The video is not slated so we have no idea what year it was made in, but it looks all the world like the late 1970s or early 1980s to us. The Corvette itself is a chrome bumper car so that gives you an indication of its age. Clearly the idea was not to add airbags to the C3 platform but to test their efficacy for later inclusion into cars like the C4 and up.

If there is one interesting element that seems to fail the dummies in this crash it is the seats and the seat belts. Watch how the “driver” slides completely out of the seat and kind of just tomahawks around the passenger compartment. With no side bolstering to hold the driver in place and only a three point belt, the side impact sends him for a pretty good ride after he rebounds off of the air bag.

This is cool stuff and proof that automotive safety has been as much an evolution as performance has, even in cars like the mighty Corvette.

Press play below to see this interesting old video from Chevrolet showing crash tests –

The post Crash Test Video: Watch This C3 Corvette Equipped With Air Bags Get Demolished appeared first on BangShift.com.

We have no idea where this show is but we do know that it is cold outside, there is snow on the ground, and these guys have basically been given a corner of the parking lot to work on their stuff. This is a scene that was repeated several times a week by many of the competitors you see here. These are the trucks that helped build monster truck racing to the height of its popularity and they did it the old fashioned way, by barnstorming around like old drag racers.

The trucks are neat! There’s the famed Rollin’ Thunder diesel Dodge van, there’s the Hawaiian Punch Chevy, the AM/PM Boss, the Skoal Chevy, the Coors Brewer, and more.

As a kid who just showed up to monster truck shows, watched the trucks do their deal, and bailed out with mom and pop, I had no idea that these guys were outside wrenching in the cold and making the stuff actually prepared to compete. It seems like this was just the normal routine back then and we like its humble and weirdly out of place nature as the trucks sit among parked cars of (we’re guessing) arena employees.

Like I said, you may have to be a dork to love this video but hey, if the shoe fits, Cinderella!

Press play to see this behind the scenes look at the monster truck life of the 1980s

The post Behind The Scenes Video: This 1980s Look At The Work Of Monster Truck Crews Outside An Arena Is Cool appeared first on BangShift.com.

Let’s see.

Video Description:

Episode 289 of Mike Finnegan’s Garage is a banger! I’m introducing a new project, exploring a spooky warehouse full of cool equipment while trying not to get killed, and driving cross country in a 26 year old truck. This was all made possible by the good people at Bling Sauce and its Platinum line of automotive detailing products. Bling Sauce is so excited about this project that the first 500 viewers who click here and use the promo code “FREEMIKE” will receive a sample pack of Leather Sauce, Secret Sauce and Trim Sauce: https://blingsauce.com/collections/au…

The post FINNEGAN BOUGHT A MINT 1998 GMC WITH ONLY 12,300 MILES ON IT AND DROVE IT HOME FROM TEXAS! appeared first on BangShift.com.

Video Description:

This week on Make it Kustom UNLEASHED, I head out on a road trip to 150 Mile House alongside Justin and Benny. Benny’s online wheeling and dealing scored him a straight swap: his widened 1973 GMC G35 for a chopped 1949 Pontiac torpedo back. The stakes are high, and the anticipation palpable as we hope the deal is worth the long drive! But that’s not all—the journey doesn’t end there. On the way back, I stumble upon an another treasure: a baby flathead V8-60, adding another layer of excitement to our adventure.

The post Make It Kustom Is Trading A Widened 1973 GMC G35 For A Chopped 1949 Pontiac Torpedo Back. Wait, A What? Was It A Deal? appeared first on BangShift.com.

From background information like the fact the truck was originally pitched as having used the Grand National proven 3.8L V6, to the point that two different companies were basically pitted against each other to create the prototypes which the company would eventually approve. Hell, we didn’t know that by government standards this thing is not even calld a GMC?!

Great history, story telling, and knowledge dropped here. Check this out!

Press play below to see this awesome video that tells the Syclone story!

The post Great Video: Here’s The Inside Story On How The Legendary GMC Syclone Came To Exist And Fly! appeared first on BangShift.com.

This thing was a hod rod, not just by the standards of the day but really by any measure. The fact that it kept the American/Italian theme going so well is awesome and wait until you hear how it sounds because it sounds awesome. The MotorWeek crew had the car singing a good tune at the spacious and fast Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania so this was not just a deal that involved idling the car around the neighborhood, they get after it here! Not just in the slalom and brake stop stuff, either. The have this car on the NASCAR course as well as the infield road course.

