The idea of racing cars as a spectator sport was an advertising idea of Henry Ford’s. Ford developed a team of racecar drivers to race his Model T, drivers that would eventually be great names to motor sports; drivers such as Ed Winfield, Harry Miller, and Pierre Bertrand. The competitive driving style made Model T owners want their car to be as fast as the race cars they watched on race day. As a response to this demand Ford began to manufacture high performance aftermarket parts for Model T roadsters.

(Bakerville http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/42646/)

Model T racing became so popular that small racing circuits started forming and all types of automobiles were raced. The racing of stock automobiles became known as stock car racing and some financiers started funding stock ca

The Corvette left the world astonished by its quality of performance so American automobile manufacturers took notice. The first of them to take action was a failing division of General Motors named Pontiac. (Nichols 64) Pontiac rested the company upon one man’s shoulders and his dream of excellence, in who created the breed that would be known as the Pontiac GTO. The 1964 Pontiac GTO was the “father of the Muscle Car Era.” GTO, known also as the “goat” but properly named Gran Turismo Omologato, was aimed at NASCAR and the NHRA but took the public by storm. Pontiac wanted to take a stock Temptest body, beef it up with better suspension and transmission, and drop a high performance 389 cubic inch engine under the hood. (Hirsch 192) General Motors disapproved of this due to their power to weight ratio policy. When Pontiac presented the GTO to the board at General Motors things got violent, it got so intense that a fistfight almost erupted. The board assured Pontiac that the GTO would never go into production. Pontiac retaliated by using a stock 326 cubic inch engine with the high performance 389 cubic inch engine as an option. A compromise between Pontiac and General Motors allowed the building of five thousand GTO’s. Dealers helped Pontiac out with this decision due to the fact that the secret of the GTO leaked and dealers started ordering them before they were ever put into production. There were thirty two thousand GTO’s sold in the first year but only five thousand were “true” GTO’s due to the compromise between Pontiac and General Motors; the rest were ordered as Temptest’s with many high performance options. (Nichols 64) In 1969 Pontiac offered the “Judge” option on the GTO, which added a rear spoiler and a special paint scheme, but in 1970 some real performance upgrades took place. Pontiac gave the stock GTO a 400 cubic inch small block engine and offered an option of a 455 cubic inch big block engine. (Hirsch 194)

Firebird released another Firebird 400 called the Firebird 400 Ram Air; it had four-bolt mains, forged aluminum pistons, heavy-duty rocker arms, an aluminum intake manifold, and a wild camshaft. It was governed but could be de-governed with a screwdriver. In 1968 Firebirds had a Ram Air 400 High Output and in 1969 the Firebird became longer and wider in the rear. In 1969 Firebird and Camaro also took a one-piece Lexan front hood, which was cheaper than the Corvettes Endura hood. Firebird sold well with 50,000 within its first ten weeks of its launch but the sales topped 113,000 in the first year. Those figures did not compare to the Camaro’s 200,000 plus sales. (Nichols 72)

Ancient Rome has vanished and the horse driven racers have too. NASCAR and the NHRA are thriving more that ever and although the Muscle Car Era is over, it has left its mark. Some think that these so-called high performance imports are the muscle cars of today but they will never reach the capabilities of the early muscle cars. Muscle cars are all, “legends and legends never die (Morrow)” as Lavern Morrow said. Do you conclude anything from the history presented to today’s vehiches?

Daytona International Speedway would be a temple of speed upon completion in 1959. Daytona International Speedway’s huge thirty-one degree turns, a “D” shaped front stretch, and a three thousand feet long back straightaway were unique features of the facility. It was wide and fast, designed for speed and close competition. It proved itself in the inaugural running of the Daytona 500 in 1960.

The first NASCAR race was held on Daytona Beach six days before the official papers were finalized. Robert ‘Red’ Byron in Raymond Parks’, 1939, Ford won that event. The beach race was the first of fifty-two events that were run that inaugural season. In 1948, a circuit for new cars, postwar models, was planned but never materialized; cars were excessively scarce. Availability increased and by 1949, cars were f

Some topics in this essay:
Firebird Trans-Am, RPO Z-28, Bill France, Cup Series, Car Era, Pontiac Motors, Corvette Duntov, Raymond Parks’, Pierre Bertrand, Sport SS, cubic inch, stock car, muscle car, bill france, block engine, muscle cars, car racing, stock car racing, inch engine, cubic inch engine, cubic inch block, inch block, inch block engine, muscle car era, pontiac gto,