Gabardine

Gabardine (pronounced gab-er-deen or gab-ah-deen)

(1) A firm, tightly woven fabric of worsted, cotton, polyester, or other fibre, with a twill (a diagonally ribbed texture) weave.

(2) In casual use, any of various other similar fabrics (historically woven with cotton) once associated especially with raincoats worn by children (now mostly archaic).

(3) An ankle-length loose coat or frock worn by men, the name an allusion to the garment much associated with Jews in the medieval period (and one which in England Jews were by statue compelled to wear so easily they could be identified).  The general use to describe the long cloaks dates from circa 1525 and was an allusion to the Jewish-specific garment.

1510–1520: The spelling gabardine is a variant spelling of gaberdine, almost certainly from the Old French gauvardine & gallevardine (a long, loose outer garments much associated with pilgrims), from the Middle High German wallewart (pilgrimage (Wallfahrt in the German)), from the Spanish gabardina, possibly a conflation of gabán (from the Arabic qabā (men’s over-garment) and tabardina (diminutive of tabard or tabard (a sleeveless jerkin consisting only of front and back pieces with a hole for the head))).  The construct of the German Walfahrt was the Proto-Germanic wal- (source also of Old High German wallon (to roam, wander, go on a pilgrimage) + the Proto-Germanic faran (to go), from the primitive Indo-European per- (to lead, pass over).  The evolution of the word in Spanish was probably influenced by the Spanish gabán (overcoat) & tabardina (coarse coat) although the alternative etymology suggest it was an extended form of gabán and the Spanish word was borrowed and underwent alterations in Old French.  Gaberdine was documented from the 1510s while gabardine in the sense of "dress, covering" dates from the 1590s.  The meaning "closely woven cloth" dates from 1904 and the tightly woven fabric remains popular with designers for suits, pants, jackets, summer wear and especially overcoats.  Originally made from worsted wool, the twill weave fabric is now often rendered with synthetic and cotton blends and is renowned for its versatility and durability.  The alternative spelling garbardine is archaic.  Gabardine is a noun; the noun plural is gabardines.  

Pink & polka-dot combo by by Amiparism: Lindsay Lohan, in Ami three button jacket and flare-fit trousers in wool gabardine with Ami small Deja-Vu bag, Interview Magazine, November 2022.  Jaguar first fitted the basketweave (or lattice and some Jaguar owners call them "starflake") wheels in 1984. 

The car is a Jaguar XJS (1975-1996 and labeled XJ-S until mid-1991) convertible.  Upon debut, the XJ-S was much criticized by those who regarded as a "replacement" for the slinky E-Type (although, belying appearances, the XJ-S was more aerodynamically efficient), but Jaguar had never thought of it like that, taking the view motoring conditions and the legislative environment had since 1961 changed so much the days of the classic roadsters were probably done except for a few low volume specialists.  In truth, in its final years, the E-Type was no longer quite the sensuous shape which had wowed the crowed at the 1961 Geneva Salon but most critics though it still a more accomplished design.  In the West, the 1970s were anyway a troubled and the XJ-S's notoriously thirsty 5.3 litre (326 cubic inch) V12 wasn't fashionable, especially after the second oil shock in 1979 and the factory for some months in 1981 ceased production, a stay of execution granted only when tests confirmed the re-designed cylinder head (with "swirl combustion chambers") delivered radically lower fuel consumption.  That, some attention to build quality (which would remain a work-in-progress for the rest of the model's life) and improving economies of both sides of the Atlantic meant the machine survived (indeed often flourished) for a remarkable 21 years, the last not leaving the factory until 1996.

Jaguar didn't offer full convertible coachwork until 1988 but under contract, between 1986-1988, Ohio-based coachbuilders Hess & Eisenhardt converted some 2000 coupés.  Unlike many out-sourced conversions, the Hess & Eisenhardt cars were in some ways more accomplished than the factory's own effort, the top folding completely into the body structure (al la the Mercedes-Benz R107 (1971-1989) or the Triumph Stag (1969-1977)).  However, to achieve that, the single fuel tank had to replaced by a pair, this necessitating duplicated plumbing and pumps, something which proved occasionally troublesome; there were reports of fires but whether these are an internet myth isn't clear and tale Jaguar arranged buy-backs so they might be consigned to the crusher is fake news.  The one with which Ms Lohan was photographed in Miami was manufactured by Jaguar, identifiable by the ,ore visible bulk of the soft-top's folding apparatus.

The Gadarene Swine.  Les porcs précipités dans la mer (The Swine Driven into the Sea, circa 1894), watercolor (gouache over graphite on gray wove paper) by Jacques Joseph “James” Tissot (1836–1902), Brooklyn Museum, New York City.

The diary (The Struggle for Survival 1940-1965) entry of Winston Churchill’s (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) physician (Sir Charles Wilson (Lord Moran); 1882-1977)) for 6 August 1942 records that in Cairo, there were some two-thousand, apparently unproductive, British Army officers who wore a very smart uniform called a gabardine and that in the slang of other units, they were called “the gabardine swine”.  The play on words was based on the New Testament tale of the Miracle of the Gadarene Swine, referred to sometimes in academic writing as the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac.  The miracle performed by Christ is the driving from a man demons which are allowed to take refuge in a herd of swine which then run down a slope into a lake where they drown.  The miracle is recounted in the three Synoptic (Matthew, Mark & Luke) Gospels, but not in that of John.  Matthew’s (8:28–34) account is short and differs in detail from Mark (5:1–20) & Luke (8:26–39), both of which include narrative descriptions which have informed the exorcism rites of the church ever since and the story has since Augustine attracted theologians and scholars who have found layers to interpret and it’s the origin too of the English proverbial word gadarene which describes or cautions against a “headlong or potentially disastrous rush to do something".  The Biblical reference to Gadarene is geographical although it’s uncertain exactly where the events transpired.

