Hot Rods Just how fast were they, back in the day?

This is from an early 50's Faucet little book

 

Well considering a lot of people still run cars like that I guess we'll just see. But its not like the speedos went past 100 anyways haha

 

,39 coupe w/ 265" flathead, T-5, 3.50 rear end, 2 Holley 94s, 3/4 race cam.
This would have been the hot setup in 1955.
1/8 mile time 11.3 @ 63MPH.

 

...and it's ahead of the VW bug!

 

I remember in high school (late '50's) most of the guys were talking about mph rather than e.t. Anything in the 90's seemed pretty darn fast.

 

I don't see comparing todays cars built to 50's spec are a fair comparison.

Too many improvements in all sorts of areas to being a fair comparison.

Would it be fair to say street cars of the 50's were slower than we all thought?

Not heaping shit on them rather trying to put it all into perspective.

I stood at the star t line at Castlereagh Dragway (Western Sydney 1966/7) when the first Australia broke 200MPH and went into the low 8's.

I don't think times tumbled as much as we all think until the late 60's early 70's.

 

I discovered a great way to make a terribly slow car feel terrifyingly fast is to drive it without floors or a windshield. Trying to shift, steer, keep your hat on your head, and keep your cargo from falling out of the car, makes you question how much faster you really need to go.

 

In the 60s stockers were limited to a 7 inch tire

 

Reading through some of the E.T.'s posted, I'm pretty happy with the best run I made through the 1/8th mile with my '63 Chevy II around 1971 or 72. It had a +.060" 230 6 cylinder, 3-speed, stock rearend gears (ratio?), Marsh "checkered flag" cheater slicks on stock 13" diameter wheels, 11.5 pistons, a Sissell cam that was probably w-a-y too wild, headers, but still limited by the stock 1 barrel carb. I was 18 or 19 years old and bought and built the car making $1.00 an hour working as a high school and eventually trade school student. Best E.T. was 9.30 but I don't recall the speed. I was a pretty pleased young lad! Loved pulling into the local hang-out with the headers uncorked in the tiny town where I still live.

Wish I still had the car!

Lynn

 

February 1955

Hello,

As the historic printed ads and results pointed out, the times during the 1955 days varied by how much and how little anyone worked on their car/motor. Similar to today. The more you spend, the larger you go or how much you modify your motor/hot rod, the results will obviously be better than stock.

Howard’s Automotive in South Central area of early Los Angeles showcased what is and could be done with just a cam, or other additions to the stock motor for an early sedan. A cam only definitely improves the speed and times. But the more anyone spends for more modifications, the faster an old sedan will go down the quarter mile.

In the early 50s, So Cal drag strips did not have E.T. times, so there are no comparisons to today’s E.T. times. It was top speed for a while until the Chrondek Clocks began to get installed. Then the E.T. times went along with the top speed in the quarter mile.

So, as usual, the 1955 times were not as fast as today or even compared to 5 years later in 1960. Improvements in technology, chassis set ups, traction, and of course, larger motors all played a part to increase times and speeds . It is difficult to compare one to the other. Especially, if a 1/8th mile time and speed are used… it is ½ the overall distance for equivalent times. 11 seconds in the 1/8 mile is a lot slower than 11 seconds in the ¼ mile, that is obvious.

Jnaki

But, drag racing gave young teenagers something to prove to themselves and/or to their friends. Perhaps before my brother bought his 1951 Oldsmobile Yellow sedan, he saw this advertisement from L.A. area C-T Automotive in North Hollywood. The ad does not say how much the installed crank made the size of the Oldsmobile motor, but for a 4250 pound stock body sedan to go 98 mph is quite something. It was done in C/Gas Coupes and Sedan class, no less…!

Of course, GB Richter was an early pioneer in drag racing and his builds are something over the history of drag racing.

February 1955 C/Gas Class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjRSpxDwNxA

Teenagers cruising around in a 1951 Oldsmobile sedan just two miles away from Lion's Dragstrip in 1956-57

My brother's 51 Olds Sedan was fast, but without modifications, it was not as fast as G.B. Richter's Oldsmobile sedan. Time and money, deterrents to going fast anytime, especially during those early hot rod days, for teenagers.

