1969
With the Savage having been unveiled as a Concept in 1965, and beaten to hell in Archana in 1966 as a publicity stunt, it was no surprise that 1967 brought the brutal FWD muscle car to market. And with 2 years under the belt, now it was time to release the Savage in Sedan form, for those who wanted a four-door instead of a two-door coupe or two-door convertible.
The violent 464 cubic inch power plant was tuned for 335 horsepower, and the Savage was given independant rear suspension for good measure, while maintaining everything Sinistra was known for by this point.
Of course, Luke couldn’t resist letting people bring the violence to the drag strip and stop-light drags with sheer brutality. Despite being front-wheel-drive, the Savage was viciously fast and had wicked acceleration. Sure, if you kept pushing the limits, you’d cook the brakes rather quickly, but the goal was to be the fastest car in the West.
Combined with the premium interior package, the Savage ended up expensive, but with purpose. As a point-and-squirt muscle car, it was fast. As a family sedan, it was drivable and reasonable. Gas was cheap still, and so Luke didn’t care that the car drank gasoline like an alcoholic on a bar-crawl.
The end result was a car that tried to punch both above and below its class, trying to be both a comfortable family cruiser and also the weekender’s weapon of choice at the drag-strip. Police learned to hate seeing these cars, at least until Luke created a few Police Interceptor versions… But that’s a story for another time.