So, how fast did they really go in 62?

I was sitting here thinking (that always means trouble). I was 6 years old in 62. What I would like to know is:

How fast would the average guy with a hot rod run a quarter mile in? Don't want to hear no bull shit here, don't want to hear about the record holders. Was a 15 second quarter mile run a good doable run, or was it almost unheard of except for the elete racers, or would you have had your ass handed to you? Be honest here, how fast were you guys really going in 62? We are not talking a full time race car here, something you would see on the street.

I know that in my time (early 70s), most hot rod guys were really running mid to high 13s and a low 14 was an acceptable number. A mid 13 street car was FAST. Of course, when you were bsing the kid on the street, your car had to be that 10 second race car. If you could spin at least one tire, when leaving the parking lot, most kids would believe those 10 second car stories.....
Gene

 

1962 ???
I do not know but in 1965 I had a 55 Chevy 150 2 door that ran 13.4 to 13.7 fairly regular ... @ the 1/4 mile drag strip. It was my high school Street Car ... and I was 17 ...

327 300HP engine with a 327-365Hp solid camshaft ... a Edelbrock 3Cb and a 3310 Holley ( 780 ) and a 4 speed ... 4.11 rear end. Hedman headers ...

The 55 was light ... it was a 150 business man coupe ... no radio, no back seat, and the rear windows did not go up/down ( all from the factory )

 

My brother had a 32 Ford tudor, 327, dual quads, roller cam and a 37 Packard transmission. It was really fast then, ran mid 12s. Our B/A 27 T RPU ran the best 10.03 with a real built 327, stroked,roller, quads, 4 speed, Olds rear. My 50 Ford flatty with 3 carbs was near 17.99 on a good day!......OLDBEET

 

We ran nowhere near what they do now even though we cheated a great deal. My N stock flathead ran 18's, killed them Poncho straight eights .

 

That answer dates you. I also ran a 53 in N/S, can't remember E.T.'s with it. It got off the line in a hurry with 5.14's though, went through the traps at 4500. Ran cheaters, Hurst, homemade headers, 49-51 Olds bars for traction bars and of course a Sun tach on top of the dash

 

In 1957 I had a '57 Olds 2-door sedan, all stock except for header plugs and a 3 speed LaSalle floor shift. Its best run was 88.58 in 15.56. A fast street car was anything that ran over 90; Ivo's T was the fastest street driven car I knew of at 117.

 

1969 - I remember a track regular that had a 65 Galaxie 427 that could crank out high 12's to low 13's and he was "the man". My 53 Plymouth Mayflower would streak down the track in the 28-30 second range! Them flattie sixes were fast! The announcer once made a comment about timing me with a calendar.

 

when did you run that car phat rat?

 

Since you are focusing on 62:

Dyno Don did 12.84 at the Winternationals in his 409 bubble top.

Motor Trend tested a 61 409 Impala and got a 15.31 and with a 4.56 gear change got a 14.02.

I think the serious guys and backed pros were high 12's to 13's and the above average racer was probably running a high 13 to 14 second car in many cases.

Stock grandma cars were probably 16 second or higher cars.

I know looking at little page books you see articles saying this hot rod did 15 something often in the 50's and as you get to the 60's I have noticed the number being more often in the 13's or 14's.

I think I read everybody freaked in 62 when Proffit drove a B Dragster with a high 9.

As you keep getting deeper in the 60's the times kept creeping down more and more on average.

 

64-66

 

I can remember the first 7 second run for a Top Fuel dragster in 1966 here in ColoRODo at Continental Divide Raceways...not quite 200 mph...that was unheard of at the time...

R-

 

...Duece Roadster...I think you should build a replica of that 55...got any pics of it?

 

I was the flagger at the Golden Triangle Drag Strip in 1960 and the hottest stocker was Butch Brasfield who was running consistent mid 14's in a 56 210 sedan. He just played with everybody.
I had a cad powered Henry J that ran 12.90 in A Gas and was Fla. A gas champ for one week until Ollie Olsen out of Miama came up and blew my doors in.

 

I agree with all the above, also am among those "the older I get the faster I was guys. high 12's were the fast street guys. low 13's would get the job done on most stop light drags. My packard powered 51 Olds 88 club coupe was an exception it only ran low 13's at the strip but was seldom beaten on the street. at the strip it was 6 grand in 4th gear just past the 1/8 mile marker. on the street it would launch so hard I could beat bikes out of the hole and pull 12 sec. car 3 lengths in a city block and hit the brakes lights and the race was over. 4 speed Hydro with a 3.20 low gear coupled with a 4.88 locked rear end. that car would of been perfect if I had the money (at the time) for a 4.30 or 4.11's

 

In 1957 I bought a new factory-built S/S Chevy -- 210 two-door post, no back seat, radio and heater delete, HD suspension, six-lug wheels and truck brakes, three-speed CR transmission, HD Positraction with brown springs and 3:78:1 R&P, select-fit solid-lifter 283 with two WCFBs, 2-1/2 inch ramshorn exhaust . . .
Ran 14.1-14.4 seconds at 97-99 mph at San Fernando in S/S class (1957-1959).

The Chevy was my sole transportation -- a true daily driver. The odo showed 44k when I sold the car in 1959 after 22 months. Never -- repeat never -- lost a street race, even against claimed 13-second hot rods.

BTW, the price was $2900-plus, with over $900 of that for the only option, listed as "Performance option."

Mike

 

This thread is really cool.

 

...those were called 'Black Widows'...factory race cars for Nascar...

