Indholdsfortegnelse for May 1963 i MotorTrend

The flag whipped down and the era of motor racing started in 1894 with The Paris-Rouen Trial. The winner roared across at 11.6 mph. Only 9 years later, Louis Renault, in his 30-hp car, was clocked at nearly 90 mph between Bonneval and Chartres in The Paris-Madrid Race! Motor racing was zooming ahead, and Renault, from the very beginning, played an important part. The calendar moves swiftly, and the year is now 1962. The place: The Marlboro Race. Three Renaults were in the field of forty imported and domestic sedans. Fewer than half the cars that started completed even 300 laps. The Renault trio finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in overall position, beating many larger, more powerful cars. The only team to complete the entire race! Each Renault completed over…

EVERY SO OFTEN, a race is run under circumstances which make average speed and other technicalities seem rather insignificant. The Daytona 500, February’s 500-mile stock car classic at superfast Daytona Beach, Florida, International Speedway, was that sort of race. The fact was that DeWayne (Tiny) Lund, an unsung, 272-pound South Carolina fisherman who’d saved the life of the man whose car he was driving, crossed the finish line first. In so doing, Lund almost obliterated such pertinencies as the 1-2-3-4-5 Ford sweep he led and the fact that his Ford was the first car ever to go the Daytona 500 distance without a single tire change. A crowd estimated at 70,000 thundered its approval as Lund’s red-and-white 1963½ scatback Ford took the checkered flag. The big fellow may have been…

THE THIRD ANNUAL Big Go West saw a record turnout of entrants and crowds for the three-day event. Over 500 cars signed up, with roughly half of these running in stock classes. A promise of some of the most exciting racing ever seen on the West Coast plus loads of that good old California sunshine helped pull over 63,000 fans to the scene. Action was the keynote of the whole meet, and it got under way on Friday, when the famous Pomona quarter mile opened for single and qualifying runs. It was soon apparent that some of the fastest stockers in the country were on hand to battle for the coveted class and eliminator titles. The big Super/Stocks, both stick and automatic, were running in the 115- to 116-mph bracket,…

NO CHANGE I have a 1961 Chevrolet Impala sport coupe with the 283-cubic-inch, 230-hp engine, standard transmission, and dual exhausts. The rear-axle ratio as equipped was 3.36 to 1. I changed this to 3.70. Inasmuch as this seems to have improved my performance somewhat, I’d like to know how much this changes the horsepower and torque of the engine. JOHN F. STOCHLClear Rapids, Iowa Sony, there’ll be no change in horsepower or torque of your engine. In changing rear-axle ratio, you’ve increased the number of turns of the engine to that of the rear axle, which simply lets the engine apply more torque because of the lower gear. A QUESTION OF PULL I plan to buy an Airstream trailer, 24 feet in length, with a total weight of 3260 pounds…

BREAKING the Offy barrier will be the theme for 1963’s Indianapolis 500mile classic. Racing engines based on Detroit designs are being readied and fitted to new chassis ideas in an attempt to find a faster way around the Hoosier State’s four-turn, 2.5-mile oval. Mickey Thompson, using a Chevrolet block design cast in aluminum by Harvey, will place his powerplant behind the driver in the low, streamlined cars now being tested. Ford, working closely with Lotus Cars Ltd. of England, will have one of their aluminum blocks in the rear of a Colin Chapman-designed car, but they may slip in a ringer in the form of a dohc V-8 they’ve been playing with. Jack Brabham’s ex-Indy Cooper is now in private hands and is being fitted with an Aston Martin in-line…

1963 Rambler Classic V-8 “770” 4-Door Sedan Floor-shift option is one of four transmissions offered. Here’s America’s newest V-8—tested, proved and ready to bring you new V-8 performance and economy. It’s a maximum-efficiency performer with a new V-8 power train engineered for its great new capabilities. And that’s backstopped by a new and huskier suspension, new brakes, new tire size. There’s even an exclusive all-electronic alternator and transistorized regulator to keep the new battery at its instant-action peak. Result: you get the balanced performance of this V-8 with remarkable V-8 economy. And this easy-working 198-HP engine asks no pampering, lasts longer. It’s yours for only $105 more than a Classic 6. Rambler’63 Winner of Motor Trend Magazine Award: “CAR OF THE YEAR”…

DOWN WENT OUR RIGHT FOOT-hard-and 4640 pounds of Pontiac Grand Prix gathered itself and hurtled for-ward down the back straight of Riverside Raceway. Thirty mph came up fast in just 3.3 seconds, 45 ticked off when the stopwatch shows 6.6 seconds, and we broke the 60-mph mark in under 10-9.9 seconds to be exact. All this happened in relative silence and with absolutely no wheelspin and as the newly styled Grand Prix for 1963 charged forward, we turned 80 mph and 18.1 seconds in the quarter-mile. Granted these aren’t record-breaking times, but then we had two people and all our test equipment aboard, and the car wasn’t specially tuned. It was showroom fresh, as all our test cars are. Left in DRIVE all the way, our white Grand Prix with…

