Vintage shots from days gone by!

A real beauty on the back of the Caddy

 

If you want to show off your beautiful Dutch flowers or tasty fruits and vegetables in a parade, You better stick them on a solid base.........

 

Hey Swi,

In 1961, my dad got an offer he almost took. His best friend owned a service station in downtown Los Angeles. That friend always had contacts in the auto industry. One example was his close relationship with Vic Edlebrock over the years. But, one day my dad came home and told the family that he was going to sell his 57 Buick and drive a Chrysler. A Chrysler??? Sell the Buick??? My brother and I were flabbergasted…he had never driven anything other than Buicks from 1946 to that day. Since he always took his Buicks to the service station, he met several interesting people there. His friend introduced him to a guy who represented Chrysler Motors.

They were coming out with a new turbine motor in a modified Chrysler and wanted to have a series of unknown people with families drive them around as test vehicles. When he came home to tell us the news of the offer, we were all puzzled at the thought of driving around in a Chrysler, let alone an experimental one like a turbine powered model. It took my brother and I five minutes to say, “Go for it, Dad…” At least, we would get to drive it around our hot rod/cruising grounds in and around Bixby Knolls. That would be cool and raise some eyebrows on the Cherry Ave Drags…

My mother was aghast at the idea. She said it was going to be a rental car as we would not own it. My dad said it was going to be loaned to him for 6 months to a year. She told us that she would not be caught dead in that Chrysler. No amount of convincing arguments would sway her. She told us that she did not like the design as it was strange looking.

We had great visions of us cruising around and taking it to school some days… That idea got shut down fast, as our dad told us that only HE could drive the car under the contract conditions. (with the families in the passenger seats) Something about a closed or contained test subject matter.

Jnaki

So, since we could not drive the car except around the block or into the garage, we also nixed getting the experimental Chrysler. Our dad tried everything possible, including bribes, but my brother and I sided with our mom to just say no.

So, in the next year, Chrysler did come out with a public version at the dealers. We had nothing to do with the test drives the previous year. In 1963, my dad bought the latest, new Buick Riviera model for his next Buick in a long line of cars. He was a die hard, Buick man to the end, many years later.

 

Hats off to your Mom! I agree with her ,Chrysler was always at the bottom of the big three and now they are just another foreign car company. The best thing they ever had was a few cool wheel covers(spinners and cones) and a grille or two for the Kustom car guys. As far as the Hemis go, ask the Nopar guys what the tail lights look like on a 70 455 Buick GS look like---THEY KNOW!!!

 

I have not seen too many 455 Buicks in REALLY fast cars --like top fuel and funny cars and have you checked out the latest Buicks, they all come from China or Germany (my wife has one).

Roo

 

Been checking out the stuff on Stiffspeed a bit lately????

Roo

 

jerry-19671 by mactexas, on Flickr

 

W. Burnside St., Portland, OR

 

Austin, TX

 

Hey Bomb, thanks for the memories. Your shot of Cactus Pete's is less than a mile from this shot of my Dad, little Brother and I at about the same time.

 

More Ramchargers

 

Choppers




Crowd watching drag racing at Eagle Mt. Fort worth texas

 

Porter & Ries AFD, from Pomona, at 1963 NHRA Winternationals. Courtesy of Mel Bashore



Potts & Son



Prufer at Fremont



Puty Cat Eate John Jibson's flathead dragster in 1955 at Kingdon. Courtesy of Don Jensen



again

 

Used to be a Youngblood's on Timberland Drive in Lufkin, Texas back in the 60's, we ate there instead of KFC. KFC's still there, Youngblood's is long gone.

 

Someone has a sense of humor as they have put a Bardahl sign on top of the STP Oil/Gas Treatment display.

 

The two in dallas were like this every Sunday at lunch time. Dad took mom and all 4 kids every Sunday after Church.

 

#98HM is one of Martin Tanner's specials.

 

Great shot of the Martin T4. You stumped me on #49- what's that?

 

Originally built by Bob Eagleson and was a Kurtis /Chevy with a Mistral body that later went to Josh Saslove and then to become the Aligator Spl. both of which I've posted pictures of in earlier posts. Though this is kind of a neat shot of it apparently blowing up.

 

^Looks just like my mother's handwriting....

 

Jim Gardner made it to Indy in 1964 too, and took a few pictures.

 

And the last of the Jim Gardner photos.

 

You know, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app