In my younger days, living on the Surf Coast in Victoria, I joined the ranks of the Surfies. Not only did I love the sport, but I loved the surf music that went with it, particularly the music of the Beach Boys. This group consisted of the three Wilson brothers, Brian, Dennis and Karl, their cousin Mike Love and young neighbour David Marks.
The Beach Boys had hits early in their career with surfing songs “Surfin’ Safari”, “Surfin’ USA” and “Surfer Girl”. On the B-side of “Surfin Safari” was their first hot-rod song “409”, which started their hot-rod song string of hits. But the one I loved was the B-side of Surfin’ USA, which was the classic track “Shut Down”. Although I was much too young to drive, I had already ‘discovered’ the Corvette Stringray, now known as the C2 Corvette. Like everyone else around – I wanted one!
Shut Down tells the story of a drag race between the narrator’s fuel-injected (1963) Corvette Stingray and a “four-thirteen” (413). At that stage I didn’t know what a 413 was, nor did I understand many of the hot-rod terms in the song. Now I know the 413 is actually a 1962 Superstock Dodge Dart powered by the Ramcharger 413 cub in V8. The Dart was a midsize sedan, which, when fitted with the 413 was primarily designed to win official drag racing events.
As well as its big-block 413 cubic inch V8, the Dart also boasted Dual Quads (twin 4-barrel carbs) and Ram Induction (a hood scoop that was open to the fresh air which, at high speed, created a ram effect that increased the air pressure at the carburetors, providing a mild super-charging effect).
The song describes the Dart as initially taking the lead in the race, with the Stingray spinning its wheels off the line, causing the driver to ride the clutch to get traction. The affect of the clutch’s pressure plate slipping at high rpm was the clutch lining was starting to burn. The song always appeared to me to be short by one verse which would declare the winner of the drag race, but the implication in the lyrics points to the Stingray, with its fuel-injected engine, running down the Dodge at the top end, and declaring “Shut it off, shut it off / Buddy now I shut you down”.
In reality it’s unlikely that the Stingray, with some 60 less horsepower, would be able to haul-in the Dodge at the top end of the run. But stranger things have happened in drag racing.
Click the image to link to the YouTube video of Shut Down – lyrics included.