Year of the Astronaut

As Detroit's auto designers foresee it, drivers of the 1967 cars will feel like astronauts. Trying to style their products to keep pace with the trends of the times, the designers in past years have confected cars that they figured would resemble submarines or air planes. The inspiration for next fall's cars descends from space. Hoods will be lengthened and tapered, and passenger compartments will be moved back toward the rear wheels. "We're certainly not styling cars to rendezvous in space," says Ford Styling Director Eugene Bordinat, "but to many people this mass in the rear--a kind of capsule look--suggests the triangular or delta look of spacecraft."

Bordinat also sees the '67s as "Italianesque." Maybe like Sophia? No, like Ferrari. Many of them will also look considerably like the Mustang--the one car of the 1960s that dared to be different and, as a result, helped Ford to close its sales gap with the rival Chevrolet Division to a 1.2% difference in market penetration.

Among the imitators are two totally new '67 name plates:

> The Cougar, by Mercury, is a middle-priced cross between the economical Mustang and the expensive Thunderbird. It will have rakish headlights that disappear into the grille, rounded Thunderbird sides, taillights that stretch across the entire back of the car. Price: about $3,000.

>The Panther--that name may change before the car's introduction in September--is Chevrolet's belated answer to Mustang. It has much the same long hood, set-back passenger compartment and squat trunk of the Mustang, will have about the same average price tag of $2,800.

Beyond these, '67 changes are subtle. Despite disappointing sales of its front-wheel-drive Toronado, General Motors is putting front-wheel drive on the Cadillac Eldorado. Chrysler is discontinuing Imperial as a separate line, will make it a more expensive Chrysler with extra decor and equipment. Ford for the first time will bring out four-door Thunderbirds. Pontiac's grille has been given a cat-whisker effect, with metal trim above the headlights suggesting flaring eyebrows. Detroit insiders have a name for the car: Batmobile.

With Detroit becoming more sensitive to safety, two additional safety features will be standard on most '67s. One is the collapsible steering column, whose steel-mesh center section accordions under impact and absorbs shock. The other is the dual braking system, with two hydraulic fluid lines instead of one, so that emergency braking power remains if one line is damaged. The Senate Commerce Committee is close to approving legislation that may make other safety features mandatory on '68 models, probably including headrests and rupture-proof fuel tanks.

People who want really radical changes in cars will have to wait beyond model-year '67. In both styling and safety, next fall's new cars will not be all that different from the '66s, which have fallen short of last year's alltime high sales. The automakers do not expect to break that record until 1968 at the earliest.

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