ONE MID-MAY EVENING in 1903, two young men inside San Francisco’s University Club were busy arguing the merits of the motor car. One claimed it to be a useless, expensive toy for the idle rich—the other believed it had unthought-of potential and even then was ready to take people across the continent. Finally, at the height of excitement, the doubter slammed down a $50 bill and challenged, “Here’s money to prove nobody can drive one of those contraptions across the country. I’ll give you 90 days.” H. Nelson Jackson, M.D., a 31-year-old New England physician, calmly drew out his wallet and covered the bet. He eventually won the $50, but it cost him $8000. Dr. Jackson bought a four-week-old Winton the next morning for $3000, then stocked up on spare…

Volkswagen Waiting along-side a Snow-Trac, this VW is bound for the Antarctic, where it’ll ferry scientists around the tundra. The Australian Antarctic Research Expedition decided on a VW because of its built-in anti-freeze and good traction. Before, only SnowTracs (top speed: 5 mph) and dog sledges (passenger capacity: 2) were used. If the VW’s successful, more will be exported from Australia to the south. Ferrari Superamerica A 31 ½-gal-lon gas tank through three carburetors in this latest GT by Pininfarina. Each bank has its own overhead cam, and the engine puts out 320 horses from 242 cubic inches. Quality and craftsmanship rate with the best, giving still another basis for the car’s imported price of $17,800 p.o.e. Lola V-8 Modified Ford V-8 sits just behind seat, and it drives independently…

TEST THE BEST I read your two very fine road tests of the Chevrolet Impalas in your March issue. This test was very interesting and impressive, but I feel that you should have tested the high-performance Chevy. In this performance-minded age, with the manufacturers striving for more inches and horsepower, you should test the best that Detroit has to offer, such as the Chevrolet “427.” JAMES MURRAYEl Paso, Tex. ADDED SAFETY FACTOR It’s surprising that Detroit hasn’t adopted an obvious (and inexpensive) improvement—a switch for flashing both rear signals at the same time during emergency parking under heavy traffic conditions. Some motorists leave the right signal flashing, others the left, because of its greater visibility to approaching cars. The trouble is that the left signal alone can also mean that…

…in such demand that the factory has had to put on a second shift and still can’t begin to supply cars fast enough. The waiting period is at least 60 days, and dealers won’t “deal” a bit on either coupes or roadsters. Both are going for the full sticker price, with absolutely no discount and very little (if any) over-allowance on trade-ins. This is a healthy situation for Chevrolet, and we’re happy to see the ’Vette get the public acceptance we’ve always felt it deserved. Yet, after giving the new one a thorough shakedown, we can’t help but let our thoughts stray back to last year’s road test and one statement in particular we made. It had to do with how the factory has never really made any big profits…

REPEAT SALES are the gravy of the automobile business. It’s always easier to sell someone who’s already driving a given make than to sell someone who’s never owned one. Just after the formal introduction of the 1962 Dodge line, with its shortened 116-inch wheelbase, aware that a lot of long-time Dodge buyers preferred the 122-inch-wheelbase models of previous years. quite a few of these faithful customers hap-pened to be some of America’s law enforcement agencies (who usually buy in large numbers), the something—and fast. What it did was put through a crash program that resulted in the rather late introduction of the Dodge 880 series. Built on the old 122-inch wheelbase and using many Chrysler body components, the “880” just what a lot of people wanted Encouraged by last year’s…

THE THINGS today’s motorist is doing and the places he’s going give auto engineers sleepless nights. Most modern cars are street sedans. The term very aptly hints at the problem of backcountry driving. A car is made for carrying an average load at average legal speeds over average paved roads. It’s sprung for medium loads on paved roads. Vacation travel or trailer towing often overload cars with the following, which drastically alter handling characteristics: 1) A full load of passengers climbs into the car. 2) Heavy suitcases, an outboard motor, fishing tackle, tents, and camping equipment are stuffed into the trunk. 3) A car top rack is installed and loaded down with still more gear. Travel over rough roads with such loads makes handling even worse. Restricted ground clearance ……

THE CHEVY II NOVA 400-SS sport coupe boils down to a sales winner with excellent maneuverability, good operating economy, peppy performance, and a luxurious interior—all in a compact unit. This unit measures just 183 inches long, with a 1 10-inch wheelbase. Having just stepped out of a full-sized, 2½-ton automobile, the small size and easy handling of the Chevy were quickly noticeable. This easy-to-get-into-and-out-of car really fills the bill for all those necessary short trips around town and to work and back. It’s equally at home cruising on the open highway at legal speeds. Our test car was Chevy II’s top-of-the-line model. The SS, or Super Sport designation, located on the rear fenders and deck lid, tells the world that the car is equipped with those extra luxury options available…

THE CANADIAN WINTER RALLY is a 1240-mile test of the abilities of both car and driver under winter driving conditions on little-used backroads of Canada. This year’s rally attracted 154 entrants from England, the U.S., and Canada, including several teams just returned from the Monte Carlo Rallye. But despite a heavy preponderance of European-made vehicles, it was a U.S.-built car—a 1963 Corvair Monza—that took top honors in the rally. It won without any penalty points. Equally unconventional in rally circles was the fact that the car didn’t have an automatic transmission. Charles Stockey and John R. Bird, both of Toronto, were driver and navigator respectively of the winning car. Another Corvair Monza (M. Chenhall-J. Wilson) of Canada shared second place with a factory-entered Hillman Super Minx. The third-place finishers were:…