Call us crazy but we’d love to own one of these cars now. Yes, we’d warm the 351 up a little, literally. Some aluminum heads, a little camshaft, and EFI would be plenty. Give us 500hp at the tire and we’ll be more than satisfied to hit the streets.

Oh, one last thing. How hot did your luggage get sitting directly over top the engine in the rear of the car?! Hopefully no one packed chocolate bars!

Press play below to see this awesome review of the Pantera GT5-S on MotorWeek –

The post Wait, What? You Could Still Buy A DeTomaso Pantera in 1987 Check Out This GT5-S Video Review! appeared first on BangShift.com.

This video called, “Pit Stop” is basically a driver’s education film that is dressed up to look like a racing film. Hell, maybe it is a racing film dressed up as a driver’s ed piece. What we do know is that it is wall to wall cars. Some of the passenger cars shown are cool, like the Buick GS that kind of winds its way through the whole video. You’ll see racers like Mario Andretti and others getting after it. We think that it’s really cool the drags got a nod here among the other perhaps more high profile forms of competition.

If you were born in the first half of the 1950s and you were coming of age to get a license in the late 1960s, there’s an excellent chance that you actually watched this film. Did anyone see it as a fresh release? We think that this is a fantastic watch!

Press play below to see this 1967 film called Pit Stop from Coca Cola – This rules all –

The post Awesome Video: This 1967 Piece By Coca Cola Called “Pit Stop” Highlights Every Major Form Of Racing appeared first on BangShift.com.

As all these old films are want to do, we see the machine doing a load of different jobs. From acting as a log skidder in the mountains to doing snow work in the city, light construction, moving coal, effectively everything that the marketing department could dream up.

I’d like to have one of these bad boys to fire up and play around with. Between the Detroit Diesel power and the bucket to scoop stuff with, I’d have a blast.

Press play below to see this awesome 1940s sales film for the Allis-Chalmers HD5

The post Hardhat History: This 1940s Allis-Chalmers HD5 Crawler Tractor Sales Video Is Great appeared first on BangShift.com.

Yes the displacement was the same but the reality is that VW had changed so much of the guts of the engine to deal with boost and the increased power output that it was nearly a fresh piece when lined up with other standard 1.8L variants. How was performance? Damned good for the period and this was one of the models that helped to revive VW in the USA which had been struggling mightily since the cancellation of the Beetle and with Japanese competition which were producing cars of equal performance and quality for far shorter prices.

The supercharged Corrado would run the quarter mile in 15.7 seconds, it would get to 60mph in 7.5 seconds, and it would run to a top speed of 140mph. Those were legit performance numbers at the time and they were wrapped in an interesting looking package, which some people enjoyed and some did not. The Corrado would be produced through 1995 and its ultimate performance form would be with the VR6 engine, but the interesting fact there is that even with the VR6, in automatic trim the 1990 G60 was quicker to sixty!

Neat car. Anyone out there have one?

Press play below to see this retro review of the 1990 VW Corrado G60 –

The post Retro Review: The 1990 VW Corrado G60 Was An Oddly Supercharged Zinger That Led The Company’s Resurgence appeared first on BangShift.com.

While we lack specifics on the car and driver, the thing plays a mechanical song that has been tickling the ear holes of drag racing fans for more than 60 years. Lots of RPM and that dip in the pitch of the noise with each successive gear change. This truly is the good stuff and it is a form of mechanical language that transcends not only time, but oceans, cultures, and whatever else you can think of.

The other awesome thing about this video is the fact that the dude is obviously bracket or handicap index racing the car because his competition gets a good long run on him and when he bangs the ’55 into 4th gear he blows by the other racer like the dude is tied to a tree! He actually rips the throttle closed early after blowing him off. We’re guessing that’s in an effort not to break out.

Yes, the dude is using the clutch between gears but ya know what? We’re not knocking points off of that. His car, he gets to decide how he drives it. He’s still doing it the cool way with an H-pattern shifter and three pedals swinging under the dash.

Press play to see some good old fashion drag racing action from England

The post The American Powertrain Wednesday Shift: Ripping Gears At Santa Pod In A 4-Speed, Small Block, ’55 appeared first on BangShift.com.