Those supercharged Ford 312's are crazy. And the coolest thing about early Nascar is these cars were very similar to what you saw in the showroom. Wow how Nascar has fallen
NASCAR had to make changes, virtually all the street cars had changed to front wheel drive and were considerably smaller. NASCAR doesn't call the cars stock cars now, because they aren't. Surely the stock cars were great, greater in some ways.
I have no doubt my father watched these races back then because he was a stock car racing fan and he bought a 1957 Mercury Montclair that resembled exactly the Mercurys here but was a hardtop and had long rear louvers that went half way down the rear wheels. It was white with greem accents. Beautiful car.
Agreed. NASCAR sucks these days my wife and I stopped watching about 10 years ago. A few years after Rusty Wallace retired. All the annual rule changes, "playoffs" and driver's acting like babies are the main reasons why we left the sport.
I was 10 years old in 1957 and our family car was a 1946 DeSoto, in the late 50's with the "styling wars" well underway, almost every little boy knew almost every car by make and year, what a great time to be a kid. My first car in 1963 was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 with the 312 Thunderbird Special engine, single 4 barrel.
"Mark" I'm the same age, and back then we could what year model a car was across a parking lot. Today its hard to tell what country the car was made in, they all kind of look a lot alike from a distance. If all else failed remember the little deal with the tail light, had the car year cast with the lens most of the time.
My friends and I used to mark down on a sheet of paper how many of each brand went by back then. Ford and Chevy were always the most. Now you don't even know what these things are that go by.
MY BROTHER BOUGHT A 57 FOR $150.00...BODY/INTERIOR STRAIGHT W/NO RIPS IN SEAT...RAN PERFECT BUT SMOKED...LIKE CRAZY...(YEARS LATER I FOUND OUT IT WAS THE VACUUM MODULATOR VALVE... $2.85 PART!!!) FRUSTRATED...LESS TGAN 80,000 ON THAT FAIRLANE 500...SAD...OLD MAN SOLD IT TO MY BROTHER & I WAS THE WRENCH BACK THEN...OH WELL HELL...
The last frame of the video shows Tim Flocks' brother Fonty Flock on Tim's left in the white shirt. I have a photo o Fonty dressed in black Bermudas and a black shirt just after getting out of his car. Nobody wore Bermudas in probably what was about 1950. I think the photo was taken at Warner Park Fairgrounds track in Chattanooga.
No kidding. When racing was racing. Bring your best and hope your best was enough. Well built car and a good crew. Not like the kids today with million dollar sponsors. These men do make the guys of today look like school girls. Having caviar and Perrier water at pit stops. Just kidding. But yea no comparison to the old school drivers. Could you imagine making the drivers of today run on the beach. I bet half of them would wet their pants and quit or just wouldn't do it . Out of fairness though the cars today are running a lot faster. But even it up put today's drivers in these cars and I don't think half of them would be able to handle these beasts. Maybe a few of the hard core younger guys but not all of them. Just my own opinion.
That must have been interesting when it all got started. Watching a lot of these youtubes, you could see how they drifted away from individual ownership - and got forced to go to sponsorship. However it must have been interesting when all these methods of getting cars to go faster was new. Also they seem to have zero safety considerations. Can't imagine going racing around in a car with no seat belts and wearing short sleeve shirts. - certainly was a lot more dangerous, those guys are sort of like gladiators - chances of getting seriously hurt or killed were way much more then, than today. It certainly seemed like the cars went faster then - no comparison to being on the oval tracks when they're going 220 and it looks like they're going 20. What was the main thing you noticed when you watch them race?
We would get these films of the beach stock and modified Daytona races on television in Southern California in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I was born in 1956 but I remember these races. In my youth these were so cool. My heros were Darel Dieringer and Paul Goldsmith.
The 300 hp supercharged Ford motor could be ordered in any 57 Ford that year. It was banned by NASCAR mid way through the year after Ford won a bunch of races with it.
First banning the Paxton then the cammer then the 429 was to much so no more big blocks, seems like nascar had it in for ford the whole time and now the way the season is structured is an absolute joke. We the fans need a whole new circuit.
