"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
03/14/2020 at 14:40 • Filed to: None
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"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
03/14/2020 at 14:40 • Filed to: None | 4
| 9 |
For some strange reason, in the early Seventies, you could walk into a GM dealer and buy either a Chevy Vega, Buick Apollo, Oldsmobile Omega, Pontiac Ventura (in the USA), or Pontiac Astre (in Canada) with a tent. Yep, thirty years before the Aztek and it’s infamous tent option, GM did the same thing with the equally infamous Vega.
Why was this an option? Who the hell knows. Perhaps it was because hatchbacks were still new to the North American car buying market and GM wanted a way to show off their practicality. Perhaps John Delorean did way too much cocaine one day while overseeing the Vega project and because he’s John Delorean nobody could say no to him. Either way, Vega tent.
And, apparently, you could also get the tent on the Nova, as this terrifying ad with a man dressed in a bear costume demonstrates. That family is all to happy to be potentially mauled by a bear. Perhaps it’s because they made the huge mistake of buying an early Seventies GM. I’ve also found an article mentioning that the Isuzu-based Chevy LUV had the option of a tent, but I can’t find any pictures, likewise with the tent option for the Vega wagons, which was also apparently a thing .
After 1974, the option seemed to be discontinued on all the cars it came on, fading into obscurity until weirdos like me could accidentally discover it while looking up pictures of the 1973 Pontiac Astre (don’t ask why).
Oh, and you thought it was just GM? Wrong. Apparently AMC went crazy too. AMC and their predecessors offering camping kits actually goes back quite far, to the days of the Nash brand.
After the Nash-Hudson merger, AMC continued offering camping kits until at least the early Seventies, culminating in offering a tent for the AMC Hornet hatchback, one of the Vega’s main competitors.
Why were manufacturers in the early 70s so keen on putting tents on cars? Honestly, nobody will ever really know. There could be other examples of early hatchbacks with tent options but honestly this is a rabbit hole that I’ve gone way too deep into already so I’d like to get out.
Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/14/2020 at 15:19 |
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The people overseeing the projects wanted a way to discretely do cocaine while “ product testing” without anyone seeing.
Nom De Plume
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/14/2020 at 15:21 |
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Piece of nylon, with a few simple stitched on fasteners, a zipper, and two plastic windows at a reasonable price. This is not only usable but easy to bring along and install.
Thank you for this piece of sanity in a world gone mad with exorbitant and wasteful attempts to out-glamp everyone else on their “overlanding” trip.
Jim Spanfeller
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/14/2020 at 15:33 |
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This is cool! I didn’t know about those. The Nova is my favorite hot hatch (fight me), so that’s probably the one I’d prefer . If they had offered this on the AMC E agle though, that’d be about perfect for overlanding.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/14/2020 at 15:38 |
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Uhhh I don’t see how there is enough room to sleep in that thing.
ranwhenparked
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/14/2020 at 15:48 |
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Nash’s bed option goes back to the mid ‘30s. George Mason was on a business trip and got pissed off at what he thought were the exorbitant rates roadside motels were charging, so when he got back to Detroit, he decided to come out with a car that could be slept in comfortably. It was mainly intended for traveling salesmen, originally, but the marketing shifted to family camping later on.
Longtime Lurker
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
03/14/2020 at 15:56 |
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Fold
the rear seats down and move the fronts
full forward.
sn4cktimes
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/14/2020 at 17:22 |
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Awesome post!
PyramidHat
> Nom De Plume
03/14/2020 at 20:32 |
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No no, we need a $1500 rooftop tent, 2 hijack lifts, a shovel, and 5 Jerry cans mounted to our rhino lined Jeep.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> not for canada - australian in disguise
03/16/2020 at 03:50 |
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Torana Hatch Hutch
