1966 - The Year It All Started Going To Hell

... Or that's what people were thinking 50 years ago. I'm not going to touch on the subjects of drugs, hippies, the Vietnam War, or the fact that the government couldn't do anything right. It seems not much has changed since then - we still have a war on drugs, the "younger" generation (and the crock of shit that truly is; every generation is dysfunctional to some extent), terrorism, and a government who still can't do anything right. Be that as it may, things seemed to be coming unhinged in the mid-60's and hot rods, muscle cars, and numerous aspects of motor-sports racing were no exception.

I was reading several articles over the past two weeks about how automotive manufacturers are selling more cars than they have in over 15 years, setting sales records across the board (except VW), and that they are trotting out "more new models and redesigns" than ever. Hold on - just back up second, Detroit. Let's set the time machine back to 1966. Back then, the public expected a fresh redesign every two years or so when it came to new cars. Check out these well known models that were completely redesigned for that year:
For GM: the Nova, Chevelle, Impala, Cutlass (442), Skylark (GS), and GTO.
For Chrysler: the Charger, Coronet, and Satellite
For Ford: the Fairlane, Galaxie, and Cyclone.
That's a lot of new sheet-metal. Never mind the introduction of the Chrysler 426 street Hemi.



Also by this time, there were well-established street racing venues like Woodward Ave. in Detroit, and the Cross Bay Blvd. or the Connecting Hwy in Queens New York. By well established I mean not only did the street racers & cops know the hang outs, but the rest of the public was starting to become familiar with them as well. Now we had muscle cars right off the showroom floors with 426 Hemis, 427 rat-motored Chevy's, and side-oiler 427's from Ford. The gloves were off and it was either nail the gas or get out of the way. Numerous uber-conservatives were starting various mind chatter like, "What are these manufacturers and people thinking?"

Street rods were getting more creative by the day with the help of Southern California designers "Big Daddy" Ed Roth, George Barris, and Dean Jefferies. We had the Bat-mobile, the Monkey-mobile, and who knows what else gracing living rooms across America via television. Other aspects like drag racing were also starting to have an influence on street rods in general. We started seeing more vehicles with bigger rear wheels and it seemed like every motor had a blower on it. So why was all this fundamental automotive goodness such a bad thing? It was on the street and many people still didn't understand the mind-set of the hot rodder. And people fear what they don't understand or don't want to comprehend because they've already made up their minds based on slim and unbiased notions.

In the NHRA, 1966 was a huge year for the funny car. If spectators thought 1965 was off the hook, they surely didn't see what was coming for 1966. What Chrysler started the year before, Mercury and "Dyno" Don Nicholson took to the next level times ten. The debut of the Eliminator I was essentially the first real step towards the modern funny car as we know it. The big difference between Nicholson's ride and all the other A/FX cars preceding it, was the Eliminator I was an all-fiberglass body on a separate tube chassis. The car, all dressed up, barely weighed 1800 pounds. There are very few pictures of the inaugural vehicle as the body flew off the chassis at speed on it's first blast down the track and was destroyed. Mercury quickly developed the Eliminator II with much improved aerodynamics. Within twelve months, the pioneering design of the Eliminator funny cars would literally open the flood gates to countless other drivers using the same design. By the end of 1966, traditional drag racing fans started to make noise about how the sport was expanding and diversifying too fast, too soon. It seemed the sport was getting away from it's original core mission and becoming, in some people's eyes, a circus side-show. It was all going to hell. (Above photo courtesy of Hot Rod).

NASCAR was embroiled with its second boycott in two years. Chrysler boycotted the racing circuit the year before when NASCAR refused to allow the 426 Hemi to run. Now in 1966 the organization banned Ford's 427 SOHC Cammer engine from competing - so Ford flipped them the bird for that one season. The reason for the banning was the same - the engines the manufacturers wanted to run were not in regular production line automobiles. Chrysler realized this the year before - it was either produce at least 500-1000 vehicles with a street version of the Hemi or let the incredibly winning engine die on the vine. History has shown that the latter didn't happen, as Chrysler produced almost 11,000 Hemi powered vehicles between 1966 and 1971. It's a crying shame Ford did not follow the same path. The 427 Cammer engine was pretty much regulated to drag racing use and died quietly within the next few years.

So despite what you might see on the news, or on Facebook, or read on the internet - it sounds like things today are going to hell in a hand-basket. Relax... they have been (so we've been told) for the past 50 years. A half a century from now, someone will look back and remind us all how tame things were in 2016.

Until next time, peace out.
Dave