Sheep carcasses at the base of the cliff, Topyildizm, Türkiye, 2005.

In the annals of zoological behaviour, there are reports of “mass suicide” by groups of animals but most have been classified by animal behaviourists as examples of “herd mentality” rather than a desire, individually or collectively, among the beasts to kill themselves.  In 2005, in what some press reports described as a “mass suicide jump”, more than 400 sheep perished while grazing close to the village of Topyildiz, in the Gürpinar prefecture of Türkiye’s eastern province of Van, the flock of 1,500 following one which had jumped from a 15 metre (50 feet) high cliff.  Well over 1,000 survived because their fall was cushioned by them landing on the carcasses of those which earlier had leapt.  What had happened was the first sheep had led the others to the Arebi-Krom plateau near the Yaprakli hamlet where it noticed the grass was greener on the other side and was thus inspired to leap across the chasm to the cliff edge opposite.  Unfortunately for the creature (and 400-odd of the flock), ambition exceeded ability and the plunge to a grisly death trigged a chain reaction, the others following, quite normal behaviour for the species.  Four year later, that was the fate also of 28 cows & bulls which, over three days, died after “throwing themselves off a cliff” in the Swiss Alps; while such fatalities are not unknown in the mountains it was untypical for so many in this way to perish over such a short span of time.  Researchers accounted for the phenomenon by noting the series of violent thunderstorms in the area and this is what was thought to have “spooked” the animals.

There are in the zoological record a number of instances of animals appearing to “commit suicide” although there’s much doubt whether non-human animals have an abstract conception of “death” despite observational findings there may be instances of something like “mourning” when a death occurs.  So whether an animal can “decide” to kill themselves is a controversial topic, the practical problem being it’s not possible to “interview” an animal and discover their thoughts; we can guess what an animal is “thinking” but we can never be certain.  While cat owners will confirm it’s possible to deduce from behaviour things like their pet wanting a snack (never difficult with cats) or wants a door open, they cannot work out whether their pet likes the color of their new car or preferred the old.  There were though reports from the 1960s of a dolphin which became “depressed” and “decided” not to take another breath (whales & dolphins are not involuntary air breathers like humans, every breath demanding conscious effort which means at any time they could end their lives if they so “choose”) and as long ago as 1845, the Illustrated London News ran the headline “Singular Case of Suicide” about a “fine, handsome and valuable black dog, of the Newfoundland species”.  According to the owner, the dog for some days had been “less lively than usual” before being seen “to throw himself in the water and endeavor to sink by preserving perfect stillness of the legs and feet.”  The dog was rescued but soon returned to the water, something repeated several times until eventually it drowned; various explanations have been offered.

Ready to explode: A serial pest dreaded by gardeners, pea aphids are born pregnant, re-produce quickly and have no other purpose except eating plants, a single example able within six weeks to have multiplied to almost 40 million.

Better known are the many cases of pods of whales, sometimes in the dozens, beaching themselves, often resulting in mass deaths and that’s been attributed both to “herd mentality” (ie one creature following another) and a variety of human-induced changes to the maritime environment.  More convincing as possible “conscious” suicides are those instances of bears kept captive in small cages in Japan and Vietnam so their bile (a digestive juice stored in the gall bladder and much prized in traditional Chinese medicine) can be harvested.  The bile is extracted through a catheter tube which sits in a permanent incision in the abdomen and gall bladder and the doubtlessly painful process usually is performed twice-daily.  In 2012, animal rights activists reported bears were “starving themselves to death to escape the misery of their captivity”.  Entomologists however have no doubts there are insects that sacrifice themselves to protect others of their species, a classic example being the sap-sucking (it’s not much but it’s a life) pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) which literally “explodes” itself (a benefit of all that sap) to protect others.  Despite that trigging of what is a “natural suicide vest”, it’s thought to be pure instinctive behaviour and not the result of a conscious “life or death” decision.

In philosophy, the Gadarene Swine Fallacy (GSF) is the logical fallacy of supposing (1) because a group is in the right formation, it is therefore on the right course or (2) supposing that because an individual has strayed from the group and isn't in formation, that they are off course.  The point of the GSF is that regardless of the vantage point from which a thing is viewed, mere appearances do not of necessity contain sufficient information accurately to convey what is right or wrong.  Moral theologians, legal theorists and others have been both satisfied and troubled by the miracle.  Saint Augustine's (354–430) immensely influential view was the story illustrated the special status God granted to man in the universe; that Christians have no obligations to God's other creatures, Jesus sacrificing two thousand swine to save the soul of one man and had it been a herd of ten-thousand he'd have seen them drowned too.  Augustine didn’t discuss the supposed right of Jesus to send to their death a large herd of pigs presumably the property of another who may have relied on them to feed and care for his family but this has since been discussed.

The Christian position must be that Christ is a Divine Being and therefore sovereign over the entire creation; the world is his dominion: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10).  That includes pigs and his actions gained the approbation (Mark 5:20) of those who watched the exorcism for they “marveled” (although they also asked him to leave town, the reasons for that a matter of theological dispute).  Technically too, Jesus could have quoted the Old Testament prohibitions of Leviticus who, among his list of abominations condemned swine as “unclean” (Leviticus 11) and thus fit for little but death by demonic possession.  Leviticus and Christ would also have agreed that whatever value some might place on the heads of two-thousand swine, it is nothing compared to the worth of one human soul.  Even before animal rights activism became main-stream, the orthodox Augustinian view (and those of the neo-Augustinian apologists) had been criticized.  The hardly impartial atheist  philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) discussed the miracle in Why I am Not a Christian (1927), finding it appalling a being omnipotent and therefore presumably able just to cast the demons into oblivion chose instead to kill two-thousand pigs, the creatures by any measure innocent of wrong-doing.  Modern activists Like Tash Petersen would doubtless be harsher still in their judgement than Lord Russell.

