CC commenter Martin left a link to this very brisk drive of a 1969 hemi Charger Daytona at today’s vintage comparison. The driver is Canadian driver Jacques Duval, and the track is Mont Tremblant in Quebec. His commentary is in French, unfortunately, but some commenters have given a thumbnail translation (below), although it’s not too hard to imagine what he’s thinking and saying from the video.
And here’s also a Bud Lindemann review of a Hemi Charger 500.
Here’s one commenter’s brief translation:
He’s saying”Lots of under-steer,tires smoke in every corner, and the brakes are starting to overheat.” Also overheating motor, smoke coming from under the hood, not a road-car/daily driver…ungainly behemoth…
Here’s the other one, also on a small, tight track, so lots of squealing tires. Actually, it seems Jacques Duval was pushing his Charger a bit harder and faster than the test driver in Lindemann’s review. Either way, lots of rubber was left behind.
I’ve been to Mont Tremblant many times – have friends and in-laws there – and had no idea there was a racetrack nearby…
You weren’t there during practice days because you would have certainly heard it.
Canadian television in general, was slow to adopt to TV broadcasting in colour.
Canada beginned to broadcast in color in 1966 (Australia adopted color tv in 1975) but back then the first video tapes was big and large until the arrival of the U-Matic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-matic Most of the videos back then was often transfered in film or kinescope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinescope
“Colour television broadcasts commenced on July 1, 1966, and full-colour service began in 1974.” –Wikipedia on the CBC
Many top CBC shows and sporting events remained in black and white into the 1970s. Including Expos baseball and top-rated Hockey Night in Canada. Slow, compared to the US networks adoption of colour. Check Youtube archives, for confirmation.
Color broadcasting in the USA didn’t have to spend extra money for the additional “u”. This accounts for the speedier rollout compared to England-English language countries and their colour broadcasts.
It is something of a conundrum that the USA was slow to adopt cheap and easy aluminum for engine castings, when the England-English countries had to scrimp and save to afford the extra letter in aluminium.
Jacques Duval had a weekly TV show on Radio-Canada (CBC French) called Prenez le Volant (Take the Steering Wheel). Every week he’d take at least one car to Mont-Tremblant for a session like this.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that.
Hi Paul,
If you want the full translation of Jacques Duval’s comments, contact me. I’m from Quebec, Canada and fluently bilingual.
Thanks. I think at this stage of the game just any additional salient translated comments would be welcome, but I leave it up to you.
Mr. Duval’s motorsports biography, shows he raced the Porsche 906 at Mont Tremblant.
Porsche 906
I went deep with the Budd Lindemann videos, they’re are entertaining if nothing else, but I know there are better ways to stop a car than locking them up and measuring the distance of the skid marks! The editing is great, I swear every 70s-current car chase movie has those same quick cuts of jamming the auto shifter into low followed by a tire ripping take off.
Both Chargers look like handfuls that my Focus could probably pace, but it sure does look fun!
I used to watch those Car and Track reruns on Speedvision 20+ years ago. I loved when Bud said “with the brakes hot and smoking…” when talking about the brake tests. My first thought was “why would the brakes be smoking when all they’re doing is locking up the tires?”. I imagine their actual tests were more in line with what an actual test driver would do to get the best times, stops, etc., but to put on a show for the audience the director must have asked the driver to drive it like he hates it.
There is one thing I learned from reading YT comments for ‘Prenez le volant ‘, but I don’t know if it’s true. There was apparently a thing with polyglass tires and it was to raise theirs pressure (up to 80lbs!) to improve traction. What about it? This seems a little scary to me to send a large barge characterized by its understeer into tight curves with such tire pressure. Maybe it was just a drag strip trix ?
Great video. He is really hauling a** in that beast. The most interesting aspect to me is how poor of a job the tires are doing. The suspension appears do be doing a good job and remains relatively flat in the corners. Many factors are work but those bias ply tires are really holding this beast back.