I read a editorial in a car magazine recently that really rang true for me.
The writer reflected on the middle sixties when every new car year the
cars got faster and stronger with bigger motors, better brakes and handling. We car lovers got spoiled, expecting that of course,
the next ones would always be better, from now on. After all, " If cars
are this good now they will be even better next year and the year after that" was the way it seemed. Then the arabs and jimmy carter, and by the time I had enough resources to actually buy a new car we had engines with half the horsepower and Lincolns and Cadillacs with their
buts sawed off and Corvettes with good looks but low power and
Chevettes with no power. Where is that time machine? I just want to
go back and buy that overpriced 4000$ 1964 Corvette!
Did it seem that way to you guys too? dd

 

Yes...you are 100% right. If only we could have kept the cars we had AND abused. This was the era of style.
Now I feel old
Bill

 

Well they are back on track it would seem. Some pretty impressive performance cars available new today. And I would argue they do just about everything better than the 60s counterparts. That is if you can afford one.

I worked at a GM dealer in the 70s. Almost every Vette that came in got repainted under warrantee. Vega fenders rusted while sitting on the lot. Those were some bad years for cars.

 

The style of the sixties is questionable. Some cars looked like tanks with chrome. Lots of chrome. Fortunately we got that out of our system. I vote for the modern sport coupe/convertible with all the power and handling, available today.

 

Yes, I do remember the 60's.
And trust me that $4,000 Corvette was close to double the cost of most other cars you would be interested in buying.

$4,000 sounds good, but the average kid could only dream of the day he could afford one.
As a percentage of your income, they are about the same price (or less) today as they were in the 60's.

And as far as performance goes, the Corvettes of today are light years ahead of the old ones (handling and 1/4 mile times).

Ok, they had a few bad years. But technology finally caught up with the emissions standards, and they are once again in a horsepower war.

 

Remember those years very well. You could poke your finger right through the fender of a car not even 2 years old.

 

I got a question for you guys that were gear heads already in the mid 70s?

How many of you went ahead and made the V8s right? I assume a 350 was a weak motor because of low compression and a weak cam. How many went ahead and mills the heads, port, bigger carburetors and bigger cams?

I forgot, how many emptied the pellets?

 

I was one of those lucky ones who happened to be able to order a brand new silver gray 64' coupe with am/fm radio, positraction, white wall tires, close ratio 4 speed and the 365 hp engine. I was only 18 but was employed as an industrial mechanic making $5.22/hr. I still remember the drive off cost of $4,644 all included for that car. My payments after putting down $1,644 were $98.33 /month for 36 months. I put 12,000 miles on that car then a little thing called Vietnam came along and off I went. No problem the 427s were coming out in a few years I'd get one of those when I got back. When I got back I got married and sold the now heavily modified vette that now had 4:56 rear end and got around 10 mpg for a new 67' Volkswagen. Not to worry I bought a new 68' 912 Porsche the next year.
Yes those were the days that you traded up every year or so for the new car. Now not so much, I have gotten over that need. I still have my LT-4 vert that I bought new and will keep it.
But it was fun!

 

I remember as well. I couldn't afford a Vette and go to college, so I bought a new 69 Coronet R/T,440 PS,PB.A/C. Kept it until 73 thanks to the oil embargo and the insurance method of horsepower to weight ratios for premiums.

Gas was 20 cents a gallon here for ethyl.

 

Ah Yes! The 50'ies & 60'ies were the days. The engines were not very big. There wasn't many "after market", "go fast" parts. You had to make your own. To start out with a 283 and end up with a "very low buck", over 500 HP was a reason to be proud of. And in a 2840 lb Vette. This was living. Not only at the strip, but also on the street.

Things were very different in those days. We had "funny cars" racing on the street (Southern California)(as long as the money was high enough)(we use to block off all the cross streets). And one time there was a "top gas digger" that went thru the "drive-thru at Bob's Big Boy in Whittier, Ca. The people were different and the laws were really different.

Today????? The cars may have more HP, may handle better, may look somewhat better (I believe the Vette's of the 50'ies & 60'ies looked better), but the experiences will never come close.

For all you youngster out there,,,,,,, you really missed out!

 

I was there in the late 60s , but I don't remember a whole lot because of...... Well you know................."Fun"....... .......................WW

 

Actually the performance dropped way off in 73 and then like a rock in 74 due to emission requirements and the 73 oil embargo. Luckily, I thought unluckily at the time, all I could afford were those sixties gas hogs, but they would outrun all the new cars of the mid seventies.

4 bucks an hour was big money then so a 4K car was still out of most peoples price range as well.

I loved the styling and couldn't wait for the new years to come out. That was a time when, if you followed cars, you new the make/model/and year of every car on the road.

I couldn't tell you the difference now in an 85 vette or 89 vette. A 90 I know has updated interior and a 91 has a rounded butt and front. That's about it.

Yes pete, back then we had to put cams/headers/exhuast/ and gears to make the seventies cars go. Even on the sixties cars they did that.

I bought a new Z28 in 77 when they first came back after stopping them in 74. man I thought that car was fast........................until a 73 Z wanted to challenge me that is. It may as well have been a chevette I found out how slow it was.

The eighties sucked but I found some comfort in a Monte Carlo SS. A vette wasn't practical, well that's what my ex said at the time anyway.


I had to go to a vette because it's about the only thing on the road I could ride in. but I do like my STS.

No choices now, I miss the choices we had.

yes I miss those times,

 

Had a couple of Fords in the late 60s. First got the DL picked up a 1960 Falcon Rolls C'nardly station wagon with a 6cyl. (Rolls down one side of a hill - C'nardly make up the other side.) Then got a real car, a 1967 Mustang GT with a 4-speed 390ci V8, factory dual exhaust. With the dinky little wheels they used back in those days you could barely keep the back tires on the ground - bunny hop and burning rubber was a common occurance. That was my last Ford!

 

YES !!!! so true...I remember the sixties well---I think
Bill

 

Bought a brand new 1975 Camaro Type LT in 1975.
1974 was the last year for the Z28, so didn't have that choice.

Back then, your warranty was 12 months or 12,000 miles whichever came first.
So after 12,000 miles, I did a little work. Not much by today's standards, but enough to make the car run.
Off came the stock exhaust, including the cat which was highly restrictive in those days.
1975 was the first year for the Cat and unleaded fuel. But leaded fuel was still very plentiful.

I added a Chevy Cam (can't remember the exact one), a Holly 650 Spread bore carb, and Doug Thorley long tube headers.
Now it ran like a Camaro should (or at least it felt like it).
Never did take it to a track. Back in those days it was all about cruising on Friday and Saturday night.
Really miss that part of it all. Cruise up and down the Blvd. most of the night.
There were some pretty "bad ***" cars running around even into the late 80's.
Mine was just a cruiser.

 

 

Does anyone remember turning the air cleaner lids upside down so the things could breath?

Anything to get another couple miles a gal. Then they sounded like a ceiling fan turn on high!

Wooop, wooop

 

First thing I did when I got that new Camaro home.
Rochester Quadajet.
Where your 21, that really sounded cool.

 

I was still a kid in the late 60's, but I remember riding to school in my brothers '66 Comet Cyclone GT. Warmed over 390, 4 speed, and that awesome sound. The car was good for low 13's at 4000', which was decent then. And it just looked so damn cool.....

My old man had a '69 Barracuda that I would love to have today as well. Cars back then just had so much character. True, the stuff today will run circles around them and handle twice as well..... with the A/C blasting at 30 MPG.....but something was lost along the way.

 

plus I am old!!