Join Joie Chitwood and his daring band of stunt drivers as they beat the daylights out of the complete 1966 Chevrolet line, from Corvette to Impala to Corvair.
As you know if you’re a regular visitor here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we’re big fans of the old auto thrill shows. And of course, Joie Chitwood’s was the best-known operation in the biz, with multiple teams criss-crossing the country to perform at local race tracks and state and county fairs. Chitwood actually got his start back in 1942 when his boss Lucky Teter, the previous thrill show king, had his luck run out while performing his trademark rocket car stunt. Chitwood bought the team from Lucky’s widow and eventually became the biggest act in stunt driving, enjoying a long association with Chevrolet. (Watch the 1956 edition of his show here.)
This awesome movie short is an excerpt from a full-length Chevy dealer film called Impact: 1966, we believe, and features two Joie Chitwood shows, one at the GM Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, and the second at a local dirt track. In the Proving Ground scenes, Chitwood’s Hell Drivers, as they were billed, are joined by some factory test drivers with some demonstrations of their own. There’s also an appearance by the Chevrolet Turbine Titan III turbine truck concept (more on the Titan here) but for us the icing on the cake is a cameo by our old friend, the late Chris Economaki, looking young and dapper in a bow tie. Video follows.
I remember Joie Chitwood Thrill Shows. The came to State Fair Park in West Allis , Wis. It was one of the few things my old man took me to. I think he really wanted to see them crash, but, of course, they never did. And, as a kid, monkey see, monkey do, and after we got back from the shows, we’d rig up ramps and jumps in the alley with our bikes. We took many a lump, but it was all in good fun. Fact is, if we saw someone driving erratically, we’d say, “who do you think you re, Joie Chitwood”?
That bare chassis sags when it lands from the jump. That and the rollbar is way too low for the driver.
Some of those cars showed a few dings from the inevitable touches.
I noticed they didn’t have any Corvettes riding the ramps at the dirt track as they had at GM. I don’t imagine those fiberglass bodies held up to that kind of treatment very well .