For a long time Willys, with their Jeep, was the only one who took care of the all-wheel drive clients, then International came onto the scene with pretty modest production figures. When the market went over and above the needs of, e.g., the military and the foresters and the sales successes promised a bigger turnover, in 1966 Ford brought out the Bronco. That was when the big companies became aware of the growing market, thus the entry of General Motors was foreseeable.

The Chevrolet Blazer was a cleverly chosen alternative. It picked out precisely, the errors that the other three had made, namely, that only relatively small special-purpose vehicles were being built. The Chevrolet- specialists who placed more value on much more space, drew the Blazer from the already existing line of pickups. Apart from the cost savings, three or four different engines could be offered.

Thus basically, the Blazer is a pickup convertible, with at least, standard selectable front-wheel drive. It was on offer for 3000 Dollars, thus luring the customers into the dealer's showrooms, where almost all the buyers ordered the fibre-glass roof, which had a tendency to leak. A lot of buyers let themselves be dissuaded from choosing the straight-six-cylinder, although it was sufficient and the consumption wasn't that bad. This however, didn't interest anyone in the USA until the second oil crisis.

So, they rumbled over the motorways with the new car which had heavy leaf-sprung rigid axles, yes, also the front axle and mostly with a three-speed manual gearbox, four speeds were optional as well as the wide spread automatic transmission. Because, in the wide open spaces in America, the car was found more in off-road use than the SUVs which later appeared in Europe, it was also given an off-road gear-reduction mode. Nevertheless, in the beginning, the Blazer wasn't really accepted by the experts.

Over and over again, one is surprised by the performance that even cars with larger dimensions and longer wheelbases can produce when used off-road. Soon after the start, which was stricken by strikes, the Chevrolet Blazer developed - although not into the darling of the masses - and incredibly more customer potential than Jeep, International and Bronco had managed. The manufacturer managed very successfully, to convince a great deal of Americans that the potential four-wheel drive was synonymous with more safety.

To be able to utilize this in normal operation, from 1973 onwards the Blazer could be had with permanent all-wheel drive, basically possible through an offset in the transfer case. It seemed, that at that time, it was simply considered chic to drive an all-wheel drive car, without taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of such a system. Indeed, the manufacturers put themselves in a bad position, because handling characteristics worsened together with the much softer suspension on both motorways and off road.

Although they did not make it easy for themselves with the centre differential and for the realisation of a locking with a selectable slip, they adapted the Jensen system. This was still so unsatisfactory, that from the next year onwards a transverse locking in the rear was offered as an option. The operating comfort suffered a little because of this, actually, the reason was to be found in the completely independent behaviour of the all- wheel drive.

The rest of the story is quickly told. The car grew bigger, became heavier and it seemed that at least the smallest V8 was unavoidable. In the meantime the consumption of the of the largest of them, according to the makers, had arrived at 8 mpg (approx 24 litres/100 km). As you've probably guessed, this development ended with the event of the second oil-price crisis, which in the 1980s, was followed by the birth of the Baby- Blazer. What however, can be determined, is that the Blazer had in fact entered new territory and the all-wheel drive, respectively the SUVs, had definitely opened the door for a larger clientele. 06/15

Imprint