That is a look that is etched in societies memory banks. People loved that look in 65-66 and the artist and art director probably loved that look as well. Its hard to let go of a winning combination, 67 was a pivotal year for performance cars and the racing crowd still loved its stripes and we see this everywhere in old publications and art renderings such as this. Whether they came like that or not we can enjoy them with our beloved stripes or not- They look fantastic either way!
When I look at the amount of factory installed Lemans stripes on any year, the number is not impressive. Judging by those numbers I personally can't show where "the people loved them"?
Those are George Bartell illustrations and although I acknowledge that an artist doesn't need "license", I'm wondering where he saw '67s with Lemans stripes because frankly I can't think of one even as an engineering car.
Here, the way the roads are built, a "highway trooper" could perch themselves on an overpass. A car with Lemans stripes was going to inherit a bunch of speeding tickets even before it even got out of the driveway.
The only limitation to how far down the road you can see those cars coming is in the daily visability factor.
Trust me. Once you get "zoomed" by a "patrol plane" because he wanted to see what the car was, you want to go home and get a couple of gallons of paint stripper pronto.
Before I got to 25, a couple of speeding tickets would in effect have taken me off of the road.
The Dukes of Hazards "General Lee" is as practical. It's just saying, "sure, give me a ticket". I want to be stealth, not advertise. especially when I was 18. If I could have done it, I would have carried around my M15 with me. Every time some smart ass would try to grab me by the ear and tell me the "army is gonna' straighten you out boy!" I would have stuck it up his nose or other available body orifice and say, "they all ready have. Wanna' hear this go off?"
Lemans stripes are just confrontational. I don't need that any more. I'm into peace, love and understanding now. Hey? What ever happened to free love? Why do I have to pay now?
You know the uglier you get, the more you have to pay? Jee-se?