The Miracle of the Gadarene Swine (circa 1000), tempera colors, gold leaf & ink on parchment by an unknown artist of Canterbury, England, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

In the centre of this miniature removed from a Gospel book, Jesus and his followers confront two men whose half-dressed, unkempt state suggest they are possessed by evil demons.  Jesus performs an exorcism, transferring the demons into a herd of swine.  Matthew wrote that the herd "ran violently down a steep place into the sea," where "they perished in the waters". The illuminator closely followed the story as Matthew described it, depicting the swine hurtling down the cliff into the sea at the bottom of the page. At the top right, shepherds run to the city to report the miracle.  In the work, the events are arranged in three horizontal bands, the main focus on the middle figures whose emphatic gestures and tense body movements recount the vivid story.

Superbird

Superbird (pronounced soo-per-burd)

(1) A one-year version of the Plymouth Road Runner with certain aerodynamic enhancements, built to fulfil the homologation requirements for use in competition.

(2) A one-off Ford Falcon XA GT built by Ford Australia for the motor show circuit in 1973 (and subsequently a derived (though much toned-down) regular production model offered for a limited time).

1969: The construct was super + bird.  The Middle English super was a re-purposing of the prefix super, from the Latin super, from the Proto-Italic super, from the primitive Indo-European upér (over, above) and cognate with the Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér).  In this context, it was used as an adjective suggesting “excellent quality, better than usual; wonderful; awesome, excellent etc.  Bird was from the Middle English bird & brid, from the Old English bridd (chick, fledgling, chicken).  The origin was a term used of birds that could not fly (chicks, fledglings, chickens) as opposed to the Old English fugol (from which English gained the modern “fowl”) which was the general term for “flying birds”.  From the earlt to mid-fourteenth century, “bird” increasingly supplanted “fowl” as the most common term.  Superbird is a noun; the noun plural is Superbirds and an initial capital is appropriate for all uses because Superbird is a product name.

Of super- and supra-

The super- prefix was a learned borrowing of the Latin super-, the prefix an adaptation of super, from the Proto-Italic super, from the primitive Indo-European upér (over, above) and cognate with the Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér).  It was used to create forms conveying variously (1) an enhanced sense of inclusiveness, (2) beyond, over or upon (the latter notable in anatomy where the a super-something indicates it's "located above"), (3) greater than (in quantity), (4) exceptionally or unusually large, (5) superior in title or status (sometimes clipped to "super"), (6) of greater power or potency, (7) intensely, extremely or exceptional and (8) of supersymmetry (in physics).  The standard antonym was “sub” and the synonyms are listed usually as “on-, en-, epi-, supra-, sur-, ultra- and hyper-” but both “ultra” and “hyper-” have in some applications been used to suggest a quality beyond that implied by the “super-” prefix.  In English, there are more than a thousand words formed with the super- prefix.  The supra- prefix was a learned borrowing from the Latin suprā-, the prefix an adaptation of the preposition suprā, from the Old Latin suprād & superā, from the Proto-Italic superād and cognate with the Umbrian subra.  It was used originally to create forms conveying variously (1) above, over, beyond, (2) greater than; transcending and (3) above, over, on top (in anatomy thus directly synonymous with super) but in modern use supra- tends to be differentiated in that while it can still be used to suggest “an enhanced quality or quantity”, it’s now more common for it to denote physical position or placement in spatial terms.

Superbirds of the northern & southern hemispheres

1969 Dodge Daytona (red) & 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird (blue).

The Plymouth Superbird was a "homologation special" build only for the 1970 model year.  By the mid 1950s, various NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) competitions had become wildly popular and the factories (sometimes in secret) provided support for the racers.  This had started modestly enough with the supply of parts and technical support but so tied up with prestige did success become that soon some manufacturers established racing departments and, officially and not, ran teams or provided so much financial support some effectively were factory operations.  NASCAR had begun as a "stock" car operation in the literal sense that the first cars used were "showroom stock" with only minimal modifications.  That didn't last long, cheating was soon rife and in the interests of spectacle (ie higher speeds), certain "performance enhancements" were permitted although the rules were always intended to maintain the original spirit of using cars which were "close" to what was in the showroom.  The cheating didn't stop although the teams became more adept in its practice.  One Dodge typified the way manufactures used the homologation rule to effectively game the system.  The homologation rules (having to build and sell a minimum number of a certain model in that specification) had been intended to restrict the use of cars to “volume production” models available to the general public but in 1956 Dodge did a special run of what it called the D-500 (an allusion to the number built to be “legal”).  Finding a loophole in the interpretation of the word “option” the D-500 appeared in the showrooms with a 260-hp V8 and crossed-flag “500” emblems on the hoods (bonnet) and trunk (boot) lids, the model’s Dodge’s high-performance offering for the season.  However there was also the D-500-1 (or DASH-1) option, which made the car essentially a race-ready vehicle and one available as a two-door sedan, hardtop or convertible (the different bodies to ensure eligibility in NASCAR’s various competitions).  The D-500-1 was thought to produce around 285 hp from its special twin-four-barrel-carbureted version of the 315 cubic inch (5.2 litre) but more significant was the inclusion of heavy-duty suspension and braking components.  It was a successful endeavour and triggered both an arms race between the manufacturers and the ongoing battle with the NASCAR regulators who did not wish to see their series transformed into something conested only by specialized racing cars which bore only a superficial resemblance to the “showroom stock”.  By the 2020s, it’s obvious NASCAR surrendered to the inevitable but for decades, the battle raged.

