.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

The Days When Car Companies Staged Street Races And Used Them To Sell High Performance Cars Were Better Than Today (Video)


The Days When Car Companies Staged Street Races And Used Them To Sell High Performance Cars Were Better Than Today (Video)

This video is so good. So good that it makes me want to just grab every person that reads BangShift and say, “WATCH THIS…SO GOOD….SO, SO DAMNED GOOD!” I do realize that in doing that I would be violating laws and personal space on several continents, so it ain’t gonna happen but this is such a good damned video. What is so good about it? For starters it is a 1963 commercial for Chevrolet promoting the high performance (read drag racing) prowess. Instead of just yapping about how bad ass the W-motor in the car is, they go the extra mile and take their top shelf performance Impala with the hot 409, four speed, and cliff face steep gear ratio and put it up against the 1963 Ford Galaxie with its hottest engine, trans, and axle. The Ford is powered by a 406ci, tri-power topped, 405hp mill. Why was the Chrysler left off the ad? I think we all know the answer to that question. Like a lawyer asking a question he knows the answer to, racing a car they knew they could beat was the way this was going to work for Chevy.

Anyway, as you’ll see, they pit the cars against each other in standing start drag races and the in a 50-80 mph acceleration test to look at “passing power”. All of this is kindly masked by the disembodied and friendly voice of the announcer that makes the whole thing seem “scientific”. The basic science here is that when young guys with money could see that their cash was better spent at a Chevy dealer because they could spend their Friday nights on the street and Saturday and Sunday days at the strip romping on Fords and most everything else (except the Chryslers?) they’d buy the faster car. Call us crazy but the “professional” driver shows at one point looks a lot like Dan Gurney. Is that him or are we wrong?

I’m stopping there and demanding that you watch this because my words do nothing to covey the overt coolness of this whole thing. One of the neatest period performance videos I have ever found on YouTube and I have found LOTS of them.

(Despite being whooped up on in this video, I really want a tri-power 1963 Galaxie and have for years…so there!)

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE 1963 FORD ON 1963 CHEVY VIOLENCE FROM….1963!


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0