HP from the past...

Zee09

Zee09

$200 Site Donor 2023
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WPB Florida-Maryland-Pennsylvania
I was reading about a 1957 Chevy 6400 series 2 ton flatbed. It was retrofitted in the 1960's with an era Buick 215 CID OHV 155 HP 2V Fireball V-8 motor.
Can you imagine???
I remember my neighbor having a 70s 3500 Chevy truck with a 454 and he was the king on the street. My 2L turbo out juices him.

I have been behind those old trucks like the 57 above and it takes a few minutes to get up to speed. But they got the job done.. I'd actually like to own that mouse motored two ton :)
 
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Remember the Dodge Aries Station wagons with the 2.2 Non Turbo 4CYL. 89 ~96 HP from the factory. I remember it would take several minutes to get to 55 or 60 if your on ramp was even slightly uphill.

My favorite was a 5th wheel hauler F-650 with a 370ci big block. Sam engine family as the 460 and it was utterly gutless. Why not just put the 460 in from day one?
 
Yeah, years ago when I towed a 5x10 uhaul trailer out to Manitoba with my 127hp Tracker, we were talking to my great uncle who drove transport trucks in the 1960's in the prairies. He remembers like 10 ton trucks with 150hp and he used all of it, sometimes all day if he was going west into a good breeze....
My buddy has a 1980's 5 ton truck, plus a trailer, to deliver christmas trees and a small chevy V8 in it, and it is often foot to the floor between gas stations to keep up with traffic at 60mph.... It gets the heads done every few years too, seems to burn valves getting run WO for a couple hours at a time?
 
I’d take a 66 Nova II coupe (or sedan or even the wagon these days!) with the 1200+HP 4.8L LS that Richard Holdener did several years ago. Stick a 10L90 with a full-lockup 3k converter and some 4.11s in it and you could PowerTour the country on pump gas, and tip the scales at less than 3k#, while likely knocking down nearly 30 mpg and running 8.90s on a drag radial…
 
IndyIan said:
Yeah, years ago when I towed a 5x10 uhaul trailer out to Manitoba with my 127hp Tracker, we were talking to my great uncle who drove transport trucks in the 1960's in the prairies. He remembers like 10 ton trucks with 150hp and he used all of it, sometimes all day if he was going west into a good breeze....
My buddy has a 1980's 5 ton truck, plus a trailer, to deliver christmas trees and a small chevy V8 in it, and it is often foot to the floor between gas stations to keep up with traffic at 60mph.... It gets the heads done every few years too, seems to burn valves getting run WO for a couple hours at a time?
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All of those old trucks always gassed you out with oil burning too.
 
Fordiesel69 said:
Remember the Dodge Aries Station wagons with the 2.2 Non Turbo 4CYL. 89 ~96 HP from the factory. I remember it would take several minutes to get to 55 or 60 if your on ramp was even slightly uphill.

My favorite was a 5th wheel hauler F-650 with a 370ci big block. Sam engine family as the 460 and it was utterly gutless. Why not just put the 460 in from day one?
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My first car a 1993 Dodge Shadow, Super Base model (Dad bought it new in 1993, no radio, no speakers, no passenger mirror)

93hp of fury through a stick.
 
SubieRubyRoo said:
I’d take a 66 Nova II coupe (or sedan or even the wagon these days!) with the 1200+HP 4.8L LS that Richard Holdener did several years ago. Stick a 10L90 with a full-lockup 3k converter and some 4.11s in it and you could PowerTour the country on pump gas, and tip the scales at less than 3k#, while likely knocking down nearly 30 mpg and running 8.90s on a drag radial…
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OMG that would be a blast.

Sign me up.
 
Zee09 said:
Don't forget the early VW's! No hp at all but they were fun to drive.
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I learned to drive on and then drove a 69 Beetle all through high school. Very slow and I flogged it mercilessly, but it never whimpered. Great memories in that car.

Times have so changed. My 2018 Passat GT was significantly faster than the Ferrari Tom Selleck drove in the 80's show Magnum PI. And got much better gas mileage too.
 
racer12306 said:
Very interesting.

Something we don't take into consideration, inflation.
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Yea, there was probably better wages back in those days compared to today, I wouldn't know that's before my time but from what I can gather minimum wage back then was $1.15 which today would have been $11.88/hr and supposedly in 1961 minimum wage went to $1.25 so $12.91/hr compared to $7.25 today.
 
KCJeep said:
I learned to drive on and then drove a 69 Beetle all through high school. Very slow and I flogged it mercilessly, but it never whimpered. Great memories in that car.
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It had what, 18 horsepower? It didn't have enough juice to hurt itself unless you ran it into a larger object.

My friend had a mid-60's Beetle with the AutoStick that he and I first learned how to imitate Ken Block in during the early 90s... RIP 43.
 
Furious said:
Yea, there was probably better wages back in those days compared to today, I wouldn't know that's before my time but from what I can gather minimum wage back then was $1.15 which today would have been $11.88/hr and supposedly in 1961 minimum wage went to $1.25 so $12.91/hr compared to $7.25 today.
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Minimum wages are a great way for business to hold the cost of labor down while passing the true costs on to the consumer.
 
Furious said:
You are forgetting one thing.... 35 cents in the 50s/60s equals to about $3.60 today.
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Gas pricing has long been a variable. I chose this older chart due to how clear it is, and ONLY to show that even adjusted for inflation, gas pricing can double.

fotw915.png
 
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