1970 Plymouth Superbird (left) and 1969 Dodge Daytona (right) by Stephen Barlow on DeviantArt.  Despite the visual similarities, the aerodynamic enhancements  differed between the two, the Plymouth's nose-cone less pointed, the rear wing higher and with a greater rake.  

By 1969 the NASCAR  regulators had fine-tuned their rules restricting engine power and mandating a minimum weight so manufacturers resorted to the then less policed field of aerodynamics, ushering what came to be known as the aero-cars.  Dodge made some modifications to their Charger which smoothed the air-flow, labelling it the Charger 500 in a nod to the NASCAR homologation rules which demanded 500 identical models for eligibility.  However, unlike the quite modest modifications which proved so successful for Ford’s Torino Talladega and Mercury’s Cyclone Spoiler, the 500 remained aerodynamically inferior and production ceased after 392 were built.  Dodge solved the problem of the missing 108 needed for homologation purposes by introducing a different "Charger 500" which was just a trim level and nothing to do with competition but, honor apparently satisfied on both sides, NASCAR turned the same blind eye they used when it became clear Ford probably had bent the rules a bit with the Talladega.

Superbirds: 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird in "Lime Light" (left) and Lindsay Lohan (right), generated in AI (artificial intelligence) as a superbird by Stable Diffusion.

Not discouraged by the aerodynamic setback, Dodge recruited engineers from Chrysler's aerospace & missile division (which was being shuttered because the Nixon-era détente had just started and the US & USSR were beginning their arms-reduction programmes) and quickly created the Daytona, adding to the 500 a protruding nosecone and high wing at the rear.  Successful on the track, this time the required 500 really were built, 503 coming of the line.  NASCAR responded by again moving the goalposts, requiring manufacturers to build at least one example of each vehicle for each of their dealers before homologation would be granted, something which typically would demand a run well into four figures.  Plymouth duly complied and for 1970 about 2000 Superbirds (NASCAR acknowledging 1920 although Chrysler insists there were 1,935) were delivered to dealers, an expensive exercise given they were said to be invoiced at below cost.  Now more unhappy than ever, NASCAR lawyered-up and drafted rules rendering the aero-cars uncompetitive and their brief era ended.

The graphic for the original Road Runner (1968, left) and the version used for the Superbird (1970, right).  Both were created under licence from Warner Brothers, like the distinctive "beep-beep" horn sound, the engineering apparently as simple as replacing the aluminium strands in the mechanism with copper windings.  The fee for the name was US$50,000 with the rights to the "beep-beep" invoiced at a further US$10,000.  

So extreme in appearance were the cars they proved at the time sometimes hard to sell and some were converted back to the standard specification by dealers anxious to get them out of the showroom.  Views changed over time and they're now much sought by collectors, the record price known price paid for a Superbird being US$1,650,000 for one of the 135 fitted with the 426 Street Hemi.  Despite the Superbirds having been produced in some four times the quantity of Daytonas, collectors indicate the're essentially interchangeable with the determinates of price (all else being equal) being determined by (1) engine specification (the Hemi-powered models the most desirable followed by the 6-BBL Plymouths (there were no Six-Pack Daytonas built) and then the 4 barrel 440s), (2) transmission (those with a manual gearbox attracting a premium) and (3) the combination of mileage, condition and originality.  Mapped on to that equation is the variable of who happens to be at an auction on any given day, something unpredictable.  That was demonstrated in August 2024 when a highly optioned Daytona in the most desirable configuration achieved US$3.36 million at Mecum’s auction at Monterey, California.

1969 Plymouth Road Runner advertisement.

The price was impressive but what attracted the interest of the amateur sociologists was the same Daytona in May 2022 sold for US$1.3 million when offered by Mecum at their auction held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  The US$1.3 million was at the time the highest price then paid for a Hemi Daytona (of the 503 Daytonas built, only 70 were fitted with the Hemi and of those, only 22 had the four-speed manual) and the increase in value by some 250% was obviously the result of something other than the inflation rate.  The consensus was that although the internet had made just about all markets inherently global, local factors can still influence both the buyer profile and their behaviour, especially in the hothouse environment of a live auction.  Those who frequent California’s central coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco include a demographic not typically found in the mid-west and among other distinguishing characteristics there are more rich folk, able to spend US$3.36 million on a half-century old car they’ll probably never drive between the purchase and offering again at auction.  That’s how the collector market works, the cars now essentially the same sort of commodity as paintings or other pieces of art.

The Buick Skylark Grand Sport which in 1965 didn't become a Superbird.

Plymouth paid Warner Brothers US$50,000 to licence the Road Runner trademark but “Superbird” was free to use which must have been pleasing, the avian reference an allusion to the big wing at the rear.  Curiously, had Buick a half-decade earlier decided to pursue what seems in retrospect a “sales department thought bubble”, Plymouth would have had to come up with something else because in 1965 Buick did run a one-off advertisement for their new Skylark Grand Sport (the marque’s toe in the muscle car water) with the copy headed “Superbird”.  It may seem strange Buick had been tempted to enter the muscle car business because, by the time Alfred P Sloan’s (1875–1966; president of General Motors (GM) 1923-1937 and Chairman of the Board 1937-1946) had settled down in 1940, Buick was second only to Cadillac in the GM corporate hierarchy with Chevrolet at the bottom, followed by Pontiac and Oldsmobile.  However, the unexpected success the year earlier of Pontiac’s GTO had proved an irresistible temptation: there were profits to be made.  As it was, Cadillac was the only GM division in the era not to sell a muscle car although the 1970 Eldorado was rated at 400 horsepower (HP), a bigger number than many muscle cars although bizarrely, it was FWD (front wheel drive) and has never been thought part of the ecosystem.

