Interesting article. I must have missed it. The interior features seem to remind me a lot of my 61 Corvair. They must have used similar trim like the instrument panel, radio etc. Gotta say I never paid much attention to them back then since we were mainly Ford Falcon and Merc and Chevy wagons. I do much prefer stock though to bring it back to the way it used to be.
I consider all re-engineered cars to be street rods @bing. While they make great every day drivers if well done they just aren’t the real thing anymore. A small block Chevrolet V-8 and TH-350 under the hood of a Jaguar just doesn’t seem right to me.
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Last year at a local car show there was a Yenko Nova. Guy says it was a real one… but I didn’t know enough about the Yenko’s to know if it was or wasn’t. I do know there were a lot of fake Yenko’s.
I wonder what a modern car driver would notice first if – instead of their modern car – they drove a 1962 stock Nova to work and back? I think the first thing they’d notice would be the suspension. Too much pitching and leaning. Today’s modern suspension systems give better handling and cornering. As far as engine performance, I doubt the Nova driver would notice much difference, even though the 62 used a carb rather than their modern daily driver’s electronic fuel injection. Brakes, I think the Nova driver would notice some difference, but not a big difference. Unless emergency braking was required, then they’d probably notice.
I owned a '64 Chevy Nova for quite a few years, 194 six with two speed Powerglide, the only automatic transmission car I ever owned. I liked the styling, much preferring it to the finned “batmobiles” of the late '50s. It’s like good taste returned to auto styling again. Also, it handled quite well, in contrast to the way the parade floats of the late '50’s swayed and wallowed through every turn.
I love watching the cop cars in the old shows from the '50s and '60s, like “Car 54”. Granted, they may have had the shocks removed for effect (TV shows did that stuff back then), but they sure did lean.
When Fred Gwynne (aka Hermon Munster) on one side of the car - it’s going to lean.
Well, on Highway Patrol, Broderick Crawford’s Buick did lean to a great extent, but that was normal for those lumbering land barges.
I remember an old movie with Robert Mitchum called “The Man Who Cheated Himself” There was a car chase where the undercover agent drove a Nash Statesman with the “whale” body. It leaned ferociously in the turns.
“Well, on Highway Patrol, Broderick Crawford’s Buick did lean to a great extent, but that was normal for those lumbering land barges.”
Note: I tried to use the “quote” function, but that’s been failing intermittently lately. Anybody else had trouble with it lately?
Anyway, it is true that they rolled and swayed back then a lot more than they do today (I owned a '64 Fairlane), but in addition some producers used to have the shocks removed to make it look even worse, and to make the cars squeal going around corners to give the effect of greater speed. It’s funny to watch. I like the old shows.
Much more recently, it is obvious that many producers of TV shows and movies have disabled the ABS on their faux police cars (usually Crown Vics) in order to allow the brakes to lock-up and to make the tires squeal, when they pull-up at a crime scene.
Tom McCahill tested the 1954 Buick Century, then sold as a performance model with the big Roadmaster engine, and found it very stable. But everything is relative; by today’s standards its road manner would be pathetic!
The Chrysler 300 was a serious attempt to build a hot sedan with good handling as well. It succeeded better than ,most.
The thing I remember about Highway Patrol is that he was always driving over the center line on the highway. Looked like he was drunk.
On Car 54, I believe those Dodges or Plymouths would have had tortion bars in front. OK now I can’t remember, did they also have shocks with the tortion bars?
I really liked Mitchum in Thunder Road driving the 57 Ford. When his dad showed him the engine, that must have been the old style fuel injection, correct. I guess I’m old but not that old.
Brod was known as a heavy drinker, so perhaps he really was tippling while on the job.
Yes, they had shock absorbers in addition to their torsion bars.
Yup. Definitely had shock absorbers.
Torsion bars are just coil springs straightened out, or coil springs are just wound up torsion bars. 
No fuel injection on that car… Three deuces! Or 3 2 barrel carburetors. Cool setup!
As far as I’ve found, Ford didn’t mess with fuel injection in the 50’s but GM and Chrysler did.
It seems like it would be near impossible to get 3 carbs matched close enough so that the engine didn’t chug and cough and the rpm wander at idle. That must have been a tune-up challenge.
Didn’t most of those three carb setups run on the middle carb only during idle and low throttle use, the outer carbs being the secondaries at high rpm and full throttle?
It ain’t easy but motorcycles have done it for decades. You can use a manometer (sensitive vacuum gauge) to set all 4 or in this case 3 carbs the same. Vacuum taps at each carb. Or use a uni-sync tool;
Which is a vacuum gauge you put on top of the each carb so you can set them the same. That lets you get a steady idle off all 3 or 4 carbs at the same time. You can actuate the carbs the same or progressively with the linkage you choose.
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I had two carbs on my Corvair and seems to me I used a vacuum gauge to adjust them. Been a long time ago now though.