Stock cars ran up Pike's Peak in 1956 for the first time since 1934. Jerry
Unser won the stock class in a 56 Chevy. Third place stocker was Herb
Bryers in a 56 Plymouth Fury. A Fury also took 9th place.
The road to the top of Pike's Peak is dirt, so light weight was a definite
advantage coming out of the hairpin turns. According to the writeup in the
September 1956 issue of Hot Rod Magazine, the Chevy was the lightest and
least nose-heavy of the low priced three and Plymouth was the heaviest. The
caption under a picture of Bryers' Plymouth says: "Fury had power but too
much weight to accelerate off tight corners." All of the cars in the top 10
were Chevys, Fords or Plymouths (best Ford was 4th). None of the bigger,
more expensive (and powerful) cars finished in the top 10.
Jerry Unser's brother Bobby won the Championship car class in a Jaguar
special, running two minutes quicker than the quickest stocker.
BTW Ross, you have a beautiful Imperial.
Curtis French
56 Belvedere club sedan
59 Coronet 2 door hardtop
PS I want the Airflow!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ross Klein" <tailfins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 12:01 PM
Subject: [FWDLK] FWDLK in miniature--coming soon!
> Hey, Forward Lookers
>
> For those of you who are interested in models, Brooklin of England have
just
> announced their lineup for the coming year. Amongst the several new models
> are THREE Forward Look cars. The first is a 1955 Dodge Coronet 4 dr.
sedan,
> due to be released around March. Later will be a special, limited edition
of
> their '56 Plymouth Fury, depicting the car that won the Pike's Peak
> Hillclimb in 1956. I'm not familiar with this particular car, but maybe
some
> of the members can shed some light on it. Lastly, there will be another
'56
> Plymouth, this one being a Plaza Club Sedan. I'm pretty sure that a
special
> version of the Plaza will eventually emerge as a police car, as Brooklin
is
> doing a whole series of police vehicles over the next two years. For those
> not familiar with Broooklin models, they are high-quality 1/43rd scale
> white-metal models, very well detailed and beautifully finished in
authentic
> (usually) colors. They retail for about $75.00 and are available from
> several dealers throughout the country.
>
> Although not a Forward Look subject, still of interest to most MoPar
> collectors, The Franklin Mint has announced a beautiful 1/24th scale
replica
> of the 1934 Chrysler Airflow coupe finished in black. I've seen photos of
> this Airflow, and it is magnificent!
>
> Happy collecting, and a very Happy New Year to all!!
>
> Ross Klein
> '56 Imperial sedan
> 'Life's too short to drive 'ordinary' cars"
>
> -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
> 2003 Calendar voting results and ordering information is online! Please
visit:
> http://www.forwardlook.net/calendar2003 for more information.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
2003 Calendar voting results and ordering information is online! Please visit:
http://www.forwardlook.net/calendar2003 for more information.
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