Motor Trend '71 Buyer's Guide on the 1971 Imperial

The only exterior change you'll find on the '71 Imperials is the addition of a couple of chrome escutcheon plates containing the eagle trademark to each of the headlight covers. The 4-door pillar sedan was dropped a year ago leaving only 2- and 4-door hardtops, and now the Crown series has been dropped, leaving these styles available only as LeBarons.    However, this seeming retrogression seems unimportant when you consider Imperial's new optional 4-wheel antiskid system for its standard power assisted, front-disc/rear-drum brake setup. This should certainly rate as the most important innovation in brakes since Duesenberg pioneered 4-wheel hydraulics back in 1920.    Experts have long known that the quickest way to stop is to keep all four wheels turning at a rate just short of locking up. With this technique the brakes are working at maximum efficiency and there	is some contribution from the tire treads. And as long as the front wheels are moving, you have steering control.    Faced with an emergency, however, most drivers step on their brakes as hard as they can and the car slides uncontrollably to a stop. Here, the brakes are doing no work at all. Once the wheels are locked, they cease to contribute. All that's stopping you is the rapidly disappearing rubber at the points where the tires are rubbing against the pavement.    Obviously the stopping distance required will be greater and because the front wheels are locked, you can't steer around the obstacle that caused your panic. It's not a good technique, but few people function at their best in an emergency. Even experts, in stopping contests where there is no emergency, have a difficult time in consistently "feathering" the brakes to an ideal, controlled stop.	Two years ago Ford, in conjunction with Kelsey-Hayes, announced an optional electronic system that worked on the rear wheels only. This was an improvement but it still didn't and doesn't preclude the front wheels from locking, particularly on a wet or icy surface. In a car so equipped, you stop in a straighter line than before but you still can't steer around an obstacle in a panic stop.    Imperial's new system, developed in cooperation with the Bendix Corp., works on all four wheels. While it is functioning it is impossible to lock the wheels no matter how hard you try. If it should malfunction, it's "fail safe." This means that the system will automatically disconnect itself and you'll still have ordinary brakes.    The system consists of a logic controller which is essentially the brain, sensors at each wheel to signal impending lock-up,

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