brands, and Rolls-Royce pledged to beat them soon. Just like in 1959, the executive car market saw a lot of fighting going on, with Ford, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Lancia all showing new models. The Ford wasn't a well-engineered car, but it was mainly a placeholder before the '69 models on a new platform. However, the new Escort was well-engineered, and it quickly became a sales success. Saab and DKW both filed for bankruptcy. DKW went down, while Saab was given yet another bailout for a new FWD model. Meanwhile, in the Eastern Bloc, Skoda was bought out by UAM, which planned to start selling its cars stateside, and the Wartburg 311, a quite successful midsize sedan using old-gen Ford tech, got released. Asia: In China, the FAW Field Transporter, a light 4x4 meant to replace the aging GAZes, went into production. These cars were also sold to North Korea. India had a sales success with the Tata 500, a cabover van based on a licensed Fiat 500 chassis, which sold well, owing to its high practicality and low price. Trying to build a car able to succeed in the crisis, Nissan started making the Express. It was a kei van that wasn't a success, but was getting the company through times of crisis.
