The 1973 gas crisis didn’t just mean prices at the pump spiked. It meant a sea change in how Americans thought about their relationship with cars, and how U.S. auto manufacturers designed them. Luxury and V-8 dominance had been the signifiers of car culture for a generation, but suddenly, fuel-sipping economy and the nimble joys of compact imports had changed the game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the old dogs of Detroit didn’t exactly knock their first experiments in competing out of the gate.