A 1961 Chevy Bel Air 409 Bubbletop was designed and built for speed freaks. Why else would you stuff a 409-cubic-inch V8 with dual four-barrel carbs under the hood of something with such an aerodynamic design? Speed. And girls. And sex. And the inevitable day when she breaks your heart and takes half your stuff. Photographer Sam Murtaugh explains.
I was hired to head for Southern Wisconsin to photograph a few cars last week. The weather was unstable and the skies were 98% covered in thick overcast. As I was photographing this beautiful 1961 Chevrolet Bel Air 409 Bubbletop and extremely disappointed in the lighting cards I had been dealt, all of a sudden it broke.
During a brief window of broken cloud cover as the sun was quickly setting, the Bel Air was pointed directly into the rays of sun as if the car was dreaming of returning to California to join the Beach Boys and replay their song.
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