Drinking The Full Throttle Kool-Aid That Was 1969

"Well, it's 1969 okay... all across the USA... another year for me and you... another year with nothing to do..."  - Iggy Pop

And ironically, Iggy was from Detroit. And while Iggy may have been dead on about how some people felt back then, 1969 in regards to muscle cars, drag racing, and all things high performance, it was impossible to be bored, regardless of your favorite American marquee. There is still a discussion (argument?) about what year was the zenith of Detroit high performance during the first era of muscle cars. It's literally split right down the middle like a Sanders - Clinton caucus; half for 1970, the other 50% for 1969. Myself personally, after all these years, I still favor 1969. Let's break it down;

First off - muscle cars & their associated advertising. When it came to model year offerings from the big three, and even AMC, 1969 was bat-shit crazy. It was a year of COPO Camaros, Chevelles, and Novas. It was also the high point of independent dealers like Don Yenko selling their own customized versions of these vehicles. A fan of the Blue Oval and not the General Bowtie? We had offerings of the Torino Talladega as well as the Boss 302 & 429 Mustangs. If you were a dare to be different type of individual and went AMC, you were hard pressed to find something more off the wall than

the Hurst Industries built SC/Rambler (above). The Mopar contingency went ape over NASCAR bred models like the Charger 500 and Charger Daytona, in addition to the drag / street racing influenced Six Pack Super Bee's and Roadrunners (right). I'm sorry - but there were zero offerings in 1970 that came stock with a fiberglass hood with a huge scoop and four hood pins holding it down like the Six Pack Chrysler B-bodies from the factory. You had to remove the hood just to check the oil - that's hardcore. And several of the beasts listed above were one year models only.

Advertising companies also drank from the muscle car / acid laden kool-aid. 1969, without question, was the high mark in creative, psychedelic, and bold campaigns. It was a year that saw heavy use of powerful art work, societal themes, and youth-oriented language. We saw more vehicles being advertised with a drag strip as a background setting. We saw hippies in a Camaro. We were even treated to a special GTO model, The Judge, named after a skit on the popular TV show "Laugh-In". But nothing came close to the series of advertisements that were created by artist Paul Williams for Plymouth (above). Aimed squarely at the youth market, his renderings were around for less than a year. Williams took Dalton-esque caricatures about 20 steps further and literally brought the muscle car vehicles he was highlighting to life. Everything was exaggerated - from the tires to the exhaust smoke... and enthusiasts ate it up. You don't need a degree in advertising to realize we will never see anything like this again.

1969 was a turning point in the NHRA as well as in the AHRA. Most prominent - this was the year the Gasser as we knew it would start it's sharp decline in popularity. The deal breaker for most fans was the type of rig that was being run at the tracks. A class that was once filled with Willy's, Anglia's, as well as tri-five Chevy's, by 1969 we were seeing what was basically radically reworked examples of then brand new car bodies like "Ohio George" Montgomery's Mr. Gasket sponsored Mustang. Traditional Gassers had the possibility of being street-legal and driven, depending on your willingness to suspend all disbelief. However, in just a few short years after the turn of the decade, Gassers would morph into tube-chassis cars with fiberglass flopper bodies and looked like modern mini Funny Cars.

In the NASCAR ranks, there was a massive shift in racing team alliances that year that made the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 look like a thunder clap. Unbelievable as it seemed back then, Richard Petty and Petty Family Enterprises left Plymouth after more than a decade of highly successful years and raced with Ford for one season in 1969. Petty saw how advantageous the Dodge winged racers were going to be (as well as the modified Ford's and Mercury's) and he wanted Plymouth to offer the same. When Plymouth wouldn't or couldn't at the time, Petty jumped at a lucrative offer made by Ford to drive their aero-dynamic Torino-based Talladega. Plymouth would in fact respond by 1970 with the Superbird and woo Petty back for three more seasons before he would join Dodge. Another rumor as to why Petty rejoined Plymouth was the fact he only won nine races with Ford in 1969. He visited the winners circle 16 times in 1968 and then 18 times in 1970 when he was with Plymouth.


Everybody knows George Lucas' movie, American Graffiti. Some people think the story, the 1932 yellow Ford known as The Milner Coupe and the street racing were real. The truth is, Lucus and his screenwriters made everything up. American Graffiti is just a story. Woodward Avenue, on the other hand, is organically real. The people, cars, and racing were as bona-fide as the Sunoco 260 that flowed from the station where Maple Road crossed the famous thoroughfare. In today's sanitized, safety-obsessed and litigious world, the tales we have heard about Woodward Avenue may seem too fantastic to believe. While decades have dimmed details or embellished accomplishments, the stories about Woodward are grounded in fact. In my humble opinion, 1969 was one of the last years that street racing was an "easier" affair. The insurance industry as well as the government would begin their major hurting on muscle cars beginning in 1970 and police crackdowns seemed more severe.

Looking at the big picture, back in the 1950s and ’60s, drive-ins and restaurants lined Woodward, attracting business from across the area. It was only natural that patrons cruised up and down Woodward between popular hangouts such as the Totem Pole and Big Town at the south end of Woodward and Ted's at the northern edge. Woodward Avenue also became an easy place for engineers to test a new camshaft or carburetor setup. Detroit executives could see the reaction of potential customers as they pitted their latest ideas against their competitors. All through the 60's, marketing departments learned that performance could help move sheet metal off dealer lots, causing corporate focus on Woodward Avenue to intensify. On a Saturday night the racing was as good as you could see at any drag strip.

Easier softer times - maybe that also contributed to the madness...
Until next time, peace out.
Dave