ps my top speed was reached in nevada on a very long stretch of freeway called an airstrip. not a highway.

 

one more ps. I just looked at my time sheet from that day and it was 182mph.

 

Like the President says, when I was young and foolish, I did some foolish things.

When my 65 olds 88 (425 cid) was still fairly new, I had it up to 120 once, but I didn't hold that long enough to test the tires.

Several years later, while on a long road trip in the same car, waking up with by buddy, Tom driving, I saw we were really flying, neck and neck with a big Mercury. I freaked out and yelled, "What in the H*** are you doing?" Tom calmly glanced down at the speedometer and said, "Oh,........... about 130 or so."

Back in the 50's, when I was still a kid, my father and I went for a ride with his friend in an early 50's Ford with a Cadillac engine. We went specifically to be shown how fast it would go. We went 150.

Cadillac was the first US car to have an overhead valve V8. (A Cadillac placed 4th at Le Mans the year they came out.) Olds followed soon (the then named Rocket 88), but the Cadillac was bigger, more powerful. The other manufacturers were a little slow on the uptake; most of the other big engines were still the lower compression ratio "flatheads." So, there were a few years back then in which the Cadillac engine was a hot rod choice.
And the Ford was often a host car choice, because it was light.

These cars were dubbed "Fordillacs."

I'm recalling were also some "Chevrolacs," but these were usually customized body cars, with little caddy-fin-like tail light humps added and, plush upholstery, beefed up and bulleted chrome grills and Cadillac emblems. The early 50's Chevys had body lines so similar to the Caddy's that the final resemblance was pretty good.

I'm remembering all of this on a Camry forum because I now see on some of the blogs that some Camry owners are doing the same kind of customization towards Lexus-like appearance.

The ES 350 body is so similar to the Camry that more than once my stock appearance TCH has been mistaken for a Lexus.

some are changing grille details, adding lower chrome, adding flog lights, adding rear ground effects with simulated dual exhausts , adding Lexus wheels, adding wood dash trim, removing the Camry body emblems, and even replacing them with Lexus emblems, and there's even an online parts supplier who caters to this trend. And, to close the loop completely, they offer a chrome name emblem that says "Lexury"

Shades of "Chevrolac."


Oh yeah, and how fast have I gone in the TCH? I'm older now, and even my choice of the TCH might argue that I'm at least a little wiser. I'm definitely more risk averse.

Nevertheless, on a trip back from the beach this week I was overtaken by a re-emergence of my youthful bravado, and I pushed it up to nearly 70 mph in a 65 mph zone !