It’s a joy to listen to true blue car guys from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:
I attended a classic car show recently and realized why my generation was so happy compared to the current ones. Cars in those days were beautiful and the muscle car element had glorious sounds. Beginning in 1954 but especially with the advent of the 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air coup and Ford Fairlane coup you were looking at beauty enhanced by two-tone paint jobs. Some were a combination of pastels. Others were combinations of strong colors–red and black, yellow and black, red and white, and some were a combination of a strong color and a pastel–navy blue and French blue, pink and black.
In 1955 Chevrolet brought back the V-8 for its cars, and it was a performer. A stock ’55 Chevy V-8 was a match for our souped up 1950 Ford flatheads. What you could do to that 55 Chevy V-8 was something else.
So many of the cars, not only Chevrolets and Fords, but also Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Dodges had beautiful two-tone paint jobs and delightful styling. The cars also offered wonderful visibility. You could see where you were going, backing up, and what was on either side. For us what constituted safety was visibility, good brakes, and maneuverability.
The mid to late 60s into 1972-73 was the muscle car era. The cars had appealing design as they were designed by designers and not by safety bureaucrats. Some of the colors were outrageous–plum crazy purple, bright lime green, triple black, orange. Such outstanding colors usually indicated potent performance. How fast were the muscle cars of a half century ago?
Very. Plymouth Barracudas, Superbirds, Dusters, Roadrunners, Dodge Daytonas, Chargers, Ford Torinos, Oldsmobile Cutlasses, 442s, Pontaic GTOs, Firebirds, Chevrolet Chevelles, Cameros could compete in quarter mile times with the supercar of the era, a Lamborghini Miura S (1970). The muscle cars would leave in the dust James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, Ferrari’s 250 GT Lusso, and even beat fast cars from 20 and 30 years later such as the Lotus Esprit Turbo (1988) and Subaru’s 2001 WRX.
Saw a Ford Galaxy earlier circa 66 and on a roady to Harold the Brain’s homestead in Pineland yesterday there was a Chevelle on a trailer, I didn’t mind going 30mph behind them with the windows down and tunes going, the cows and horses were shaking a tail feather to a rock n’ roll beat, at least the horses.
Later we cruised around on the E bikes but they have no pickup in the gravel or grass when we had to get over to the side for the real vehicles.
Saw an Action Bronson looking guy on an Apehanger Harley, straight out of that song video Easy Rider.
This is just too much Easy Rider Freedom In Action for the comrades.
Breaking from Action Bronson:
Buddy Guy