quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Yes, but imagine it as a four-door Galaxy 500 XL hardtop in maroon with a white vinyl top and the single four-barrel 410 horsepower engine. My Father bought one in September of 1963. His birthday was at the end of that month, and he bought a new one every other year. My Mother got the two year old one, and her old one got sold. They had a full length console with floor shift automatic (like the 66-67 Chargers) and bucket seats in the front. The back bench seat backs were done to simulate buckets, and my poor seven year old younger brother got to straddle that console.

That is definitely a looker, and with performance to match...

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
looked again. With that hood it should be one of the "Thunderbolt" cars...?

quote:

Originally posted by Woodrow S:
So what is the hp of the car on the opening page? 1/4 mile ET? Top speed? Rich, you ought to know this...you are from that era.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Actually, they did make both. Different classes in the old NHRA Super Stock/FX. FX evolved (degenerated...?) into the altered wheelbase cars and then to the current Funny Cars of today.

The major players were guys like Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick and his aluminum front end 421 Super Duty Catalinas, the Ramchargers, Dicky Harrell and Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins in the final 427 inch version of the original 409 cid bubbleback '62 belairs and biscaynes, and the Fords like this Galaxy for "Dyno Don" Nicholson and the Fairlane that Butch "the California Flash" Leal campaigned from 1960 to about 1968 when factory emphasis shifted to NASCAR and into "Pro Superstock" in 1969.

The wildest one I ever saw, was the kid down the road from us was five years older than me. He graduated in 1962, joined the Marines, did two tours in 'nam, and came home in late summer of 1964. The Chevy dealer had a '64 malibu SS (last year before they became chevelles, iirc) sitting on the lot with a 427 W-motor (348/409/427) with buckets, air and a power glide and floor shifter. That car was a real monster.

FYI, I graduated in 1967, and three months later Plymouth introduced the Road Runner (meep-meep) and Dodge the Super Bee. And. yes, I was a total gearhead back then. Still am, but I graduated to Jaguar XK-E's and the current XK-8 convertible, along with fast motorcycles.

Those really "were the days...".

Rich: I'm a little older.....graduated from high school in 1966......that (in my opinion), was the heyday of the muscle era. What I would give for an all black 1967 427 CI dual quad, 4 speed manual, Fairlane 500 XL !!! Cheers. Chip.

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
When they were introduced at the Paris Auto Show in 1962 a gentleman named Enzo Ferrari, who was known to have offered some rather nice looking cars himself, said was the most beautiful car, especially the convertible, that he had ever seen. There were a couple of other nice new models there, like the split-window Corvette and the 911, as well as the original 260cid Cobras.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Frostbit,

before the government (NHTSA) got into the people control via automobiles, aided and abetted by the insurance companies cars were designed by the factories to suit the customer's taste.

The new cars came out each fall of the year, about the time school started. Take the 1968-70 B bodies.
An entirely new design, clean sheet of paper car, the 1968 model, introduced the Road Runner. You could see them in dealer showrooms about Labor Day weekend.

For 1969, Plymouth changed the grille, the tail lights, and a few other things. Mid-year, they brought out the A-12, 6-Pak/6-Barrel.

For 1970, they made major changes, the hood was entirely different, the tail lights were way different, there was a dorky non-functional side scoop behind the doors, and the 6-Pak could be had as an option across the board.

For 1971, it was an entirely, all new body style.

Detroit was on a three year model schedule.

Back to the XKE. The Paris show was in September of 1962. All of the 1963 European models, pretty much, were introduced there at the show.
Still one of the most beautiful cars, if not the most beautiful car ever built. I would love to have another '67, last year, iirc, for the covered headlights, first year for the 4.2 litre version.

Shelby debuted the AC Bristol bodied small block Cobra there as well. Rumor has it that the very first conversion used the 221.
Shelby had the car available to every car magazine that late summer for a week. The magazine would flog it, and write the story. To make Shelby American look like a real builder, every time the car came back, they would replace the engine and paint it a different color. Must have worked.
The only reason you see mostly white with blue strips or blue with white is that countries used to be assigned two colors for their FIA racers. Blue and White were ours.