1936 Buick Century.

Debatably the the Buick Century was the "first muscle car" and although in the mid 1930s some fanciful names appeared, it's unlikely anyone would have thought of "Road Runner" or "Superbird", "Century" (denoting the 100 mph (160 km/h) speed all were said to be able to achieve) thought both distinctive and informative.  The definition of “muscle car” is by some contested and the only consensus seemes to be none believe it can encompass FWD (front-wheel-drive), despite Cadillac in 1970 rating the Eldorado's 500 cubic inch (8.2 litre) V8 at at stellar 400 HP which was 25 more than Ford claimed for the Boss 429 Mustang which used a slightly detuned racing engine.  Ford of course understated things but is is an amusing comparison.  The definition most prefer is: “a big engine from a big, heavy car installed in a smaller, lighter car” and for Buick, the approach really wasn’t novel.  Although in 1936 the improvement in the economy remained patchy (and would soon falter), Buick rang in the changes, re-naming its entire line.  Notably, one newly designated offering was the Century, a revised version of the model 60, created by replacing the 233 cubic inch (3.8 litre) straight eight with the 320 cubic inch (5.2 litre) unit from the longer, heavier Roadmaster.  Putting big engines into small cars was nothing new and during the interwar years some had taken the idea to extremes, using huge aero-engines, but those tended to be one-offs for racing or LSR (land speed record) attempts.  In Europe, (slightly) larger engines were sometimes substituted and British manufacturers often put six cylinder power-plants where once there had been a four but their quest was usually for smoothness and refinement rather than outright speed and the Century was really the first time a major manufacturer had used the concept in series production and by many it’s acknowledged as the last common ancestor (LCA) of the muscle cars which in the 1960s came to define the genre.

1970 Buick GSX 455 Stage 1.

The model which in 1965 Buick seemingly flirted with promoting as the “Superbird” was the Skylark Grand Sport, built on the corporate intermediate A-Body shared with Chevrolet, Pontiac & Oldsmobile.  In its first season the Grand Sport was an option rather than a model and it used the 401 cubic inch (6.6 litre) Buick “Nailhead” V8 which technically violated GM’s corporate edict placing a 400 cubic inch displacement limit on engines in intermediates but this was “worked around” by “rounding down” to 400 for purposes of documentation and for that there was a precedent; earlier Pontiac’s 336 cubic inch (5.5 litre) V8 contravened another GM rule and PMD solved that problem by claiming the capacity was really 326 (5.3) and, honor apparently satisfied on both sides, it was back to business as usual.  The Grand Sport option proved a success in and by 1967 the package was elevated to a model as the GS 400, Buick’s new big-block engine a genuine 400 cid (there were also small-block Skylark GSs appropriately labelled GS 340 and later GS 350) and on the sales charts it continued to perform well, but, being a Buick, its appearance was more restrained than the muscle cars from the competition (including those from other GM divisions) so it tended to be overshadowed but this changed in 1968 when the “Stage 1” option was introduced as a dealer-installed option.  What this did was r increase power and torque and optomize the delivery of both for quarter-mile (402 m) sprints down drag strips and as a proof-of-concept exercise it must have worked because in 1969 the Stage 1 package appeared on the factory’s official option list.  When tested, it performed (on the drag strip) so well it was obvious the official output numbers were under-stated but thing really clicked the next year when Buick enlarged the V8 to 455 cubic inches (7.5 litre), delivering 510 lb⋅ft (691 N⋅m) of torque, the highest rating in the industry.  It's often claimed Detroit wouldn't top this until the second generation Dodge Viper (ZB I, 2003-2006) debuted with its V10 enlarged to 506 cubic inches (8.3 litres) but the early 472 (1968) & 500 (1970) cubic inch (7.7 & 8.2 litre) Cadillac V8s were rated respectively at 525 lb⋅ft (712 N⋅m) & 550 lb⋅ft (746 N⋅m).

1970 Buick GSX brochure.

Buick in 1970 made available the GSX “Performance and Handling Package” which added a hefty US$1,100 to the GS 455’s base price US$3,098, a factor in it attracting only 678 (presumably most-content) buyers.  The straight-line performance was impressive.  While it couldn’t match the ability of genuine race-bred engines like the Chrysler Street Hemi, Ford Boss 429 or the most lusty of the big-block Chevrolets effortlessly to top 140 mph (225 km/h), on the drag strip, the combination of the prodigious low-speed torque and relatively light weight meant it could be a match for just about anything.  The use of “Stage 1” of course implied there would be at least a “Stage 2” (a la Pontiac’s Ram Air II, III etc) but the world was changing and only a handful of "Stage 2" components were assembled and shipped to dealers.  While both the GSX and Stage 1 would live until 1972, 1970 would be peak Buick muscle.

1967 Dodge Coronet R/T advertisement.

Another footnote to the tale is that in 1967, some time before Plymouth released the Road Runner, Dodge (Plymouth’s corporate stable-mate) published an advertisement for the Coronet R/T (Road/Track) which must have been ticked off by the legal department because cleverly it included the words “road” and “runner” arranged in such as way a viewer would read them as “Road Runner” without them appearing in a form which would attract a C&D (cease & desist letter) from Warner Brothers.  Obviously, the tie-in with Road/Track was the idea of a machine suited both to street and competition use and the agency must have congratulated themselves but the satisfaction would have been brief because within hours of the advertisement appearing in magazines on newsstands, Chrysler’s corporate marketing division instructed Dodge to “pull the campaign”.  By then, Plymouth’s plans for the surprise release in a few months of the appropriately licensed “Road Runner” were well advanced and they didn’t want any thunder stolen.  The Dodge advertisement remained a one-off but the division must have wished they’d thought of using “Road Runner” themselves because the Super Bee (their later take on the Road Runner concept) only ever sold a quarter of the volume of Plymouth’s original; it pays to be first but a flaky name like “Super Bee” can’t have helped.  Subsequently, the names Road Runner & Roadrunner (the latter which, without the initial capital, is the taxonomic term for the bird (genus Geococcyx and known also as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks) Warner Brothers' Wile E. Coyote could never quite catch) have been used for products as varied as a Leyland truck, many sports teams, computer hardware & software and a number of publications.

