Your exactly right. There weren't nearly as many cars on the road back then. That's a big factor now. Just too much traffic to even think about doing something like that now. I'm lucky enough to be out in the country that has some real good smooth back roads that are straight and flat for a couple miles so I have a place to test stuff that's fairly safe. I, like you, don't recommend this to anyone though. I know I shouldn't be doing it but I have no other way to test things. Just have to be real careful. If anybody's on the road I don't run it. Just let the traffic completely clear first. People are so sue happy it's not worth the risk. Torino's were sleek cars. Them old Riviera's ran pretty good too for big boats. I had a 73 that didn't run bad. Only problem with Buick's was they cracked the heads so easy if you overheated it.