JohnCh wrote:The Federal advance curve really impacts drivability.
California owners cover your ears.
I guess everybody wasn't there at the time. My initial response was "Of course it does!" We tend to think of tuning as optimizing; what most may not remember is that
Lotus was optimizing to a set of numbers that would determine whether or not they stayed in business. Being able to sell in the U.S. market without adding a hardware store under the bonnet was a HUGE advantage in cost, weight, and power. And the U.S. market wasn't racing these things, the competition was MGBs and TR6s used as second cars for summer commuting and weekend excursions. The 2-ton Chevy in the driveway had at least a hundred more horsepower if that was your thing. My family's 1969 Dodge station wagon (Estate) had a 383 V8 under the hood and was nothing too special. We lived, and still do to some extent, in the Land of Cubic Inches. But even Chrysler had to bump their family engine to 400 cubes to power the dreaded pump.
Lotus did what they had to do to sell in the market. VW's Squareback was injected at the time, showing the way forward, but the technology wasn't in general use as it would be 20 years later. There were no other options but to make these cars run like crap to make the numbers. Unleaded fuel and catalysts were still in the future then though coming quickly.
And the motoring press, while sympathetic, wasn't excusing them when they did this.