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Truth with Speedzzter (including commentary on Ford Motor Co.)

"But wouldn't it be better to just build cars that you didn't have to pay someone to be excited about?" -- John Colletti, Chief Engineer, SVT (retired) [What could be more important that politics, motorsports, "hot rodding" or cars? What is more important than anything in this entire blog?View what Speedzzter says is the most important thing in life to consider here]

There are lots of reasons why the "gate" for road racing isn't what it should be. (And I wasn't suggesting that NASCAR should become a road course series) On the other hand, anyone who has been to a NASCAR road race or to a well-established tradition such as Sebring can testify that Americans will watch road course events under the right circumstances. Bangshifters know Piggins later went on to run Chevrolet's clandestine motorsports operations (in violation of the AMA Ban and the 1963 GM Board's insistence upon abiding by it. Much of the reason that GM had so much success after factory support for NASCAR and drag racing dried up in the 1970s was the "heavy duty" parts operation that Piggins, Zora Arkus-Duntov and their co-conspirators had already put into place to circumvent the corporate "no racing" edict.) Actually the flathead was technically obsolete as soon as the world had seen Peugeot's DOHC during the 1913 racing season. Jules Goux won the Indianapolis 500 in 1913 with a 4-valve Peugeot. Every four-valve powerplant from that day forward, including such legends as the 1967 Ford-Cosworth DFV and the venerable Offenhauser, owes much of their basic concept to a 1913 Peugeot! The amazing thing was that the "Motoramic" '55 Chevrolet only won a handful of NASCAR events that year. Oldsmobile won the Manufacturers Championship while Chrysler had the most series wins (27). But from the overhyped advertising of the day, Chevy made it sound like they were dominating,...

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