Jim Wangers at Pikes Peak with a Kaiser

[Logan]

I read an interesting fact I hadn't heard before in the June issue of Hemmings Classic Car.  Here's a quotation from the article, ""I'd even love a supercharged 1954 Kaiser flathead six--my first big campaign, to prove that a supercharged six was as powerful as an eight, and better at altitude, was with one of these. We actually broke a record at Pikes Peak, but the campaign never happened. After that, I went to Chevy, and they were working on early ideas for their '56, under the 'Hot One is Even Hotter' theme. So I pulled out my Kaiser proposal, spent a night changing the name Kaiser to Chevrolet, and pitched it" (pg. 54, Koch, Jeff. "Jim Wangers: The Eclectic Collection of Pontiac's One-Time PR Prince." Hemmings Classic Car 9.9 (2013): 54-57).  It was nice to hear about a supercharged Kaiser winning at Pike's Peak--makes since that the high pressure air would give the six an advantage over conventionally aspirated 8s at high altitude.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Kaisers always did well on the Pikes Peak Road....Floyd Clymer set a record for the run in his 1947 Kaiser Special while driving back to California from Detroit where he got the car purchased regular retail from one of the area's K-F stores.

[Gordie]

A 1956 Chevy Bel Aire coupe was my first new car and I remember well the TV ads for Chevy setting a new Pikes Peak record with the new models,  The ads  were in black and white.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

I know what you're talking about.  I have one of the pikes peak 1956 Chevy ads in my collection of old TV shows/ads.  Presently I have somewhere between 9 and 10 hours straight of original TV ads, 1942-1968 model years, most of them 1960 or earlier.   Chevy did the same thing with the Corvair in 1960.  the 2-door used in the Mobilgas Economy Run went to Colorado as soon as the run ended and did the still snow-covered road up without snow tires.