Tag Archives: Bel

Hot One Of Fifteen – 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Indy Pace Car

For 1955 Chevrolet launched it’s second generation full size Bel Air range, to replace the almost entirely new 1954 Bel Air. with two tone paintwork and for the first time a new 4.3 litre 265 cui V8 ‘small block’ engine option that would remain part of General Motors product mix with many improvements over several decades.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Goodwood FoS

The crisp clean styling of the 1955 Bel Air was set off by a Ferrari inspired chrome square potato chip grill as seen on the car below photographed at last years Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Goodwood FoS

Alongside two straight six motor options the new ‘small block’ came tuned with either a 162 hp Turbo-Fire with twin barrel carburetor, 180 hp Power Pack Super Turbo – Fire with four barrel carburetor or towards the end of the model year a 195 hp competition option with a high compression motor.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Goodwood FoS

Being selected to perform pace car duties for the 1955 Indy 500 is reckoned to have given Chevrolet’s Bel Air marketing campaign a terrific boost, it is said that a fleet of 15 two tone Red & White Bel Airs were in attendance at what proved to be an unforgettable race.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Goodwood FoS

Chevrolet Sales Manager Thomas H Keating was given the honour of pacing the field for the Indy 500 on May 30th 1955 and he can be seen at the wheel of what Keating claimed to be a 180 hp vehicle, on this linked photo, sitting beside him is thought to be Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman. The linked photo is telling for what it does not show, namely it is quite clearly not about to pace the Indy 500 and as we shall see it might not even be the actual vehicle used to pace the event.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Goodwood FoS

The give away as to which vehicle paced the event can be seen at 13m 37 secs into this linked clip when the pace car that actually led the field away can be clearly seen to be carrying a movie camera in the boot / trunk necessitating a rather large slit to afford the camera rearward vision and to accommodate the upper film reel. No one knows for sure what happened to that particular car after the event.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Goodwood FoS

Bill Vukovich looked to be on course for a third straight Indy victory in 1955 with a 17 second lead on the 57th lap, of 200, when he ran into someone else’s accident and ended flying over the back stretch perimeter fence and coming to rest up turned and on fire giving the two time defending champion no chance of survival. Bob Sweikert who had worked his way up from 14th on the grid, and was second in the John Zink Special at the time of the accident crossed the line 3 hours 53 mins and 59 secinds after the Bel Air pace car had entered pit road to start the race.

Bob took home one of the fifteen Bel Air pace cars with his wife and their kids, he went on to win the 1955 AAA big car championship and Midwest Sprint Car Championship, becoming the only winner of what is known cumulatively as the American Motor Sports Triple Crown. The following year Sweikert was killed in a sprint car accident at Salem Speedway racing Ed Elisan whom he had raced as a teenager in his home town of East Bay California.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Hot One Of Fifteen’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Entirely New ? – Chevrolet Bel Air

Back in the 1950’s it would appear manufacturers could not keep up with demand for new innovations and so would resort to upgrading older chassis with restyled body panels and selling them as entirely new, such was the case with the 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air which was advertised with the strap line ‘Entirely new through and through’ which actually shared its chassis and running gear with the Bel Air built from 1950 to 1952.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Shakespeare CR

Today’s featured car appears to have been built in 1954, the last year in which the first generation Bel Air’s were built.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Shakespeare CR

During the last years production all of the 3,345 lb Bel Airs are said to have been fitted with a 125 hp 3.9 liter / 235.5 cui straight six ‘Blue Flame’ motor.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Shakespeare CR

The original concept for the Bel Air was to style a hard top vehicle to look like a convertible, to confuse the issue Bel Air’s were originally available as either 2 door hard top coupé, 4 door sedan, 2 door convertible or 4 door Station Wagon / Estate.

Chevrolet Bel Air, Shakespeare CR

This particular Bel Air is used as a support vehicle by the Gas Racing drag team who run the Pinto powered slingshot coupé Old ‘n’ Gold for drivers Scottie ‘Dog’ Durrant and Gina ‘Hot Rod’ Rumble.

Tiki Munki Old 'n' Gold, Shakespeare CR

According to Facebook Gina was recently recorded a 12.95 ET run in Old’n’Gold.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Entirely new through and through’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Hot One’s Even Hotter – 1956 Chevrolet Nomad

At the travelling 1954 General Motors Motorama motor show, attended by 1.9 million visitors, Chevrolet displayed a Corvette based concept vehicle the Nomad a 2 door estate / station wagon among Head Stylist Harley Earl’s collection of ‘Dream Cars’.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

In 1955 Chevrolet launched it’s second generation Bel Air models with the strap line ‘The Hot One’. The Bel Air range included the 2 door Nomad estate / station wagon.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

The second generation Bel Air and the Nomad had a three year life cycle, knowing that if the car was to sell well in the second year of production the range had to look new for 1956, even if it was not, GM upgraded the Nomad saving no expenses on styling and tooling the exterior trim, including a fresh front bumper and new full width front grill.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

The ’56 Chevrolet’s Bel Air range was marketed with the new strap line ‘The Hot One’s even hotter’.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

Power for the Bel Air was provided by either a 4.3 litre / 265 cui or 4.6 litre / 283 cui V8, so far as I can tell this particular Nomad, seen at Shakespeare County Raceway, has a 5.7 litre / 347 cui V8.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

Chrome trim levels on the humble Nomad were comparable to contemporary high end Cadillacs.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

A feature introduced on the ’56 Nomad was the concealment of the filler for the petrol tank by the chrome tail light housing on the drivers side.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

With $585 premium over the standard $2025 2-door Bel Air the Nomad was the most expensive vehicle in the Bel Air range.

Chevrolet Nomad, Shakespeare CR

Production numbers show that Estate Station Wagons were not top of the Bel Air demographics list of priorities in 1956, just 7,886 Nomads were built compared to 103,000 pillarless four door hard tops and 128, 000 base 2 door model Bel Airs.

Thanks for joining me on this Nomad edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow Ferrari Friday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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