Retrofuturistic Bustleback

Consider. Since the Corvair, which launched in the fall of 1959, what had Detroit built that really broke the mold? Corvette had independent rear suspension starting with the 1963 models, but it went no further through GM’s passenger car lineup. The front-wheel-drive Toronado arrived for 1966, with its sibling, the Cadillac Eldorado, a season later. But nearly everything else out of Motown was front-engined and rear-wheel-driven, with gasoline-powered engines sending its force out to a sold rear axle for distribution.

By these standards, the new-for-1980 Seville was as advanced as American cars got — arguably GM’s most technologically savvy production platform ever up to that point. It was front-wheel-drive, a by-product of sharing parts with the new-for-1979 E-body (Eldorado, Toronado, and Riviera) — a big step up as Seville shed the Chevrolet-based bones of its previous