(first posted 3/14/2016) With all the hoopla last month about the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl, I thought it might be fun to spin the clock back to see what car enthusiasts would have been reading 5 decades ago. So, literally 50 years ago from right now, the March issue of Car and Driver would have been on the newsstands. As Yohai71 has done with his enjoyable Road & Track posts, I’ll start with selected ads and then move on to articles during the course of the week. Hope you all enjoy the nostalgia trip!
I love the cover. In 2016, there are two classic muscle cars that are widely acknowledged to stand atop the pack – the Hemi powered Belvedere/Satellite and Coronet/Charger. But they are not included in this test. This gives an idea of how Chrysler was viewed in the wider world of 1966. GM and Ford really did seem to soak up most of the love back then.
If I recall correctly, Chrysler was approached about making a Hemi-powered Belvedere or Coronet available for the test. The corporation allegedly refused on the grounds that the competition’s cars would be heavily “massaged” to give a good showing. Those fears turned out to be well-grounded.
Of course, there is also the possibility that the corporation realized that the Hemi’s strength was not in 0-60 mph tests. It worked best at high speeds. VERY high speeds, but that wasn’t the focus of this test.
Also remember that the 440 cubic inch V-8 had just been introduced for 1966, and its availability was limited to the full-size cars during its inaugural year.
Car and Driver had tested both a Hemi-powered Plymouth Satellite and a Dodge Charger in 1966, and knew the capabilities of each car – and the Hemi engine – quite well.
The cover road test is almost as notorious as the one 2 decades later when they took some sports sedans to Baja and drowned a Maxima in a flash flood.
Suspicious of the above-average performance of most of these “supercars”, subsequent investigation revealed that they had been supertuned to within an inch of their lives.
It was half expected that John Z. would have had the boys at Royal Pontiac go over the GTO, that was a well known performance dealer. But the Fairlane had been massaged by Holman & Moody! The Cyclone by AFAIR the Wood Brothers! The Chevy I can’t remember, but somebody like Yenko had taken to that one. Every one a ringer.
In the spirit of fairness, they gave the nod to the 442, thinking it had been tweaked the least, and later discovered that even it had a non-stock suspension.
For many years, C&D’s record for the fastest 0-60 time was held by a full-size 1968 (?) Pontiac Catalina 2+2. Their blatently modified test car ripped off a 3.9 sec run, about twice as fast as a regular production model. I recall it turned out to have a built 421 installed by Royal Pontiac in place of the visually identcal 389.
I recall it was a ’65 not a ’68. No matter, it was still a ringer!
I think that was a Pontiac specialty. I recall a 1963 test of hot compacts where a Tempest 326/3 speed smoked a Studebaker Super Lark with the supercharged 289, 4 speed and shorter axle. Pontiac’s use of a single V8 block was certainly good for disguising a higher displacement ringer.
The “ringer” car was the 1964 GTO that was used in the (in)famous comparison test with the Ferrari GTO. Jim Wangers has confirmed that Pontiac swapped the 389 V-8 for a 421 V-8, without telling Car and Driver.
If I recall correctly, the 1965 Pontiac Catalina 2+2 had an axle ratio that would have made the car unacceptable to 99 percent of drivers. That is one way it achieved those acceleration results.
According to Brock Yates’ book Sunday Driver, the Cyclone was set up by Bud Moore Engineering of Spartanburg, SC.
The MG Mitten ad brought back memories. I loved it when their catalogs arrived in the mail, The best part was the artwork by the great Dave “Big” Deal.
I’m guessing that “C&D” banned any Mopar entry since they knew the gap between Mopars and the others was just too wide to leap?
🙂
It would be almost 2 years after this issue appeared on the newstands that I would buy my 1st issue of C&D. In 1969 the magazine would round up these same models and include their Mopar “counterparts”. Again, it was suspected that GM had slipped the magazine a couple of “ringers”.
As a “budding” fan of smaller cars and eventually British sports cars, I too enjoyed the Haan and Mitten ads.
I’m astonished that anybody would think of taking a rear wheel drive sports car to the ski hill!
But I suppose kidding aside, I have to admit I certainly prefer AWD or FWD in the snow.
Rather depends on the car and I suppose the tires. Our 92 Miata was actually quite good in the snow, as long as it wasn’t deep..(4″ ground clearance…). I don’t recall my parents having any particular problems with our 72 Vega either, and we lived at the top of a long hill and had a steep driveway.
But my 87 Mustang was absolutely horrid in snow, if anything worse than the stereotypical RWD car.
Just more proof I was born a few decades too late!
+1
Many of the original owners of these cars had their experience of ownership cut short by a request from Uncle Sam that their services were needed in Vietnam Nam. Be grateful that you were born when you were.
I love that Fairlane GTA ad, (over)optimistic as it is.
Actually, 50 years ago, the April, 1966 issue would have been on the stands. Magazine publishers are notorious about having next month’s issue on sale by the end of the first week of the month prior. Still, this is terrific!
Yes, you are right–April would have been hitting now. But maybe it was still on a back rack somewhere 🙂
I love the picture of the Mustang “drifting” (possibly not intentionally so) around the corner on its Koni shocks. “Mr. Shelby, Mr. Carroll Shelby, you are wanted on the back stretch.”