Don't mess with popular and respected birds.

However, just because Chrysler’s lawyers dotted the i's and crossed the t's with Warner Brothers didn’t mean their involvement with the Plymouth Road Runner was done.  Shortly after the Road Runner was released late in 1967, the corporate office became aware “...certain Chrysler-Plymouth Division dealers in the Southwest [were] using live Roadrunner birds in local sales promotions and offering cash rewards for the capture of live specimens.”  That would at the time have seemed to dealers just a clever marketing gimmick but consulted, the legal department determined it was “...against Federal Law to hunt, capture kill, sell or offer to purchase a nonautomotive Roadrunner.”  Further to clarify, it was added Roadrunners were “…none-game birds classified as national resources and protected by Federal and International law.”  Who knew?  In the C&D letter Chrysler-Plymouth's public relations manager circulated to all dealers, the cultural significance was also mentioned, the Roadrunner described as a “...popular and respected bird... particularly in New Mexico where it is honored as the state's official bird.”  Accordingly, the corporate directive banned “...any future use of live Roadrunners in promotional activities.”

1970 Plymouth Road Runner with a Warner Brothers' interpretation of the genus Geococcyx in fibreglass.

So using live examples of the “popular and respected bird” was out but the marketing department wasn’t deterred and for promotional purposes later arranged production in fibreglass of large representations of the Roadrunner, designed to emerge, grinning and wide-eyed through the hood (bonnet) scoop (which Chrysler called the “air-grabber” because it did what it said on the tin: funnelled desirable cold air straight to the induction system).  Being advertising, the large plastic structure owed much to the Warner Brothers depiction of the creature and little to how evolution had produced genus Geococcyx.  Some of the fibreglass promotional props survived to be exhibited protruding through a Road Runners air-grabber and die-cast models of the ensemble (car plus “popular and respected bird”) sometimes are available.

Australia's Ford Falcon Superbirds 

1973 XA Ford Falcon GT Superbird, built for the show circuit. 

Based on the then-current XA Falcon GT Hardtop, Ford Australia’s original Superbird was a one-off created for display at the 1973 Sydney and Melbourne Motor Shows, the purpose of the thing to distract attention from Holden’s new, four-door Monaro model, a range added after the previous year’s limited production SS had generated sufficient sales for the “proof-of-concept” to be judged a success.  Such tactics are not unusual in commerce and Ford were responding to the Holden’s earlier release of the SS being timed deliberately to steal the thunder expected to be generated by the debut of the Falcon Hardtop.  Although it featured a new "rough-blend" upholstery and a power-steering system with the rim-effort increased from 4 to 8 lbs (1.8 to 3.6 kg), mechanically, the Superbird show car was something of a “parts-bin special” in that it differed from a standard GT Hardtop mostly in the use of some of the components orphaned when the plan run of 250-odd (Phase 4) Falcon GTHOs was cancelled after in 1972 a Sydney tabloid newspaper had stirred a moral panic with one of their typically squalid and untruthful stories about “160 mph (258 km/h) supercars” soon to be available to males ages 17-25 (always a suspect demographic in the eyes of a tabloid editor).  Apparently, it was a “slow news day” so the story got moved from the sports section at the back to the front page where the headline spooked the politicians who demanded the manufacturers not proceed with the limited-production specials which existed only to satisfy the homologation rules for competition.  Resisting for only a few days, the manufacturers complied and within a week the nation’s regulatory body for motor sport announced the end of “series-production” racing and that in future the cars used on the track would no longer need to be so closely related to those available in showrooms.

1973 XA Ford Falcon GT Superbird with model in floral dress.

The Falcon GT Superbird displayed at the motor shows in 1973 however proved something of a harbinger in that it proved a bit of a “trial run” for future ventures in which parts intended solely for racing would be added to a sufficient number of vehicles sold to the public to homologate them for use on the circuits.  In that sense, the mechanical specification of the Superbird previewed some of what would later in the year be supplied (with a surprising amount of car-to-car variability) in RPO83 (regular production option 83) including the GTHO’s suspension settings, a 780 cfm (cubic feet per minute) carburetor, the 15” x 7” aluminium wheels, a 36 (imperial) gallon (164 litre) fuel tank and some of the parts designed for greater durability under extreme (ie on the race track) conditions.  Cognizant of the effect the tabloid press has on politicians, none of the special runs in the immediate aftermath of the 1972 moral panic included anything to increase performance.

Toned down: 1973 Ford Falcon 500 Hardtop with RPO77 (Superbird option pack) in Polar White with Cosmic Blue accents over White vinyl interior.

Most who saw the Superbird probably didn’t much dwell on the mechanical intricacies, taken more by the stylized falcon which extended for three-quarters the length of the car.  It was the graphic which no doubt generated publicity in a way the specification sheet never could and it was made available through Ford dealers but the take-up rate was low so which it was decided to capitalize on the success of the show car by releasing a production Superbird (as RPO77), the graphic had been reduced to one about 18 inches (450 mm) in length which was applied to the rear quarters, an ever smaller version appearing on the glovebox lid.  In keeping with that restraint, RPO 77 included only “dress-up” items and a 302 cubic inch (4.9 litre) V8 in the same mild-mannered state of tune as the versions sold to bank managers and such and very different from the high-compression 351 (5.8) in the show car.  Still, RPO 77 did succeed in stimulating interest in the two-door Hardtop, sales of which had proved sluggish after the initial spike in 1972; some 700 seem to have been built (from a projected 750) and that all but 200 were fitted with an automatic transmission was an indication of the target market.  In Australia, the surviving Superbirds are now advertised for six figure sums while the surviving three Phase 4 GTHOs (the fourth was destroyed in a rally which seems an improbable place to use such a thing) can command over a million.  The 1973 show car was repainted from "Pearl Silver" to its original "Wild Violet" before being sold.

