Ascot Park, California. 1969 Figure-8 racing. I was all ready to call car #195 a Chevy Impala, but, upon further review, it looks to my untrained car spotting eyes as a 1959 Buick Invicta. If so this is 4,274 pounds of solid Detroit iron that cost $3,447 off the showroom floor. I still do like the 1959 Impala.
Cool pic. appears to be just a dumb ol' 58/9 Buick 4 dr...but that 55 Merc 2 dr. ht. is a different story...what a shame
I was there in 1984 for the demo derby night... saw a lot of nice older cars trashed. Edsels, Impalas... looked like nice cars.
I'll take a good old fashioned figure 8 demo-derby over the I-15/91 interchange at rush hour any day of the week. Those old demo-derby racers didn't all have cell phones.
'59 Buicks had canted headlamps. '60s, while very similar, had the headlamps laid out horizontally. That was the only way I could tell 'em apart. This one's definitely not a '58.
About the Merc hardtop...those car didn't turn to rust in 2 to 3 years as in Michiganso they weren't as scarce and were used like that. I was in the Air Force out there in '68/69 and was amazed at the 50's cars on the freeways and down in the neighborhoods. Finding nice rust free '58 Chevys for instance back home in the early 70's was almost impossible.
The 405/110 freeways are elevated in the Gardena, CA area, and in the late 1970s, I saw hundreds of vintage cars under the freeways and fenced off, like a impound yard. Hundreds of cars from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, sitting silent, protected from bad weather. I've never seen anything as spectacular since. I'm sure they are all gone now but wow, what a sight to behold!
The Jalopy Journal
