Jocko Johnson was done with his streamlined dragster and Dean Moon wanted it badly. It was all vanity. Dean bought the car, took out the huge Allison motor, installed a big block Chevrolet, and relabe... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
That's a cool vid, I was wondering when he drops the laundry I noticed the canopy popped up, was that to enhance drag so as to slow down faster?
God Tom Selleck is awesome!!! Definitely a cool commercial when you look past how cheesy and obvious the product insertion is though out the scene. Where's my lighter.....
Cool, but I don't get it - is Tom's character supposed to be the high-zoot owner of the car...? Why come he ain't driving it...? '555... the cigarette for rich folks who want to pay other people do cool stuff for them'.
I think they are building him as a character and showing the public how cool and well cultured he is... He can fly in on his leer jet, rub elbows with greasers, and appreciate speed. Of course, it also shows how versatile 555 cigarettes are - they can be appreciated by both schmucks like us and well to-do jet setters like Tom Selleck. That would have been my pitch as an ad man anyhow...
I never heard of 555 cigarettes, but then again I never smoked. Did anyone else notice the drivers name on the car?
The Moonliner is the coolest car ever! Love that commercial! How great would it be if Dean Moon was still around!
I love seeing the Moonliner in action and from what I've read Tom Selleck is a car guy. As far as the smoking is that a European commercial? I believe that tv cigarette ads in the US were banned in 1971.
What a "coincidink" ... Jocko dubbed his (work-in-progress) streamliner the "Triple-Nickle" in hopes that one day it would set a new wheel-driven land-speed record of 555 MPH (using his "PoweRRing 3" engine). Cool Ad ... Ryan, thanks for posting it ... Doug (Mazooma1), Thanks for sharing it.
Here's a couple of shots of some of Jocko's other projects...quite a guy. (Some are shown on the 555 buck/mockup.) Sorry, can't get it to rotate, hate computers, but I am good at some other stuff. Really..
Love this stuff. Thanks. Ryan Lions at the PDA Meet in 1967. Terry Clemens Photo. Emery Cook in the late Robert "Jocko" Johnson's fabled streamliner. Bob McClurg Collection. Emery Cook - "Jocko's Streamliner" - AA/FD - Sacramento, 1967 Photo by Leland Norene
Mazooma1, sorry. THANKS!!! Riverside Raceway 1959 - The Big Day for Jocko, he set the racing world on its ear with a record breaking ET of 8.35 Photo by Steve Gibbs
555 are Asian cigarettes. When I was in Japan in the 80's I saw folks like Paul Newman doing cig commercials.
I thought someone was going to get a cigarette jammed in their eye the way they were waving those things around at eye level. Cool video, thanks guys.
Learn something everyday.. I didn't know Gabelich drove for Moon. Jocko was a great metalman, but a victim of his own press clippings. Cool video- Thanks!
One of the coolest designs ever! The original, duplicate to this very car is now on trhe Big Island of Hawaii and is presently for sale!
There's one here in Australia as well, owned by a bloke called Norm Longfield. Norm raced it for a while, smashed it, and is now fixing it again.