Similar to what NASCAR did banning those original Hemi Chrysler 300's in 1955-56. Nobody could catch 'em. The good thing about these technologies is they would trickle down to consumer models.
@@johnwilliamson2707 Did NASCAR ban them, or did Carl Kiekhaefer just stop racing the Chryslers because they won so much that they were getting booed, when the point of the exercise was to attract buyers for his Mercury Marine outboards?
In the later sixty's I had a 57 Ford Fairlane that was titled from Victora, Canada. It had a yellow V-8 that said Mercury on the valve covers. It had a Montana title that said it wasVictora. I wish I could have saved it till now - I could retire in Hawaii.
We went to what I think was the first stock car race on this course in 1948 0r 49. My dad had gotten into racing after the war and he took us our kids and mom to Daytona, what a trip. Most of the cars racing was 39 Ford Coupes though there were some different. I have some old photos somewhere and the one I remember most is of several cars piled on top of others where they came off the asphalt into the turn and went over the edge. In this film, the Ford slammed into the sandbank and stayed there throughout the race. Obviously, a lot more sand had been piled up there from what it was in the race in the late 40''s to prevent this from happening. I also remember a lot of races at Lakewood in Atlanta.
Oh my dog! I was on the edge of my seat with a big grin on my dial the whole race ! :-) How many tons of steel(?) being chucked into corners, powersliding 100 metres through sand inches from each other, now that's racing! Sort of like a combo of drags, drifting and Paris to Dakar. The world could do with a bit more of this and a bit less of the other!
Watched these clips at a movie theater in the 1950s, damm how cars have changed, today you can buy a car off the showroom floor faster than these race cars!!! Always loved the 1957 Ford!!!! 2022
Today you can’t buy a car like the ones raced on NASCAR. All the cars in NASCAR races are cookie cutter NASCAR creations decorated with decals to resemble stock cars.
I got to see a 58 mercury race at pikes peak in 57, the logos were taped over but it was obviously the new mercury. I was 10 years old and falling in love with racing. Started racing myself in1960 in go-karts.
Wow! Tim's the winner with a flawless performance to celebrate the victory!! The rest of the field loaded up their sht and headed home after having been thoroughly Flocked!!!
If Nascar really wants a publicly race they should have some type of race on the beach at Daytona. Going back to actual stock cars would also be fantastic. Nascar should at least have a series with actual production cars because there is no "Stock" in modern stock car racing.
This is awesome to watch! Many commenting about how the cars are similar to what you could get from the dealer the next day. So true. Drifting wasn't just born out there. The snow and ice of Canada is a great proving ground as are other countries that have snow and ice etc. So COOL!
NOW that's racing! NASCAR lost me when they made so many rules that every car is virtually the same. Richard Petty #43 blue 426 Hemi Plymouth..that's what I'm talkin' about..
Same here - people say they had to on account of the front wheel drive cars and all, but I think NASCAR just wanted to simplify it for themselves because technology was growing faster than they could adapt.
You know what is probably the most advanced piece of technology we are looking at right now, is the film production. There is a load of details here ahead of its time!
No, there's a load of details here 'you' alone doubted were going to be in the video. It isn't ahead of its time, the 1950s is ahead of what you ignorantly assumed it was.
Watching this reminds me why I switched over to my local (Fairbury Il.) dirt and local NASCAR sanctioned (Rockford Speedway) race tracks. The action is spectacular, it’s a bit easier on the wallet and you support the local community, so wins all around.
Love the background music, trumpets and everything, reminds me of an old Errol Flynn movie or something. Fantastic cars and great old footage and nice to have the original sound intact, thank you (albeit belatedly) OP!
You could do them sppeds in a Hyundai diesel these days,, BUT what a great piece of History and THANK YOU for posting this incredible piece of motoring insanity. LOVE AMERICAN CARS. Steve in Australia. I bet them engines got hot back then on the sand stretch.
When you consider these cars are running on bias ply tires and drum brakes... The men that drove these machines must've carried their jewels in a wheelbarrow.
This is racing as I knew it in my youth. Dad took me to Daytina. No millionare s cars. All the same bodies, badges differently. Waste of time to see. Real men, real cars. 86 now, good ol days.
