LTD (VII): The Division Street Hill

I worked for my dad in 84 and a bit in 85. That was when the office was on Dittmer on the southwest side of town, close to the river (and the Mississippi meant flooding could reach the office/warehouse there).

There were a couple of ways to get to Economy Roofing. The first was the conventional route–just take Marquette to 2nd (Rockingham Road), turn right, and then turn left on Dittmer. The other was more fun–that was to go Marquette->Locust->Division->Rockingham->Dittmer and the reverse on the way home.

That was more fun because Division St. had a massive hill, steep with a stoplight right at its base. Travel down Division and you could break the speed limit easily enough without ever touching the gas. With the gas, I could’ve been 50 over the limit at the base of the hill (never did that, for posterity).

More fun was to hit the stoplight at the base (heading home) and be first in line because then you had to start at 0mph to go up the hill and with so many small-engined cars at that point of the world, all underpowered, there were quite a few cars that had to floor it and hope they had enough speed by the time they hit the start of the hill that it would carry through to the top.

Not the LTD. It was able to accelerate as it climbed up the hill. There weren’t many cars able to do that circa 1984 because of the aftermath of the 1970s’ oil crisis. Because I was geeky, it always reminded me that at the time, only American jet fighters were capable of accelerating in a full vertical climb. I didn’t dream the LTD was a F-15 or anything like that…it was just something that always popped into my brain.

So why think of that now, nearly 40 years after the fact?

Probably because I’ve got a car now with far more oomph than the LTD. Beautiful car, better in every way than the LTD–from gas mileage to creature comforts to speed/acceleration, as well as leg and head room.

6.4l V8, 181mph, 0-60: 4.1sec, 475ft-lb torque, 485hp; 198″ long

351W V8, 135mph, 0-60: 13.8sec, 250ft-lb torque, 225hp; the car was 220″ long

With those specs and how the Challenger fits in our garage, knowing the LTD is two feet longer…my god, the LTD wouldn’t fit in our garage.