i just realized for the us market this is in a legal grey area most us market cars had a full b-pillar due to the requirement for added roll over protection but there was a loop hole that existed in 1976 Chevrolet offered their Impala as a 4 door hard top because apparently the law did not specify that the b-pillar needed to be a floor to roof part just thought that was an interesting thing I found --- Post updated --- so I guess hardtops only work as 4 doors and wagons in the mid to late 70s
This is super cool, and this is one of my favorite mods (mostly because it is never affected by updates)
I think I did something similar but with the signia since the Japanese bumpers were sold in the us just with some bolt on bumper gaurds
I know that but the mid to late 70s had a large increase in safety regulation such as the 5mph crash bars and added rollover protection including a lack of convertibles and most cars were not hard tops from 1973-1977/78 I was just pointing out a similarity between this and a real car because I like to see what things are lore accurate and accurate to real laws in this video game specifically
But more than just Chevy did that... Chrysler, Dodge Plymouth, Ford (kind of), Mercury, Chevy, Cadillac, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, and maybe more all had hardtop sedans in the '70s.
to my knowledge, it was never made a requirement at the time of Claria's production to have a full b pillar going to the roof, but possible similar to the situation with convertibles rumoured to be banned in the early 70s, companies perhaps felt pressured to move away from such bodystyles Also I suspect changing trends also probably played a role, as pillarless hardtops and coupes were popular in the 50s and 60s in the US, perhaps less so in the latter 70s For the Japanese market though the pillarless hardtop lasted well into the 90s, although a lot of vehicles such as Toyotas Crown (4DHT models), Mark II (1980 onwards), various Hondas ect.. did feature a b pillar, but were designed in such a way that they appeared as true hardtops (and almost always featured frameless doors for a sleek look, with sedans using framed windows), while many Nissans, some Toyotas (Carina ED T16/T18) ect.. were true pillarless hardtops One of the last true hardtops was the C33 Laurel lasting up until 1993, for the new C34 chassis it featured a b pillar due to stricter side impact legislation, although sedans marketed as 'hardtops' were still produced after this To my knowledge none of the 'true' Japanese hardtops of the 80s and 90s were ever marketed in the US, whether it is just because companies didn't see a market, or because there were genuine legislations stopping them I do not know...
i have a quick question will you make or have you already made the rear signals rear marker lights instead like real USDM export cars of that time? i did it with the satsuma for example also btw i approve of this Export model design good work and this opinion is coming from a USDM export enthusiast fictional or real
Will the updated version be narrower? Pretty sure one time I saw somewhere that someone said this thing is a bit to wide for the Japanese size regulation of the time period. Not sure if it was in this thread or somewhere else.
No, It's just a class/tax thing like vehicles above 1.7m had more than double the tax rates of those under. There were cars that were wider, like the Toyota Century. The Claria is over 1.8m so it'll stay wide, trying to get it under would mean a lot of messing with jbeam which I'm not up for
more usdm configs I persume. you can tell if you look at the bumper. the big metal boxy bumpers for the us market