Brian,
That picture is at the local lumber yard here in Watsonville. Whether it is urban legend or not, the caption under the picture tells about the owner who was allowed to load his car at Home Depot this way. Not only did the car become a fastback, but the rear struts punched their way right thru the mounting ponts.

Eric,
FWIW we has a 1973 Pontiac Le Mans wagon that had carried on 2 separate occasions,

27 60 lb sacks of ready mix concrete in the back cargo area. Wife said she got air a couple of times--(it had a 400 CID V8 with dual exhausts, passed everything but a gas station.


12 sheets of drywall on the roof rack. Car handled like crud, but no lasting damage was done either time.

Most cars built back then were overbuilt, can't say about the new ones--

__________________
Nate Stanley
(Currently Benzless)
1985 F-250 6.9l 170K
2009 SCION XB 36.5K
2003 LS430 78K
2012 Kubota B 2320