- Messages
- 17,269
- Location
- New York City
Well, I'm primarily a car and gun guy, so I take a little different view. There are a lot of people that view the 30s and WW2 era as the Golden Age. But as a car guy, I despise cars from before 1955 as they were all so anemic before Chrysler revolutionized the American motoring experience with the C-300. For the first time, the American motorist, providing he/she had deep enough pockets, could go to a showroom and buy a genuine race car that with VERY little modification could place in the top 5 in any sanctioned racing event you could find. A bone stock C-300 ran 144 mph on the sand at Daytona and IIRC a '56 300B broke 150 at Bonneville. And things only got better from there. Super Stock Dodges that could turn 11 second quarter miles bone stock, Road Runners that could be VERY competitive in A Stock and B Stock drag racing. Then the bottom fell out in the 70s with net HP ratings and emission controls. While Chrysler soldiered on with Lean Burn til 1977 or so, the catalytic converter really ended the Golden Age. The auto industry has yet to match the visceral thrill of burying your right foot in a Hemi Coronet R/T or 440 Six Barrel Road Runner.
For guns, I have a broader window. A pre-64 Winchester or prewar about anything has fit and finish that simply can't be matched today; an era when labor was cheap and parts weren't.
So, for guns, my "Golden Age" is 1870- c. 1965, and for cars 1955-1974.
"...burying your right foot..."
nice turn of phrase, captures the visceral fission of that moment.