As a footnote, the 302 V8 was exclusive to Australia in being based on the US Cleveland (335) engine which there was the basis only for 351 and 400 (6.6) versions.  The rationale for the Australians developing their unique "302 Cleveland" was one of production-line standardization, the local operation having never produced the Windsor line of V8s which by 1969 provided the US market with both 302 & 351 versions.  According to the convention in use at the time, the Australian engines could have been dubbed "302 Geelong" & "351 Geelong" (Geelong the city where the Ford foundry was located) but that was never adopted and both tend to be called "Australian Clevelands".  Creating the 302 Cleveland wasn't challenging or expensive and both the Australian engines were (with detail differences between them) a single-configuration compromise optimized for use on the street, eschewing use of the components which delivered improved top-end power (as fitted to some of the US engines) which worked well at high speed but wasn't ideal for street use when low and mid-range torque is the most desired characteristic.  What the Australian engineers did for their 351 was was combine the large (61-64 cm³) combustion chambers from the US "4V" heads (ie "4 venturi" indicating the use with a four barrel carburettor) with the smaller "2V" intake ports, the arrangement producing a good quench and air/fuel swirl through the ports, enhancing the low-to-mid range torque output.  The short-stroke Australian 302 was different in that it used a 56.4–59.4 cm³ combustion chamber in conjunction with the high-swirl, small ports.  That combination ("closed" combustion chamber & small ports) turned out to be a "sweet-spot" for street use which has made the Australian 302 heads a popular item for those modifying 351s, the swap made possible by the shared bore.  While the Cleveland suffered fundamental flaws (excessive weight and poor lubrication), the canted-valve heads were right from day one, the reason why the 1969 Boss 302 (which put the Cleveland heads on the well-lubricated Windsor block) was so highly regarded.  Although its sounds oxymoronic, Ford Australia really did position its 302 as "an economy V8" but that phrase needs to be read as a comparative and not an absolute. 

Swirl

Swirl (pronounced swurl)

(1) A twist, as of hair around the head or of trimming on a hat; a whorl or curl.

(2) Any curving, twisting line, shape, or form.

(3) A descriptor of a state or confusion or disorder.

(4) A swirling movement; whirl; eddy; to turn or cause to turn in a twisting spinning fashion (used especially of running water).

(5) In fishing, the upward rushing of a fish through the water to take the bait.

(6) To move around or along with a whirling motion; a whirl; an eddy.

(7) To feel dizzy or giddy (the idea of a “spinning head”).

(8) To cause to whirl; twist.

(9) To be arranged in a twist, spiral or whorl.

(10) Figuratively, to circulate, especially in a social situation.

(11) In AAVE (African-American Vernacular English), to in some way mingle interracially (dating, sex, marriage etc) (dated; now rare).

(12) In internal combustion engines (ICE), as “swirl chamber”, a now generic term for a type of combustion chamber design.

1375-1425: From the late (northern) Middle English swirlen (to eddy, swirl) which was probably from the Old Norse svirla (to swirl), a frequentative form of Old Norse sverra (to swing, twirl).  It was cognate with the Scots swirl & sworl (to eddy, swirl), the Norwegian Nynorsk svirla (to whirl around; swirl), the Swedish sorla (to murmur, buzz) and the Dutch zwirrelen (to swirl).  Related forms included the dialectal German schwirrlen (to totter), the West Frisian swiere (to reel, whirl), the Dutch zwieren (to reel, swing around), the German Low German swirren (to whizz, whirl or buzz around), the German schwirren (to whirr, whizz, buzz), the Swedish svirra (to whirr about, buzz, hum), the Danish svirre (to whizz, whirr) and the English swarm.  The construct may be understood as the Germanic root swir- + -l- (the frequentative suffix).  Swirl is a noun & verb, swirled is a verb & adjective, swirling is a noun, verb & adjective, swirly is a noun & adjective, swirler is a noun and swirlingly is an adverb; the noun plural is swirls.

In English, the late (northern) Middle English noun swirlen (to eddy, swirl) seems originally to have come from a Scottish word, the origin of which is undocumented but etymologists seem convinced of the Scandinavian links.  The sense of a “whirling movement” emerged in the early nineteenth century although the meaning “a twist or convolution (in hair, the grain of wood etc)” was in use by 1786.  The verb as a transitive in the sense of “give a swirling or eddying motion to” was in use in the early sixteenth century but it may by then long have been in oral use, one text from the fourteenth containing an example and the source of that may have been either Germanic (such as the Dutch zwirrelen (to swirl) or the Norwegian Nynorsk svirla (to whirl around; swirl) or it may have evolved from the English noun.  The intransitive sense (have a whirling motion, form or whirl in eddies) dates from 1755.  The adjective swirly existed by 1785 in the sense of “twisted or knotty” but by the middle of the next century it had come also to describe anything “whirling or eddying”, applied especially to anything aquatic.  By 1912, it was used also to mean “full of contortions or twists” although “swirling” in this sense had by then been in (gradually increasing) use for a century.

Of curls & swirls: Lindsay Lohan with curls (left) and swirls (right).

