The look on the guys face at the end of this video is great, that is what this is about. Driving your car and having a great time.
Did the guy getting out of the 5 window have a tie on? There was something red there on the front between the lapels on the jacket. Very cool look into the past.
I cant stop watching this video. does anyone know if their is more footage. that 5w has full on remotivated me to finish the channeling on my 32.
If you want to watch a few hours of this Cy Sidebotham has a few DVDs of New England drag racing I have parts 1 and 2 the box cover has Hollywood Productions /WWWChannel-DV.com.This is all dragracing from the 50s to nid 60s all over the North Eastern area
I hear what you are saying and I think you are right on. They were probably just building cars and going fast. And I think you are right that they were not building "traditional" cars. They were building hot rods. I can't imagine that they had any qualms about (in fact dreampt about it) putting a brand new small block chevy in their hot rod. Heck if you could show them that a turbo 4 cylinder was faster, they would gladly run that! What is different on this board is that we are not trying to be like 50's hot rodders, we are trying to build cars like they built them then, not like they would build them now. .....but what do I know.... Mike
<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">That was totaly cool! Rags </TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on"> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The video at the start of this thread seems to be missig now, anyone know if its up under another name anywhere ?
The movie Ryan posted is exactly the sort of cars and guys I imagine were hanging out with the "Cool Cars, Square Roll Bars" guys out east in the late 50's/early 60's. Great stuff. Charlie
That Video is from Edmonton Alberta Canada, mid to late 50's. The Red 32 3 window was owned by Richard Chevaliers, also owner of the first speed shop in Edmonton.
I'm sure it was shot silent and probably in regular 8 with a fixed lense spring-wind (makes for short shots) Bell and Howell or Keystone camera with some nice slow 24 ASA film stock. Also you can see the glue splices between shots. Someone shot it, took it home and edited it by using a primitive set of rewinds, viewer, razor blade, glue and block splicer in a semi darkened room. That room probably hung heavy with the smoke from a filterless Chesterfield in the ashtray. Looks too flat and the light isn't right for East Coast USA.
Neat 'Clip'. definetly need the film projector sound. But not one of the 16MM or bigger projectors, one of the actual 8MM units. I'll have to find mine. Definetly looks like what I would immagine as a good time speed meet from that era. Jalopy Kid, Canada huh? Why not.
The 2 DVDs I posted about earlier By Cy Cybothom are personal films of the author of Cool Cars Square Roll Bars stills from those films are featured in his book.I'm sure I spelled his name wrong but I don't have it in front of me as I write this .
That's pretty flat for a coast - you sure it might not be Kansas? Great Bend even? Believe it or not, Kansas was pretty damn popular in the early drag racin' days... and I don't see a hill or a tree in that film.
That 8mm footage was shot in the fall of 1956 at DeWinton, Alberta, Canada. The purple full fendered deuce roadster belonged to "Racer" Ray Legris, the red coupe to Richard "Red" Chevalier, and the really channelled roadster (which was actually a Studebaker), belonged to "Zinty" Olmstead. The neat chopped and channelled deuce coupe was later repowered with a Chrysler Hemi, and got raced a bit at other race tracks here in Alberta. The one car was actually a dirt track sprint car, that had the rear body section removed to lighten it for drag racing. Alberta was an early leader in drag racing activities, also spawned a few well known guys ie-- Gary Beck, Dale Armstrong, Bernie Fedderly, Terry Capp, Gordie Bonin, Graham Light--need I say more!!!
That was a great piece on some early Alberta cars.I just got my new 'puter on line and that clip was the first "movin'" pic I've been able to view.Thanks for sharing.
Here's a pic of the deuce roadster seen in the 8mm footage at DeWinton, Alberta, Canada in the fall of 1956. The deuce ended up being the "Top Eliminator" at that event, "dusting off" the rest of the cars seen in the film. It was a rather historic event, in the fact that it was the first Provincial Championship race to be held in the province, and was really the first start of the sport in an organized form, to be held! In pre-timing equipment days, they had a string stretched across the runway with a simple cotter pin inserted into a clip, which when removed from it's contact, would break the connection, and put a finish light on. This would let the crowd on the starting line know when the winning car crossed the finish line! No speed or e.t. till a couple of years later. The chopped and channelled 34 coupe ran a set of rare ELCO twin cylinder heads (which I still have)
The Jalopy Journal
