The rain keeps pelting away and you’d really like to be somewhere cozy watching something to remind you of warmer times. Lucky for you, I stumbled upon this short French-made video about the old Lions Drag Strip earlier today. Click here to watch it.

The 13-minute clip, entitled “Les dragsters” and apparently produced in 1966, is like peering into a time capsule during the drag strip’s glory days. Fans and contestants came from far and wide to watch the best racing and drivers of the day, such as a little-known kid from San Pedro named Gary Gabelich. Lions was actually located in Wilmington but came to be associated with Long Beach and sparked the car culture epidemic that is still apparent today in events such as the annual Bixby Knolls Car & Dragster Show.

What are the narrators saying in the video? I haven’t the foggiest notion. The only words I recognized were “Lakewood” and “Long Beach,” but the language of gearheads that consists of burnouts and blazing quarter-mile times is universal.

Kick back, laugh in fear at what stood for “protective headgear” back in those days, and enjoy.