I am glad you posted this! Al scheirer/ harleys/helped start daytona/ ended up in a,cement mill in ormrod pa with his dogs and his collection / I hope I see him in a video some day! Thanks again
Based on current streets in 2022, I assume the blacktop Lane is the first street west of the beach, but what are the approximate location of the current streets at the end of the straightaways?
What the heck, those guys were tandem drifting and door banging at 120mph in the test track? Those look like lower profile tires... Those experimental cars are witchcraft for that time!
"...for that time." Is that what you say every time an era subverts your primitive expectations for the time. You people give me a headache, that was an advanced time, just covered typically by B&W cameras and little footage of life.
The first time I drove our car on Daytona Beach back in the 90s at whatever the speed limit was (5, 10, 15?) I was wondering how insane it must have been to drive at 150 MPH. The surface never looked smooth and hard enough to do anything like that. I get that beaches have changed over time, but still, impressive - I kept thinking one small twitch and you'd sink a tire in a flip over and over.
Do yoi know i am 90s born but feels so relaxed but entertaining while watching this!! I don't understand Curtis supercharged should have left others to dust!! I wonder what happened??!!
What was the distance of this race? (I am from Germany...and not familiar with this kind of races...and in my opinion (although German) no car engine needs more than a single camshaft for all purposes) :-)
You must be my brother from another mother, I love pushrod engines. The course was 4 miles long according to the narrator, 2 miles of it was the beach section.
Along with Ponce De Leon Inlet, much of this is at the old Samsula Navy air base which is now Spruce Creek Fly-in Community. John Travolta is often seen there flying his jets.
I think it'd be great to have todays drivers use these classics retro fitted with today's technology at special anniversary races. I brought it up before and it seems like a lot of the drivers think it's a great idea. How could we the fans get NASCAR to authorize it
@@markshoemaker65 Easy, he's never heard of it, like me. You like belittling people, eh? Just remember that ignorance is our natural state, and we learn while we live. Ignorance is curable through teaching; bad manners, less so.
Yes should of been 368’s in the Mercury’s. In a Turnpike Cruiser would of been 300hp with a single 4bll. I wondered about Chrysler and a few other makers?
@@stevehetrick2676 They were invented right after the car was invented. They used them in Europe for decades, but the US makers took forever to get into the market. I remember in the 60's when Michelin tire were theses expensive super tires that lasted for 40,000 miles. In another 10 years, all the US brands were making them.
I have a 292 that still stomps on lightly modded 350s. My uncle had a 272 that would do the same to 283s and 327s. Both our Y blocks were dead nuts stock, just tuned correctly.
Wonderful, is that back stretch still there today or is it all over developed like most places in the fkn World today, drove down the beach in 1990 in a Crown vic, sure there was a speed limit by then though.
Makes me miss NASCAR racing at Riverside Raceway. Not a high-banked oval track, but a road course. Of course, Riverside Raceway no longer exists, it became a subdivision...
Yeah, what a shame. Where Dan Gurney ruled whenever FoMoCo asked him to work his magic there. My fave outside of Gurney at Riverside and T/A races was Parnelli. Man how this graceless age makes me miss that age.
I can tell you why. It's because the insurance companies have mandated out of existance anything that is in the least bit dangerous. Minimize liability till it no longer exists!
Bill France built Daytona International Speedway which opened in 1959. Think the last “beach race” was 1958. My Dad was there for most of the races in the late 50s…the “North Turn” sand banking turn as still there when we went to Daytona in the early to mid 60s…….Vividly remember my Dad driving us down there to see it. Wonderful era….much better than todays world.
This is where it all started. They didn’t even have a speedway or a top on their car!!🙀 They had leather helmets and were blasted by sand at over 100 mph!! Tough guys!! 300 HP was a lot back then. Now funny cars have 10,000!! 😳 They were truly stock cars. Now they are not close to stock! People saved their money for a year to see the Daytona 500!! Then they drove into their sixties. Now it’s a young mans game.
Don’t know how old I was, but we were going to the B-E-A-C-H !! Was I ever mad, when I found out no playing in the water for me. They were Racing Cars for Daytona on the Beach. ,