Anyone remember this fad?

[caryc]

I happened to watch an episode of "My Three Sons" yesterday and this teenager was in his hot rod. He had a floor shift in it and the shift rod was extended. It had an Eight Ball knob on top of it about the size of a hardball. The rod had to be higher than his head because when he grabbed it to shift into first, he grabbed it by the shaft to shift it and there must have been another foot of shaft above his hand.

I'm 77 years old and I really don't remember anything like that when I was a kid. Anybody else remember that fad?

 

[Yaworski]

I wasn't driving during the hot rod years but I built many models. I remember models with exaggerated shifters, kinda like ape hanger handle bars.

 

[gnappi]

I never even heard on something like that. Eight ball, Hurst "T", and other odd shift knobs but not extended.

 

[GypsmJim]

My first car was a '61 Pontiac Tempest with bucket seats and a floor shifter. It was exactly as you described, but the chrome extension was not that high, maybe only a foot.

It had the 4 cyl engine (half of a 289 V8) and it was a real dog.

I found a GTO badge somewhere and mounted it on the dashboard. Guys laughed at me but girls thought I had a beast.

 

[Jeepnik]

Maybe the writers of My Three Sons watched The Munsters.
Something seems to be very distracting, but if you look close you can see the shifter.

 

[WAYNO]

Oh yes. I remember.

And it was so cool, it crossed over into the bicycle world.

 

[Ride1949]

^ ^ ^ ^ Big Daddy's Rat!
IIRC All of Ed Roth's drawings had that tall shifter.

 

[GypsmJim]

Maybe the writers of My Three Sons watched The Munsters.
Something seems to be very distracting, but if you look close you can see the shifter.
View attachment 66101

I don't see no stinking shifter. I see leopard stripes.

 

[gunzo]

Glad I'm not the only one that remembered the Roth art, & Rat Fink reaching up to grab the 8 ball.

 

[Jeepnik]

I don't see no stinking shifter. I see leopard stripes.

You passed the test!

 

[gjgalligan]

Leopards have spots
Tigers have stripes

 

[Fox Mike]

My buddy's deuce roadster had a floor shift but nothing that high. It was also a summer only car. No top nor heater.

 

[Yaworski]

Leopards have spots
Tigers have stripes

It's 2025 dude, leopards can have stripes if they want them.

 

[GypsmJim]

Leopards have spots
Tigers have stripes

Yes I understand but the pic excited me so much that I lost my focus. At least got the leopard right.....

 

[Johnnu2]

I don't see no stinking shifter. I see leopard stripes.

As mentioned above, I believe that those are leopard SPOTS....
And, YES, there is no shifter visible to most of us.. :p

J.

 

[WendyZXZ]

The only fad I got into was wearing an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time:

 

[Ride1949]

This shot (without that lovely distraction) might make it easier to focus on the shifter.

 

[PRichardson87]

Like Billy Bigrigger in his Dodge dually?

 

[Mauser9]

Recall the plastic models Davy and Digger hot rod and motorcycle models. Airplane glue too.

 

[jimbo1096]

Oh yes, I remember them. Big Daddy Roth, and the Rat Fink were the start of all of that exaggerated nonsense. It was all for looks and show and no go..

 

[Yaworski]

It was all for looks and show and no go..

 

[caryc]

Oh yes, I remember them. Big Daddy Roth, and the Rat Fink were the start of all of that exaggerated nonsense. It was all for looks and show and no go..

Hmmm...it figures you'd remember them. You and I trod the same decks.

 

[jimbo1096]

Oh yes . And MAD magazine

 

[stonebuster]

Maybe the writers of My Three Sons watched The Munsters.
Something seems to be very distracting, but if you look close you can see the shifter.
View attachment 66101

Calm down...she's 80 now

 

[Gator89]

How about these?

 

[xtratoy]

Motorcycles too...

 

[BarryinIN]

Motorcycles too... View attachment 66175

I never understood ape hangers. Modifications are usually meant to do one or more of the following:
-Make the car/motorcycle perform or handle better
-Make things more comfortable
-Look cool

These do the opposite on all counts.

 

[el caminero]

Stroker mcgurk? Normie grabowski's lightnin bug, 1955, seems to be the earliest tall-shifter? Roth cartoons mock much which deserved mocking. One boss put me in his favourite truck, a w900l bullnose kw, said you'll love it. (He wasent even a driver). I hated it, but gave it 110,000 miles before the company crashed. I shifted the extra-tall lever from about halfway up. Reach up to work the hi/lo with my thumb. Got so smooth and quick once i got used to that particular trans (each individual trans is very particular!) that i was asked why i put an automatic in such a classic. Also, obviously not a driver, either...
Iirc, "woo-woo" got the plaster skull from disneys pirates of the carribbean giftstore, and while the one on the munstermobile was rather smaller and also facing forward, the bolt dident go clean thru the top of it with the nut on top and the gore, in its second life as the Kookie Car, tho originally as lightnin bolt it had a clear die, about 5" across, one clear, one clear red.

 

[xtratoy]

I never understood ape hangers. Modifications are usually meant to do one or more of the following:
-Make the car/motorcycle perform or handle better
-Make things more comfortable
-Look cool

These do the opposite on all counts.

I guess they keep the armpits cool on hot days.

 

[vito]

Xtratoy beat me to it. An extra long shifter makes as little sense as the exaggerated "ape hangers" on motorcycles. Having raised handlebars on a motorcycle cruiser can make riding more comfortable, especially for shorter riders to avoid having to lean far forward to the handgrips. Of course "risers" can accomplish the same thing, but some like the look of raised bars. But like everything else, if a moderate "ape hanger" is good, some will think even bigger ones are better, leading to the stupidity shown in the photo that Xtratoy posted.