Saturday 23rd February 1974

The 66th Chicago Auto Show opened as the OPEC oil embargo remained in force. Rationing had not occurred in the US, but tempers grew short when gas stations limited sales to a few gallons. Fuel shortages notwithstanding, Chicagoans still attended their beloved auto show en masse. Keeping in tune with consumer necessity and demand, Ford displayed a smaller, lighter Mustang II for 1974. No more V-8 engines were available, but the Mustang II could at least get a V-6 instead of the standard four-cylinder. And long before airbags went into American cars, GM experimented with the idea, installing primitive airbags (known as the Air Cushion Restraint System) in their mid-1970s models. The Oldsmobile Toronado was the first to be fitted with the device.