In 1963 it was of course “brake/gross hp”. It was still a lot!
My parents bought a new 1965 Olds 98 when I was ten. (Yeah, I just dated myself. 
) Nice land yacht with huge trunk and big engine. They kept it until 1983, so I got to drive it a lot. Even had it up to 98 mph one time. (Yep, young and dumb at the time.) Only got 8-12 mpg around town and 12-15 mpg on the highway. I could practically hear it guzzling gas.
I remember those cars. My dad traded for a 73 Electra 225. I drove it around for a few weeks. I could literally drive around the block and see the fuel gauge move.
Well, you’ll always be younger than I am, by ~7 years.
I used to work with a guy who had a '70s era Chrysler New Yorker with the 440 cubic inch engine.
He used to say, “The only thing that it can’t pass is a gas station”.
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@VDCdriver hey we’re all still just kids at heart. 
I remember as a kid when we went on family trips from Tulsa to Altus OK and back in the 1956 Olds that Dad had to stop for gas three to four times as often as in today’s cars, due both to lower gas mileage and making sure the tank didn’t run too low where gas stations were scarce.
It got easier once the turnpikes were built. That trip in summer with no a/c was hot!
… and, the added “treat” when driving in summer with all of the windows open was the inevitable intrusion of a wasp or yellowjacket, or some other kind of stinging insect. Depending on where that bugger was zooming around, it would be the job of either me or my mother to use a road map to “guide” the thing out of the car.
Thanks to a/c, we no longer have to deal with those things invading our cars while we drive.
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It amazes me that the automatic transmission which was introduced in the 1940 Oldsmobile became popular by the early 1950s, but air conditioning which became available on the Packard in 1940 and finally became an option on the Cadillac, Buick Super and Roadmaster in 1953 wasn’t a popular option. Nash Motor Company in 1954 integrated air conditioning and heating and the entire system was behind the dashboard and under the hood and it still took until the mid 1960s for factory air conditioning took off.
I would give up the automatic transmission before I would give up sir conditioning in the car.
Yup!
I still have vivid memories from–IIRC–1964, when we were attempting to cross Delaware Bay, from Cape May, NJ to Lewes, Delaware.
Our car was queued-up on the dock to drive onto the large ferry when a convoy of National Guard vehicles arrived, and displaced us, along with lots of other vehicles. More and more National Guard vehicles arrived, obviously on their way to some location for summer training maneuvers. Time, and time again, a ferry would arrive, and NG vehicles would be loaded while we waited–in sweltering summer heat.
In the line-up of cars that sat for something like 4 hours, there was a brand-new Pontiac Bonneville occupied by one elderly man, and he sat in cool comfort while everyone else roasted in the sun. So, while this is surely not scientific, I would estimate that only one out of about 50 cars on that dock had A/C. I guess there is a possibility that other cars on the dock also had A/C, but that elderly man was the only one who used his A/C.
@VDCdriver. I was through college and my first round of graduate school and had completed one year on my first teaching job when my parents bought their first car with air conditioning. The year was 1966 and the car they purchased was a 1963 Buick LeSabre that had had a Mitchell Mark IV add on air conditioner installed. That add-on air conditioner worked well. I didn’t own an air conditioned car until 1973 when I bought a used 1971 Ford Maverick with factory air conditioning. I was willing to put up with the “wheelbarrow” ride of the Maverick to be comfortable in the summer.
Our first car with A/C was a '66 Ford Galaxie 500, to which my father had an Eaton, Yale, & Towne A/C unit added. I recall that it was cheaper than the Mark IV which that shop also carried, and it worked… okay. Obviously, one only got recirculated air with those aftermarket units.
My first car was a '71 Dodge Charger SE, with factory air.
What a difference!
My parents had a 1949 Nash, and they could have purchased AC as an option, but they didn’t. They sure did when they bought the 1955 Chevy 250, though.
My first car was a 1973 Corolla with after market add on a/c that was so-so. The a/c needed major repair by '79 then died for good in '85. I was saving up for a new car and chose to just do without a/c so I could afford the new car sooner. My "87 Olds Ciera was luxury in comparison!
Parents first car that had a/c was the '65 Olds. Mom loved the comfort.