I’ve had that ad on my wall for years! That’s part of the reason I added GT front springs and a 1″ sway bar to mine, although it’s still no handler.
That isnt drifting thats high speed cornering done right, Drifting is handbrake activated slow speed power sliding and the slowest way around a corner yet devised.
Ah, 1966, back when looking like a ’41 Ford was a bad thing!
Yes, it was much better to look like a shrunken ’55 Chrysler 300!
‘Classic Car Wax’ was still being marketed with the exact same tin and graphics well into the late 70s and early 80s. Don’t know where the product was positioned in the 60s, but in the late 70s, it was one of the cheapest waxes available on the market. As a kid, I used to wonder why their graphics looked so primitive compared to the latest products like ‘Raindance’ or ‘Blue Poly’. This helps explains it.
I loved the RainDance packaging and ads back in the 80’s. So dramatic! And kinda sexy!
I think my favorite ad is the trippy Saab one. 🙂
Isn’t Masten Gregory the guy who would bail out of a car if he knew it was about to crash?
GN, you replaced me impeccably. These are great ads.
I’m looking forward to that “Super-cars” test. Masten Gregory was a master and I’d love to read his insights on those cars.
But first, better contact the Automobile Racing Club of Florida and reserve a ticket to Sebring- March 25th is just around the corner!
Thanks Yohai! Your series was awesome and a great inspiration.
What’s up with those crazy camber angles on the front and rear wheels of that 426 Hemi Belvedere? Bad airbrushing?
Actually those camber angles may not be that crazy
If you watch an older Mopar of the torsion bar era cornering with enthusiasm they look pretty much like that.
Though there may well have been some doctoring of the photo.
Love the picture either way.
OOHHH! If only I could have talked my mother into the HEMI Belvedere instead of the 383…
Ok, this is how the cover of the car magazines used to look. There was a variety of different types of articles on all types and brands of cars. Multiple car comparison tests were always fun. Today? Every time I pick up a Car & Driver or Motor Trend what do I see? Some variation of a Mustang and Camaro comparison or another version of the Corvette. Ok, they all do between 3.9 and 5.4 seconds 0-60. I get it. They’re fast.They handle well. I get that too. Blah. Blah. Blah. I’m sure they still do some comparison tests but they are rarely ever featured like this old magazine from 1966. Am I the only one that is bored with the car magazines and to another extent the cars of today??
Completely agree! Though I still subscribe to the buff books, I must confess that I’m rarely interested to spend much time reading them. Each title now covers all the same cars with the same sort of juvenile posturing, primarily emphasizing only sports cars, super high-end luxury cars/SUVs and exotics. They are all pretty boring actually.
My favorite enthusiast magazine today–by far–is CAR from England. It’s pricey to get stateside, but I think well worth it as the writing is witty and informative, a broad range of vehicles are covered and the photography is excellent.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one that feels this way – and I almost forgot – the other car that usually graces the covers of the car mags today is some sort of BMW.
You’re not alone. I’m down to HMN & Collectible Automobile. I’ve also stopped reading camera and computer magazines. All of these are appliances now and advance by small degrees, Most of the automotive news in the last 15-20 years has been in the Business magazines. The rest is just “Pepsi/Coke” opinion pieces. C.C. is now where I read most of my automotive stuff today!
+1 on Collectible Automobile – its the only one I bother with.
+2.
And the covers are so boring these days. C/D? Red car, white background, with lots of flashy text to try and make it interesting. Back in the seventies and eighties I could tell the new issue at a glance. Not nowadays.
One third more zzzzZAP. Is that a relative of Zoom-Zoom?
Also, that Volvo ad looks like the work of the same firm that did the famous self-deprecating VW Beetle ads. It’s got the same humor and even the same look.
I had that SAAB 3 cyl for a year or so… it could have used a lot more zzzzZZAP!
Great car in snow or on dirt roads though!
So it looks like I’ve found out the answer to a question I’ve been asking since 1971: who made/marketed the walnut shift knob I bought (along with a beauty of a tire pressure gauge I still use weekly) new for my VW Bug? Mine is identical to the one featured in the AMCO ad. It rests in the back of my kitchen junk drawer now and was last used in my Dad’s Ghia coupe in the late 90’s. Many thanks for posting that ad!
Love all these. For some reason I’m fixated on the “Deweko Electronic Lock” in that MG Mitten ad. Can anyone explain how that was supposed to work? I know it’s probably a sketchy concept, but how the thing functions escapes me.
The “key” was like a cap that was inserted into the end of the lock. The pins completed the electrical circuit. The connections were more random then the usual five or six wires under the dash attached to the ignition switch. These were used in conjunction with the stock ignition switch/lock. It added another layer of security.
Thanks; that makes more sense now. Still, I think I’d rather save my $29.95 for the genuine Maserati air horns. 🙂
Did anyone else use Google’s inflation calculator on that Classic Car Wax?
$5 translates to $43.78 here in 2022, according to one source. Ouch!
I think I’ll just use Meguiar’s for like $15 and pocket the difference. 😉
I love the Ford GTA ad – didn’t even know that model existed. Apparently, it ate the GTO tiger…