Word: thunk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Clunks That Go Thunk...
...fascinating to read all about how those brilliant designers in Detroit design doors that go "thunk." Detroit has engineered other important sounds into my late-model car. There is an impressive "budda-deh-buddedeh" in my rear axle. There is a scintillating "chatcheteh-chatch-eteh" coming from a rear shock absorber, a soothing "toketah, toketah" from my radio antennae and a "tssshhhzbbbd" from my radio. And I may well have the only door that closes with a "puh-lox-ette-kuh." I have been assured by the service manager that, "dats duh way der bill...
Company chiefs like to test the thunks themselves. Chrysler Chairman Lynn Townsend sometimes drives subordinates to distraction by slamming doors repeatedly in the ear-splitting confines of a testing garage. American Motors Chairman Roy Chapin likes to go into his company's executive parking area to try out the thunk. Ford has a jury of product-development specialists to pass judgment on thunks...
...quality of the thunk depends on many factors: the rigidity of the car's body, the locks, the soundproofing in the door, the carpet on the floor. Heavier cars tend to have sturdier thunks, but lighter models can do well if aided by a few gimmicks. Special bracing inside the. door can improve the thunk, but technicians do not know just how or why. "There's a lot of black magic in this thing," says John Adamson, an American Motors' vice president...
...American Motors, says Adamson, is "a clump-not a clink, clatter or clunk, but a clump." Of course, he concedes, "we will never reach the ultimate sound." Undeterred, scientists continue to chase across farm fields by dark of night, stethoscopes in hand, in pursuit of the elusive, perfect thunk...