 

Had a '61 Pontiac with slightly modified 389 tri-power, 4 speed, and positraction (or whatever Pontiac called it). Supposedly was 360 HP factory stock. Don't know what HP the bore, cam, and intake cleanup might have added. It ran in the low to mid 14's in 1963/64 and was my daily driver. With better traction and with a better driver, probably could have run in the 13's.

 

Some called them Black Widows, but at the time in SoCal, where they were a couple dozen being drag raced reguarly they were called "super stocks" in reference to the then-new class they raced in. As I recall, S/S came into being as a class because the Chevys, racing in A/S, were so much quicker than other A/S cars that even the Chevy guys thought it was unfair. San Fernando Drag Strip -- the "Pond" -- usually attracted a dozen or more S/S "Black Widows" on any given Sunday.

In spite of the marketing "mandated" higher output rating for the FI Chevys, the carburetted S/S cars were generally quicker in drag racing.

Years later, after I was long gone from drag racing, I learned that I once had myself a "Black Widow."

Mike

 

In 1965, I was 16. I made my own HURST type front mount and put a `58 chev 283 in a 40 ford coupe. removed the top of the frame X, and let the 3sp stick trans sit in the center with a big u bolt holding it down. It was hard on cluster gears.

I made my own tow bar out of 1&1/4 " galv pipe...welds looked like duck shit.

Towed the car to Sooner Raceway between Enid and Ringwood, OK They wouldn`t let me run against anyone cause I didn`t have a scatter shield. they put me in C Gas. Time only... I dont think I broke the 20 sec barrier.

I made My own dumps out of an old driveshaft tube. I thought since it made a lot of noise, it had to be fast... Oh, well I had a lot of FUN!!!

Tom T.

 

About 1966 my '39 Ford Coupe with SBC and cross ram manifold 4 speed ran 13.2 don't remember the speed but I think around 103 or so. Island Dragway, NJ

 

This makes three of us that ran N/S and mine was a '53 too. I can't remember if it ran 18's or 19's in that configuration, but the inline overheads we had to run against were quicker. Then we switched to AHRA where we could change the cam and carb, but not the intake manifold or much else. ETs went to the 17's and we set the MPH record at 76.04 mph. The AHRA class was something like D/S, Formula 7. Nothing but flatheads and we could beat all comers.

 

N/S then was a blast! Mine was a 49 coupe. The tech inspectors didn't dig too deep in those days. If the flathead idled fairly stock they would just look at it and let her through. We'd do stuff like run a generator with no field coils, water pumps with no vanes, and so forth. Fun kid stuff. I think I had 100 bucks in it. I don't believe I ever got into the 17's.

 

My first new car was a 66 Chevelle 2 door 300 deluxe post car w/
275 hp 327 w/4bl ,4 speed, HD suspension Pkg, Duel Ex, 3:50 10 bolt Posi rear. I installed Hooker headers and M & H slicks.
I drove the car to Marten US 131 Dragway. I uncorked the headers, put on a set of M&H slicks and went RACING!!!! in C /S
As I remember it ran low 15's high 14's at just over 100 mph. I broke the 4 speed on the last run of the summer.
I replaced the 4 speed w/a highly reworked PG. & a high stall speed conv. and I found a 12 bolt 4:11 rear end.
To keep the rpms. up off the line I had to pump the M&H's up to 45 lbs. It dam near pulled the front wheels off the ground w/a set of uplock front shocks
The vary first run was in the high 13" but the mph. at 6000 rpms. was still just over 100. With a little work on the heads it run med. 13's. The mph. did not improve much.
This car was driven to work every day and raced on the weeked. What a blast it was on the street at a stop light.

 

Mostly I remember we were concerned about MPH! Hard to get a good ET with a flag start. Then Crondex (sp) X=Mas trees came along. Whole new ball game....OLDBEET

 

I didn't have any trouble with the OV inlines. The only one that could beat me was a 49-50 Mopar 3 window flat 6. He'd get a fender lenght at the start and that's the way it always ended. Those homemade headers were fenderwell headers, jacked up with Rambler rims and 5.90/15 VW tires.

 

This is COOL. That is the stuff I was/am looking for. Real racing with numbers.

Kinda wanting to get an idea how my "current" ride would have stacked up with the compition in 62, or there abouts. Do you guys think the tires at the time were the biggest shortcoming?
Gene

 

With my 49 flathead coupe I used to get my ass handed to me by a Hudson. There were a lot of stock class cars running then . We had a lot of fun when it didn't cost much. Ran an A/G Olds powered Stude coupe in those days. All junkyard stuff. Really had to do a lot of backyard engineering for sure!

 

got my first job in1960, dec1960 hotrod mag had artical about new 61 fordsw/375 hp,390 cu in engine garanteed 150 mph,this was when NASCAR was real.all the parts had to be avalable on showroom cars. i bought one of these cars, came w/booklet w/ all the special part #'s so icould order corect parts ,had 3spd/overdrive,4.11 rear.best time i ran was 14.3 @ 103. cars w/ 4.56 rears ran a little better. there was little traffic then and we ran a lot of top end [10 -15 miles]so they had to be geared for both. speedo marked 130 ford would over 120 in 2nd gear od,would bury speedo in 3rd,,,all this on cheap retread tires..had 45 tickets when i got married in 62..still buildin HOTRODS not streetrods.. cought VD in 54 [vehicular desease] cant get rid of it........boo

 

I wasnt even a twincle in 62 but....My dad and i are restoring a 1934 chevy sedan delivery that ran at all the northeast strips from 59-63 and i actually have a time slip from dover 61 for a 10.89 at 129 mph...but this car ran a scott injected blown 409....in b/gs...not really a street car...