Early 1978 - FHL Proving Grounds
In the wake of the 1973 Oil Crisis, FHL fast tracked the replacement of the Fenton LE and Everette Bellevue in order to meet consumer demand for better fuel economy. Efforts were at first hilariously ineffective due to the limited toolkit with which they had to work in addition to new emissions regulations which vampirically sapped power from engines. The initial second gen Bellevue marks came on the market in 1975 with the base 5.5L big block V8 becoming the top option and replaced by the 4.8L small block. And on a good day when the planets lined up they achieved perhaps 11.2 mpg. After the Fenton LE ended production in 1976, the big block option went entirely and the engine was downsized again with the 4.1L V8 becoming the base and the 4.5L becoming top option.
FHL rose to the challenge however and began developing a new V6 engine based on the 90 degree V6 then in production to provide the power and efficiency needed, not just for the economy minded public (which by 1976 was starting to lose some of their interest in economy and go back to large cars), but for the looming beast of Corporate Average Fuel Economy – CAFE. The emerging V6 was an overhead cam design with a new thing called “electronic fuel injection”, or EFI, and was supposed to debut in the 1979 Everette Bellevue. FHL president, Buck Whittaker, visits the FHL proving grounds to survey the progress with the new engine.
As Buck sat in the driver seat of the prototype Bellevue, he looked a little bewildered and the attending engineers were catching on. Buck was stuck in his ways and largely baffled at the ease with which people could carry out the various aspects of their lives. He was a competent businessman, yes, but hadn’t much in the way of practical skills.
“What’s with the shift pattern in this thing?” He asked. “Why is Park up at the top?”
Everette division head, Bill Waterson, who was also in attendance asked the question others were afraid to, on account of possibly looking stupid in front of the man who could end their careers.
“I’m not sure I understand. What do you mean?” He asked.
“Well the shift pattern in my car is Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low, Park. This one has Park above reverse. Its just a little weird thats all.” Buck replied.
“Hmm. I mean if thats what you’re used to. But the automatic shift pattern has been the same on all our cars since 1967 – Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low.” Bill retorted.
Buck messed around with bits of the dash for a few seconds, even going as far as to bend down and inspect underneath it.
“Where is the choke on this thing?” He asked.
All of the engineers looked at each other in utter bewilderment. They were all think it; Was this guy serious?
Bill stammered out an explanation “Umm, theres… no manual choke. In fact this car has a completely new fuel system called ‘fuel injection’ – it doesn’t even have a choke, manual or automatic. I thought we went over this.”
“Huh. Well I gotta say, I a little bit lost on this thing.” Buck said with a chuckle.
“Its very simple. You just turn key.” said Bill, beginning to get as confused as the other engineers. Finally his curiousity got the better of him. How did the head of a major automaker know so little about cars?
“Buck, what the hell do you drive anyways?” he asked in a somewhat surprised manner.
Buck pondered for a second. “Uh, '65 ZL335”
Bill’s jaw dropped wide open. “Wait… you mean to tell me you’re the one that drives the piece-of-shit ZL into HQ everyday? The one with the rusted quarters and blown rear shocks?”
“Uh yeah. And…” said Buck matter-of-factly, somewhat aloof of why that might be a problem.
“Buck…” was all Bill could manage for a second.
“Well I mean it runs just fine. You give tires and oil and it just keeps going.”
Bill almost hit himself over the head he was so flabbergasted. “Buck, I’ve seen that thing stop three lanes of traffic because it burns so much oil. You need a new car. Or to take better care of your car – no offense.”
“Eh, none taken.” Buck said, still not quite sure what the issue was. “You’re just watching out for me I suppose. I mean, I try to take care. But I just get so caught up… you know?”
Bill laughed a little. It was the only reaction that was even occurring to him. He couldn’t believe his boss was driving a car that looked like it came from one of Detroit’s ghettos.
“Buck, tell you what,” he said. “We need to get test miles on the new Bellevues before launch. You go ahead and take this one since clearly you could use it.”
“And it might be good for us to know how this car is likely to get treated.” He said a little quieter, turning towards the engineers. They all exchanged discrete grins.
“Alrighty then. You sure that won’t be a problem?” Buck asked.
“We’ve got several other vehicles. It should be no issue.” Bill said.
All the test miles on the new engines got most of the bugs worked out before launch. The 1979 Bellevue came to market finally able to bring something resembling fuel economy twith it, getting almost 20 MPG highway and 15 combined.
