hydralique
Well-known member
DT . . .
Before you call BS on my story please re-read it: the owners of that ‘57 300 knew perfectly well that it wasn’t going to outrun a hard-driven late ‘80s Corvette in any way, not acceleration, not top end, not braking and not cornering. They were smart guys with a very nice collection of both American and European cars and didn’t dispense BS. What the driver of the 300 correctly guessed was that the ‘Vette driver had no interest in the sustained high speeds his car was capable of but was rather just a rude show off who wanted to pass the Chryslers and nothing else, had he not cut sharply in front of the 300 on an otherwise deserted highway nothing more would have come of it.
The 300 driver was hacked off by his rudeness and decided to make the ‘Vette driver work a little to stay in front. The story has always made me laugh because the ‘Vette driver undoubtedly thought he’d pass two old cars in a showy fashion and then drop back to 70 and didn’t count on the 300 being fast enough to make him sweat a bit. Not many production true four seaters of that era could have run 120 in a straight line. A few other carefully optioned American cars could have, along with a Mark II Jaguar sedan with the 3.8 and overdrive, but overall the list would have been short. Anyway I hope we can all agree that a '57 300 was capable of 120, which is all the owners claimed.
Regarding the Pont-a-Mousson, I’ve heard that the number of ‘60 300s so equipped ran into the low double digits but can’t verify that. I’ve always figured it was more of a marketing ploy than anything else, since Chevy was making a big deal out of having their four speed (introduced in mid ‘57 IIRC) in the Corvette. Certainly the 300 was a luxury GT and not a sports car like the Corvette but even into the early ‘60s Chrysler liked to advertise it as a sporting car. I would think if they wanted the four speed for NASCAR it would have also been offered in Plymouths and Dodges, do you know if it was?
[this post was last edited: 8/30/2014-18:11]
Before you call BS on my story please re-read it: the owners of that ‘57 300 knew perfectly well that it wasn’t going to outrun a hard-driven late ‘80s Corvette in any way, not acceleration, not top end, not braking and not cornering. They were smart guys with a very nice collection of both American and European cars and didn’t dispense BS. What the driver of the 300 correctly guessed was that the ‘Vette driver had no interest in the sustained high speeds his car was capable of but was rather just a rude show off who wanted to pass the Chryslers and nothing else, had he not cut sharply in front of the 300 on an otherwise deserted highway nothing more would have come of it.
The 300 driver was hacked off by his rudeness and decided to make the ‘Vette driver work a little to stay in front. The story has always made me laugh because the ‘Vette driver undoubtedly thought he’d pass two old cars in a showy fashion and then drop back to 70 and didn’t count on the 300 being fast enough to make him sweat a bit. Not many production true four seaters of that era could have run 120 in a straight line. A few other carefully optioned American cars could have, along with a Mark II Jaguar sedan with the 3.8 and overdrive, but overall the list would have been short. Anyway I hope we can all agree that a '57 300 was capable of 120, which is all the owners claimed.
Regarding the Pont-a-Mousson, I’ve heard that the number of ‘60 300s so equipped ran into the low double digits but can’t verify that. I’ve always figured it was more of a marketing ploy than anything else, since Chevy was making a big deal out of having their four speed (introduced in mid ‘57 IIRC) in the Corvette. Certainly the 300 was a luxury GT and not a sports car like the Corvette but even into the early ‘60s Chrysler liked to advertise it as a sporting car. I would think if they wanted the four speed for NASCAR it would have also been offered in Plymouths and Dodges, do you know if it was?
[this post was last edited: 8/30/2014-18:11]
