The Old Days

[427TJ]

From late 1960s Hot Rod Yearbooks.

Jacked '67 Elco.


Jacked Nova on the prowl.


Nice Nova with straight axle and five-spokes!


Willys gasser with black CA license plates.


Morris Minor with straight axle! Didn't say what the engine was.


Another Brit, this one a Hillman, done the same way!


Altered wheelbase '65 Goat.


'62 Impala done like the Goat. Wheelies anyone?


Detail shot of straight-axled Nova. Budnate, taking notes???


Sold new at the Compton Chevy dealership (Los Angeles).


Grumpy's '67 L78.


Hemi '68 Barracuda with skinny Cragars all around.


Recently departed Mr. Four Speed working his craft.


Staging lanes were full of cool iron back in those days!


Mr. Jenkins and his '68 Camaro between rounds.


Heading down track off-throttle.


Indy Pace/Festival Camaro heading out onto the track. Is that a "Viva Montesa" t-shirt at the back of the Indy car?


Tom McEwen at speed with the slicks trying to come off of rims!


Wild Willie had to push it through the lights to win this event.


Jacked '64 Goat street machine ready to go hunting.


Steve McQueen flogging a dune buggy.


And then having to clean the sand out of the V-dub engine. Nice pants. (He looked cool in anything.)


427 street Cobra at Bonneville. Sunburst wheels. No oil cooler scoop or sidepipes. Scoop added to hood. Non-Shelby roll bar. It probably wanted to do 360s rather than go straight down the black line.

[Xplantdad]

Cool Bill!

How was the drive this afternoon?

[kwhizz]

Wow!!!!......Look at the ElCamino in the first pic........Can we say "Steering Geometry".......It's amazing what Fads did to common sense......But , As I remember.......the "Look" was everything....
Great Pic's...Thanks for Posting

Ken

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
How was the drive this afternoon?

[/ QUOTE ]

No burnouts, just 50+ miles of freeway running to blow out the junk and cobwebs. Took this pic when I got back. Running much better and no knocking. I'm going to order some Max Lead 2000 and run that in the gas until the '96 comes out for rebuild.

[Xplantdad]

Good deal on the drive

I LOVE the altered wheelbase cars! Speaking of AWB...anyone know of a good used 6-71 blower for sale?

Mark, who owns the AWB Orange Biscayne that I (often)post pictures of...wants to get a blower for his car...

[budnate]

[47Hammer]

Great shots, a lot of those street cars had California plates. On that Cobra at the Salt Flats....Where are the jack stands?

[markjohnson]

Thanks for the photos! I love the straight axle look and vibe. They just scream HOT ROD! I've NEVER been a fan of the current Pro Touring/G-machine fad and those old photos are as far away from that as can be. Call me a dinosour, but I've always preferred the fast, low tech approach of the sixties race and muscle cars.

[musclecarjohn]

Love that Mongoose picture...is that Charlie's '67 Pace car?

[retengw31]

Bill:
Not sure where that pic of the staging lanes was taken, but that 51 Stude looks suspiciously like Ted Harbit's 51 that I raced against at Milan Dragway in 1967. he still rows the gears in the Plain Brown wrapper and the red Tomato 63 Lark's at Pure Stock.

Here's why we needed straight axles under these "concoctions". This is my 61 Valiant with a 383 driver train that ran B/MP in the 60's. It had stock suspensin with the torsion bars wound all the way up to level off the car with the rear end. I put it on the street (even had snow tires on it) and it had a nasty habit of changing lanes whever it pleased. next step was a solid axle, but sold it when I got married. As Al Bundy said, "End of Life".