Join us in the Ford Motor Company’s anechoic chamber in Dearborn as we check out the full-sized Fords for 1970.
Ford had a new tagline for its big-car line in 1970: “Take a quiet break.” The slogan was used across the board in both the print and TV materials that year, and it was a notable departure from the muscular Total Performance theme of the previous decade. But on the other hand, the new messaging recalls the memorable 1965 campaign in which Ford bragged that its cars were quieter than a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. (See the famous Ford commercial here.) Of course, the property of quietness in a car also plants two more desirable attributes in the minds of potential buyers: quality and luxury.
To sell the quiet concept in the spot below, Ford took the cameras to a “quiet room” at the company’s engineering facilities in Dearborn. A more technical name is acoustic anechoic chamber, and essentially, it’s a space designed to deaden reflected sound waves so that direct sources of noise can be identified and studied. And yes, the anechoic chamber is still an important tool for the automakers today. Featured here, naturally, is the very top of the Ford full-size line for 1970, an LTD Brougham 2-door hardtop. The LTD badge was a solid winner for Ford at the time, accounting for nearly 375,000 sales that year—close to half the full-size production in ’70, which also included the Custom, Galaxie, and XL. Video below.
Haven’t seen one of those land barges in years. Big cars with big engines with big thirsts. what’s not to love about them, LOL. I remember a high school teacher had a 71 or 72 LTD 4 door sedan that our FFA tree judging team got to drive to a few events. That thing would haul 6 senior and junior high boys with legroom and hip room to spare, and the senior who drove us didn’t hold it back any, either. It’s a wonder we didn’t end up wrapped around a tree instead of somewhere judging them!
As to the quietness, there was nothing quiet about 5-6 teen aged boys with the radio blasting rock and roll, LOL!