I’ve stated many times before that my grandfather, Joseph Saur, was a staunch Oldsmobile man. His loyalty to this make, however, did not begin until later in life. During his earlier years, Joe Saur’s vehicles were mainly limited to used vehicles from lower-tier makes like Plymouth and Chevrolet. This picture of him was taken in June of 1967 with his ’65 Chevrolet Bel Air wagon. The front fender badge indicates that Joe’s had the “Turbo-Fire” 283 cubic-inch small-block V8 under the hood.
According to my mother, who’s the only one I can talk to who was there during those years, this was the first new car he purchased. With his and my grandmother’s family growing, and my great-grandmother coming to live with them, a station wagon became an absolute must.
There were many worse choices. Probably backed with a powerglide and lasted as many years as he wanted it to. The general was still making choices with dependability being a high priority. If it’s like my 57 wagon it probably wouldn’t pass a gas station without stopping. Wish I still had some of my family pictures that were similar. Cars usually found their way in the shot.
283 and Powerglide – it sounds EXACTLY like your 57 wagon, Lee, except a little longer and wider. 🙂
And more than a bit heavier.
I remember about ten or more of us high school freshman joy riding in one kid’s ’66 Chevy 283/PG wagon; the poor little SBC wailing away wide open seemingly forever until it got enough speed to shift into second, at about 55 or so. And it wallowed and squealed through the curves and corners. Made my Mom’s ’65 Coronet 318 wagon look not so bad in comparison. Of course, the load was pretty extreme.
I’m guessing about the glide and they did go to aluminum at some point. Mine is still cast iron and very much an early model according to my mechanic. Glide lasted forever no matter the version.
In fairness, the 66 Plymouth wagon was also pretty much a modernized 57 as well, with its Torqueflite and its wide-block poly V8. Of the low priced three, the 66 Ford was probably the most changed from 1957, which would have still been running a Y block and a 3 speed Ford O Matic that started in second.
I have long considered the 66 one of the best looking Chevrolets of the 60s. I spent time in my father’s 63 Bel Air wagon (company car) before it was replaced with this car’s arch-enemy, a 66 Country Squire.
When I was in high school, one of the kids in the band adopted his family’s old 66 Bel Air wagon. He was a drummer, so the cargo room was important to him. The only thing I really remember about it was how he came into school laughing really hard about how his gas tank had fallen off on the way to school. Other than that, it was a workhorse.
I have been trying to figure out what color that car is, without much success. Medium blue maybe?
Seemingly half of the 1966 Chevrolets were painted “66 Chevy Blue” so a good guess.
Maroon solid colour or Maroon with black roof sold well in my home town there were several and a couple in blue mind you our colour palette was likely limited.
My mom remembers an aqua-colored wagon around this time. It may or may not have been this one though.
With this, the Audi and yesterdays Futura, we seem to have a wagon theme going on!
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The Lembrecht auction had quite a few mid 60’s Chevy wagons, and some with 3/trees.
Re the 65-67 badges-On 283 versions I’ve seen 2 kinds, one with 283 callout numbers, and one with flags only. Doesn’t seem to any pattern to which one you got.
Yeah, I’m no expert on Chevy V8s, but I do know there were two output versions of the 283 in 1966. One had 195 horsepower, and the other 220. I would assume that the flags indicated the higher output version, but I’m purely speculating.
1965 283 badges had the numbers — 1966-67 had only the flags.
But the one is the pic IS a ’66, and it has the numbers.
That is odd. All the 283 ’66s I remember didn’t have the engine numbers. Maybe there were some left over from ’65? Or perhaps the 4 barrel 283 got the engine call-out? ’66 was the only year that 283 4-barrel was available, since 1961.
I am late in the game, but perhaps this car is actually a ’65. The angle of the black and white photo makes it tough to determine if that is the taillamp at the end of the quarter panel, or the outline moldings of the ’65. I had a ’66 Impala sedan with the 283 4 barrel and it did not have any numbers on the flag emblem. I remember that clearly because when I bought the car and saw it was a 4 barrel I thought it was a 327. Later, when I replaced the air filter I found out I was wrong.
Patrick: you’re quite right; I’m convinced that it is a ’65. I forgot that every bit of side trim and badging is identical between the ’65 and ’66, except the engine badge, of course.
Nice Wagon ! .
I remember these new , good Generous Motors products ! .
-Nate
Pretty much standard here we didn’t have the 6 for local assembly they were all 283s, one local owner of a 66 had a 350 shoved in early in life for boat towing but it was still slower on the road than the his sons 65 Velox 3.3.
My parents had a ’65 Bel Air wagon followed by a ’66 Caprice wagon, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find pictures of either. Both were six-passenger models, and I believe both had the 283.
My Texas uncle had a ’66 Impala wagon with the 396 and TH400. That combination would have made it a decent tow vehicle, but he just used it as a highway cruiser with room for lumber yard runs. It was a beautiful Crocus yellow with black interior, not that standard Chevy blue mentioned above that our ’65 was painted.
I mentioned towing because most families used a full sized sedan or wagon to tow travel trailers back then. No need for a monster truck.
My best friend’s dad drove a white ’66 wagon like this until the early 80’s. It had major rust repairs about 1974, done by my friend and his dad, and they did a pretty decent job. After the rust was fixed, the car was taken to MAACO or Earl Sheib and painted a very badly done milk chocolate brown. The paint was way too thick and it had a lot of weird looking swirls and little “tits” sticking out all over. I moved out West in 1975, and in 1982, when I moved back, the Chevy was still there, with an amazing amount of rust, and the 283 was chuffing pretty badly and soon it was gone, Replaced with a white Buick of some kind.
College. My inherited ’66 Ford Ranch bandaid tan wagon. Snowball throwing barrage machine for 9.
Sadly anyone in a 2 cylinder car could catch up to us in a pursuit situation. Not that that happened.
[M]y grandfather, Joseph Saur, was a staunch Oldsmobile man.
Reminiscent of a famous line from the narrator of the 1983 movie A Christmas Story:
“Some men are Baptists, others, Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man.”
…Which also happens to be a factual description of my own (deceased) father: a lapsed Protestant turned Agnostic, who put more faith in his Dynamic 88 than ever did in any church.