Quote:
Originally Posted by Fifty150hs
Oh my God! I cannot imagine getting into a black car that hasn't been running with the AC on for at least 30 minutes in that kind of heat....
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I grew up in the days where automotive A/C wasn't found in most cars, back in the '50's & '60's.
Our family cars didn't have A/C from my birth in 1950 thru the day my father bought a used '57 Olds 98, with A/C, in 1960. Both sets of G'parents didn't get auto A/C until 1962. So I/we were used to Texas summers without cooling.
My maternal Grandfather had a '52 Chevy, black on black, but he had an evaporative "swamp cooler", hanging onto a right-side window, that he'd attach whenever he'd visit family in far West Texas (lower humidity than in the DFW area), but it wasn't used around town.
Once I got my first car, a '56 Chevy (w/o A/C), in '65, thru 1977, when I bought a used '73 Volvo 142 (with A/C) I drove for 12 years without A/C (except for 1968-71, when I had a '67 Dodge Monaco 500, with the best A/C of any car I ever owned...I got T-boned by a Pink Cadillac, so I went poor-boy driving 3 successive VW's, w/o A/C from '71-77). I never bought another non-A/C car/truck again, with one exception...my triple black '66 Chevelle Malibu.
When I bought it in '94, I fully intended to restore and upgrade it for street use, but it seems that that plan never had a chance. In '93, my new wife and I moved into a semi-rural area, about 2 miles from a dragstrip (and two circle-tracks). Though I had quit drag-racing soon after high-school, and hadn't gone to a 'strip since then,the sound coming from the nearby 'strip (usually on Wed. & Fri. evenings,all day Sat., and sometimes all day Sundays) was too much of a temptation for me to resist, so I set out to make the Chevelle into a street-strip car.
I still planned to install an A/C at first (it had been a factory A/C car), but since I only drove it to work in pre-dawn cool mornings, and back after 6pm at nght (maybe once or twice a month), and primarily to the local car show my Chevelle Club hosted once a month, or to the 'strip twice a month, I never got around to installing the A/C components I'd bought, and traded them for go-fast parts.
Later on, the Chevelle was converted to race-only, and trailered to racing venues, so no A/C was
usually needed. But, there were a few special events that I raced at, which were held in summer weather, where I regretted having a triple-black car.
One time in particular comes to mind: it was over 100 degrees ambient, and there were close to 400 cars at the event, so the staging lanes were long and all drivers were HOT. At one point, after being in the lane, and finally getting to the burn-out box, the racing was interrupted so the "Jr. Racers" could run their event.
My Chevelle had no alternator (I charged the dual batteries between rounds), and I really couldn't shut off the engine, so I idled it (at 1250 rpm) for the ten minutes we waited, after 30 minutes already creeping forward in line. I had to turn off the fan inside the car, in order to have enough power for the engine cooling (dual fans, and electric water pump...alternating between each).
And, the car had an uninsulated floor (weight-saving), and the headers dumped right below my seat, so all that heat was rising up, and cooking me. I had an oven temperature gauge clipped to the visor, and it read 150-160F degrees, and I was sweltering in full firesuit, with no water to drink. After that, I always carried one or two jump boxes inside the car, so I could shut down.
I couldn't take that kind of heat these days (that was 20 years ago), but if I was still racing, I'd definitely have a refrigerated cooling vest (not invented 'til later). Heck, that might not be a bad idea, to use on the riding mower!