How Did The 1960s Change American Culture

The 1960’s brought many changes to American culture. Political revolutions such as the Civil Rights movement fought for equality, and the British Invasion forever altered what kinds of music Americans would listen to for several generations. These movements had polarizing leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and The Beatles, but music and politics were not the only things that changed. The automobile industry was about to transform, and it would be lead by the Detroit automakers. In 1965, Ford released the first Mustang, unlike cars of the past this car was smaller but it was fairly sporty. The Mustang looked the part too. Ford dominated the industry for about two years, but the Mustang’s rival was born. In 1967, Chevrolet released its own version of Ford’s Mustang, the Chevrolet Camaro. The Camaro and the Mustang will forever be rivals, but in all reality the first generations of the two iconic cars aren’t that different. These cars have similar stories of origin, similar specifications and performance analytics, and their striking looks. In 1960, Ford went through some personnel changes as Robert McNamara left the company to join John F. Kennedy’s administration as Secretary of Defense, and the son of an …show more content…
However, the two cars had some problem with their handling. According to Wright, “The ever reserved Brits came out of their shells, and both Autocar and Motorgave good marks but didn’t care for the Mustang’s low gearing, drum brakes or its behavior on wet roads.” (9). Ford did offer a disc brake version of the Mustang which did handle much better. Chevrolet’s Camaro faced a similar problem. Wright states, “As mentioned earlier, the Camaro’s major design fault was its rear axle and single leaf spring suspension. This was just passable with the basic six but right out of its league with a V8.” (19). To put it simply the Camaro’s large motor created to much power for the