Motion Pictures The Dan Gurney 1961 Impala

Wonder which GM plant built that car. If it was built in the Atlanta plant there is a possibility that I could have had a part in building it as I worked on afternoon shift on the body construction dept.of Fisher Body Atlanta '58-'66.
In '61 I was installing and welding in the "tulip panel" between trunk lid and back glass plus putting about 8-9 spotwelds to tack on rear of roof panel to rear header bar, 34.5 cars per hr.

 

That a little under two a minute if my math is correct, that's hustling Dave.
When I toured the camaro/firebird plant in Ohio back in the late 80s I don't think the line was moving that fast.

 

Would that friend by any chance be Tubby ? I didn't know he parted with it.

 

There's photographic evidence of the Alan Mann Racing and Team Lotus Ford Cortina's racing in the British Championship as late as 1967 without cages or harnesses......and the Broadspeed and Alan Mann Ford Escorts in the 1968 Championship.....so it still wasn't a 'must have' regulation as late as that, even if some individual drivers/teams were making a personal choice to do so, as I've seen at least one photograph of a driver wearing a harness, as well as having a half cage' in a 1967 race.
My guess it was soon after this that it became a regulation, probably by 1970 looking at period photographs.

 

I got my first ‘61 Impala HT in 1964. It was power pack 283 with a 3 speed overdrive. A prior owner installed a column mounted Sun tach and three Sun gauges below the glove box. It also had. Hurst flor shift and a pleated package tray cover. The car was the first of many fawn beige cars I had. It was my daily driver, tow rig for a 6 cyl. GMC powered ‘55 gasser I was partnered on and hill climbed several times. I was inspired by Gurney. A year later I paired it up with a ‘62 Corvette, also in fawn beige. Looking back, I was in extremely tall cotton!

 

What a great story, Dan Gurney is an icon of racing of all kinds. I was at the Windernationals in 1961 when Dyno Dan Nicholson brought a 409 to the event. It had a crowd around it all the time. I don't recall if he won the class or not, but it was exciting.

 

Being a fan of Dan Gurney, this is news to me. I never knew about this Chevy of his. His talent was phenomenal. Dan was capable of driving anything to the max the 4 wheels under him could provide


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

And then some!

 

Wow, how cool is that!!!! We should be calling you lucky old man,

I always thought those 58-64 Chevrolets were way ahead of the times, with the steering linkage in front of the tires and that crazy three link rear suspension, if only they would of mounted the springs another way..
I remember my first drive in a car from that series, it was a 63 Chevy Bel Air, it had a 327 solid lifter engine with three on the tree shifter with the shifter levers shortened with special Hurst shift levers.. It just slid in and out of gear so smoothly and quickly even while power shifting. Bang-Bang-Boom you were gone... That car turned 13s.. That car went down the road nice and straight with hardly any corrections needed from the steering wheel.. The manual steering was so smooth and easy..

 

Yeah Tub sold it a few years ago and it ended up in England being restored.

 

Funny how two of such a rare car can end up in Sydney Australia. Here is a 409 4spd Impala on the central coast of NSW I looked at in the 70's It got sold & I have never seen it again.