In hairdressing, although customers sometimes use the words “curl” and “swirl” interchangeably, to professionals the use should be distinct.  A swirl is a movement or pattern in which hair is styled or arranged, typically with a rounded or circular pattern and swirls can be natural (the pattern at the crown of the head where the hair grows in a circular direction) or stylized (the look deliberately created and most obvious in “up-dos) or the formal styles associated with weddings and such).  The end result is a wide vista and the swirl is more a concept than something which exists within defined parameters.  A curl is (1) a type of hair texture or (2) the act of creating a curl with techniques using tools and/or product.  Some people (and there’s a strong ethnic (ie genetic) association) naturally have curly hair due to the shape of their follicles and within the rubric of what used to be called the ulotrichous, hairdressers classify curls as tyree types: (1) tight (small, corkscrew-like structures), (2) medium (tighter curls but with a softer appearance) and (3) long spirals with a large diameter).  Some commercial product also lists “ringlets” as a type but as tight, well-defined spirals, they’re really a descriptive variation of the tight or medium.  So, the essential difference is that a swirl is a pattern or movement of the hair, while a curl describes texture or shape and while a swirl is a matter or arrangement, a curl demands changing the hair’s natural texture or shape.  Swirls are very much set-piece styles associated with formal events while curls are a popular way to add volume, texture, and movement to the hair.

In internal combustion engines (ICE), the “swirl chamber is a now generic term used to describe a widely-used type of combustion chamber when upon introduction, the fuel-air mixture “swirls around” prior to detonation.  The design is not new, Buick’s straight-8 “Fireball” cylinder head using a simple implementation as long ago as the 1920s and it would serve the corporation into the 1950s.  The critical aspect of the engineering was the interaction between a receded exhaust valve and a rising in the top of the piston which “pushed” most of the fuel-air mixture into what was a comparatively small chamber, producing what was then called a “high-swirl” effect, the “Fireball” moniker gained by virtue of the actual combustion “ball of fire” being smaller in volume than was typical at the time.  The benefit of the approach was two-fold: a reduction in fuel consumption because less was required per power-stroke and (2) a more consistent detonation of the poor quality fuel then in use.  As fuel improved in quality and compression ratios rose (two of the dominant trends of the post-war years), the attraction of swirl chambers diminished but the other great trend was the the effective reduction in the cost of gasoline (petrol) and as cars became larger & heavier and roads more suited to higher speeds, the quest was for power.

Swirling around: The swirl process in a diesel combustion chamber.

Power in those years usually was gained by increased displacement & combustion chamber designs optimized for flow; significantly too, many popular designs of combustion chamber (most notably those in the so-called “wedge” heads) were cheaper to produce and in those years, few gave much thought to air-pollution.  The cars of the 1950s & 1960s had really toxic exhaust emissions.  By the mid 1960s however, the problem of air pollution in US cities was so obvious and the health effects were beginning to be publicized, as was the contribution to all of this by motor vehicles.  Regulations began to appear, California in 1961 (because of the high vehicle population and certain geographical & climatic phenomena, Los Angeles & San Francisco were badly affected by air pollution) passing the first statute and the manufacturers quickly agreed to adopt this standard nationally, fearing other states might begin to impose more onerous laws.  Those however arrived by mid-decade and although there was specific no road-map, few had any doubts the rules would become stricter as the years passed.  The industry’s only consolation was that these laws would be federal legislation so they would need to offer only one specification for the whole country (although the time would come when California would decide things should be tougher and by the 1970s there were “Californian cars” and “49 state cars”).  K Street wasn’t the force then it later became and the manufacturers conformed with (relatively) little protest.

Fuel was still cheap and plentiful but interest in swirl chambers was revived by the promise of cleaner burning engines.  Because it wasn’t new technology, the research attracted little attention outside of the engineering community but in 1970, German-born Swiss engineer Michael May (b 1934) demonstrated a Ford (Cologne) Capri with his take on the swirl chamber in a special cylinder head.  In a nod to the Buick original, May nick-named his head design the “Fireball” (professional courtesy a thing among engineers).  What Herr May had done was add a small groove (essentially a channel surrounding the intake valve) to the chamber, meaning during the last faction of a second of piston movement, the already swirling fuel-air mixture got a final nudge in the right direction: instead of there being a randomness to the turbulence of the mix, the shape was controlled and was thus able to be lower in volume (a smaller fireball) and precisely controlled at the point at which the spark triggered detonation; May called this a “higher swirl”.  Not only did this reduce exhaust emissions but it also cut fuel consumption for a given state of tune so designers could choose their desired path: more power for the same fuel consumption or the same power for less and within a short time, just about the whole world was taking great interest in fuel consumption.

Detail of the original "flathead" cylinder head of the Jaguar V12 (left) and the later "Fireball" head with swirl chambers (right).

A noted use of May’s design was its adoption in 1981 on Jaguar’s infamously thirsty V12 (1971-1997), an innovation celebrated by the addition of the HE (High Efficiency) label for the revised power-plant.  The notion of “high efficiency” was comparative rather than absolute and the V12 remained by most standards a thirsty beast but the improvement could be in the order of 40% (depending on conditions) and it was little worse than the similar displacement Mercedes-Benz V8s of the era which could match the Jaguar for power but not the turbine-like smoothness.  Threatened with axing due to its profligate ways, the swirl chambers saved the V12 and it survived another sixteen years which included two severe recessions.  Debuting even before the Watergate scandal, it lasted until the Monica Lewinsky affair.  In the decades since, computer simulations and high-speed photography have further enhanced the behavior of swirl & turbulence, the small fireballs now contained in the center of the chamber, prevent heat from radiating to the surrounding surfaces, ensuring the energy (heat) is expended on pushing the piston down to being the next cycle, not wasting it by heating metal.  The system is popular also in diesel engines.