It's possible the test guys weren't beating the cars hard back then; and a VW Beetle could keep up with traffic. Our family car for a while when I was a child was a '53 BelAir six/Powerglide...very leisurely, to be kind... In the early '60s, stuff that felt really fast would run maybe 14s, and late '60s/early '70s a 12-second car on the street would make you money. A lot happened between post-WW2 and 1970...and of course a lot has happened since.