 

The 9.3 was 1/8 Mile. Per a 1/8 to 1/4 Mi. conversion I found online it should have run about 14.51 in the quarter, but who knows how accurate or inaccurate that is. Bottom line is nobody races calculators, or for that matter dynos.

Lynn

 

My "64" Corvette coupe, 300 horse,4 spd.,411 gears ran 11.70s -11.80s at right around 100mph.
That was in the 1/5 mile track in New Castle, PA. back in 1965. Always wondered what the numbers would be in the 1/4 mile. I ran Casler slicks and Jardine headers. I will say the car was a freak for only being a 300 horse. I ran those slicks on the street every day. Two other cars I had, I ran slicks all the time. Yea, I know everybody says not to, but I'm still here at 75.

 

Your right
Our club member had a Chevy coupe cut down to a roadster with a full race Chevy 6 and ran 99mph in 1954

 

Bill Stanley turned 13.87 at 91.38mph in 1958 in the gasser that still survives today. I was honored to be the custodian of that car for a while... I still miss it.

 

When was that picture taken?

 

Thunderbolts and 427 Falcons ruled our little 1/4 mile strip.
WHO KNOWS what kind of times they turned....we had a flagman on the line and a 'PERSON" at the finish with a flash light for god sake! He would 'flash' which side won and the announcer would tell us....(and everybody believed him!)
6sally6

 

Don Montgomery has written lots of books on the golden era of hot rodding. I remember reading in one of his books he addresses the question of "how fast were they?" and surmises that a hotted up roadster in the late '50s, early '60s would likely keep up with the best cars of the Muscle Car Era. He was speaking of serious hot rods ready for the trip to the dry lakes.

 

That agrees with a comparison of 1/8 mile and 1/4 mile records in the back of NHRA's National Dragster magazine.

To convert an 1/8 mile e.t. to its equivalent 1/4 e.t I have been dividing the 1/8 mile times by 64%.

Example: a car running a 6.40 in the eighth is likely capable of a 10-flat quarter.

 

In 65 the bad ass of the day was the griffin it was touted as 0 to 60 in 3.8 secs. Friend bought one and took the 289 up to 347 and put it around a telephone pole nothing left of the car or Danny. It was one scary car. I had a sunbeam tiger at the time nothing compared to the griffin.

 

I can vouch for the griffin as I owned one. Super light fiberglass car built on a light weight chassis. Hipo289 with a top loader. Never could get traction in that car! Would light the tires shifting hard into second and third gear. Why the hell did I sell it? Oh remember now, on strike at work for 14 weeks and bills had to be paid. The 32 pick up had to go too. Thankfully I was able to keep my 34

 

I was watching Wayne Carini (Chasing Classic Cars) the other night and he found a Griffin somewhere. On the show, they said the car weighed less than 2000 lbs. If true, that explains a lot.

 

That's a Griffith.

 

I would much rather watch the older cars do 12 to 14 second quarter mile times then the new cars doing 8 to 10 seconds... I loved watching Bill Jenkins, Don Nickelson Chevys, early 60s Fords, Gas Rhonda and of course those early Pontiacs, Oldsmobile's.

 

Have fond memories of my buddies and I in early sixties taking whatever we drove to Atco dragway and thrashing the cars in the lower classes. None were especially fast....50 flathead Ford, 52 Chevy, 55 four door Ford, 55 Chevy. Fastest car at that time was my buddies father's car 283 column shifted four door. That is until he blew the trans and his father took a shit fit knowing he was racing his daily driver. Non the less we had a blast in 18 second cars.
Things changed dramatically when we graduated to SS Chevelles, GTO's and big block Fords. Then there was the Hemi Cuda my buddy bought after losing his leg in VN. Fastest street car I was ever in.

 

With me I hate seeing EVERY car doing wheelies now. Back in the day they were infrequent and it took an exceptional car to do one and it was something great to see. Now blah.........

 

I had a new galaxie that looked exactly like Gas Ronda's except mine was not a lightweight. He went 12.50's and I went 14's.