1001 NASCAR Facts. John Close

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СКАЧАТЬ Runabout, the Pirate had no bodywork of any kind. Its most prominent feature was a pair of horizontally mounted torpedo-like gas and oil tanks. Propelled by a 95-ci single-cylinder engine, the Pirate and driver Horace T. Thomas cruised to a blazing 54.38 mph in the gasoline-powered 1,000-pound class in the 1902 Daytona trials. Because the event was officially sanctioned and scored by the American Automobile Association, the Pirate will forever have the distinction of being the first car to take an official race run at Daytona.

      The Olds Pirate will be forever identified as the first great car to hit the sands and make an official timed speed run at Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo Courtesy General Motors)

      8 Built in 1904, the Pope Toledo Racer was a prototype for the company’s stock Touring models introduced over the next several years. The car featured a 120-hp 4-cylinder gas internal combustion engine with twin cast heads and integrated copper water jackets. The car also had a gear-driven magneto and multiple-disc clutch. The Pope was one of the first American cars with a 4-speed transmission, as well a fifth “reverse” gear. All were fitted into a frame of chrome-nickel steel construction with a 104-inch wheelbase and 34-inch wheels. The Pope Toledo competed in the first Vanderbilt Cup Race in 1904; it finished third. Over the next several years, Pope continued to race the Torpedo model and use its successes to promote its Touring cars as one of the most advanced, fastest, and reliable cars available. Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t work and Albert Pope declared his auto company bankrupt in 1907.

      9 Chrysler Corporation took NASCAR by storm in the 1960s when it introduced its 426 Hemi engine. The powerplant, while revolutionary in NASCAR, was not a new concept. The Hemi had made its debut in 1906 in the Pungs-Finch Limited. Built in Detroit, the Pungs-Finch engine was a 600-ci 4-cylinder model featuring hemispherical combustion chambers and angled valves. Thanks to the giant engine, the wooden-frame and -body car had an estimated top speed of 55 mph. Today, only one 1906 Pungs-Finch car remains in existence. The restored classic has won numerous vintage racer awards at both the Pebble Beach and Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance meets. It sold at auction in 2015 for $852,500.

      10 Maybe the most important car ever, Henry Ford rolled out his first Model T October 1, 1908. Ford had been actively producing automobiles since 1903 with eight different models (the A, B, C, F, K, N, R, and S cars) before launching the Model T in 1908. The T featured a 4-cylinder 20-hp engine and was available in two models: the Runabout ($825), and the Touring model ($850). It quickly sold 10,000 units in the first year of production which led Ford to drop all other models in order to satisfy the demand for the Model T. With the advent of the automated assembly line in 1913, Ford ramped up Model T production and produced more than 15 million units before ending the car’s run in 1927. Due to the massive build numbers, the cost of a new Model T fell to around $300 in the mid-1920s making it the first affordable car for working-class Americans.

      11 Few automobile inventions had as big an impact on the automobile as the electric starter. The concept was pioneered and patented in America at Dayton Engineering Laboratories (DELCO) in 1911 by Charles Kettering and Henry Leland. Prior to the electric starter, cars were started by hand cranking, often kicking back and resulting in untold numbers of hand, wrist, and arm injuries. Cadillac was the first major brand to implement the electric starter in 1912; Ford was one of the last to abandon the crank-starting method in 1919. By the 1920s, nearly all of the major U.S. brands featured electric starters, further fueling the automotive craze of the Roaring Twenties.

      12 Crafted by the E. R. Thomas Motor Company in 1907, the Thomas Model 35 Flyer is arguably the most famous American turn-of-the-century race car. The 5,000-pound car, featuring a 4-cylinder 60-hp engine, won the first, and, to date, only race around the world in 1908. Driver George Schuster took the green flag in Times Square in New York City on February 12, and along with five other teams, headed for Paris, France. However, only three cars finished the 22,000-mile race with the Thomas Flyer declared the winner 169 days later on July 30, 1908. The Flyer, dubbed Leslie Special, was introduced to a new generation of racing fans in the 1965 movie The Great Race. Today, the original Thomas Flyer is on exhibit at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada.

      13 Organized by General Motors founder William Durant and driver Bob Burman, the Buick Racing Team dominated much of the early racing scene. The team, which was the first factory-backed racing effort, included Burman and the Chevrolet brothers (Louis and Arthur) as drivers. The team won hundreds of events during its run from 1908 to 1911, including a victory by Burman in the first American Automobile Association (AAA) –sanctioned race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the Prest-O-Lite 250) August 19, 1909. With its racing heritage firmly established, Buick became a long-time NASCAR player, capturing two Sprint Cup Manufacturers’ Championships (1981 and 1982).

      14 Winner of the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, the Marmon Wasp Model 32 was the only single-seat race car in the field that day. Piloted by the 1910 AAA driving champion Ray Harroun, the first use of a rear-view mirror was employed, allowing Harroun to be the only driver in the field without a riding mechanic. The feat introduced one of countless innovations developed in auto racing that eventually made their way into the production of everyday passenger vehicles.

       Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp, a 6-cylinder car with an engine displacing 477 ci, was based on the 1909 Marmon Model 32 production car. (John Close Photo)

      15 While aerodynamic testing is commonplace in today’s modern NASCAR, it wasn’t a consideration in racing until Frank Lockhart debuted the Stutz Black Hawk Special in 1928. Scale models of the car were constructed and aero-tested in both the Curtiss Aircraft and Army Air Services wind tunnels, one of the first American cars to be tested in such a manner. At 2,800-pounds, the vehicle featured a twin turbocharged Miller U-16 engine. It was also the first land speed record car to use an intercooler for the turbos. After a failed land speed record run at Daytona Beach that ended when Lockhart barrel-rolled the car into the ocean, the Black Hawk was repaired for another run at Daytona Beach on April 25. This time, the right-rear tire blew at more than 220 mph sending the car into a series of prolonged flips. Lockhart (the winner of the 1926 Indianapolis 500) was thrown from the vehicle and killed instantly. The engine was salvaged and later installed in the Sampson 16 Special for the 1939 Indianapolis 500, as well as the 1940, 1941, and 1946 Indy 500s. The engine is on display in the Indianapolis Hall of Fame Museum today.

      16 Developed in 1929, the Chevrolet inline 6-cylinder engine quickly became a challenger to the Ford Flathead V-8 engine in the early years of stock car racing. The 193.9-ci six-banger produced 50 hp and featured cast-iron pistons and a forged-steel crankshaft. The engine, lighter than the Ford V-8, enabled Chevrolet and other 1930s GM coupes and sedans using the Stovebolt 6 to win countless local stock car, roadster, and Jalopy races against their Blue Oval competitors all the way into the 1960s. The only engine Chevrolet offered from 1929 through 1954 (including a 235-ci model in the new 1953 Chevrolet Corvette) was relegated to a secondary racing option with the 1955 introduction of the Chevy small-block V-8.

      17 Although not the first V-8 engine produced, the Ford Flathead V-8 is one of the most important. Introduced in 1932, the engine was the first V-8 offered in an affordable American passenger car. It became a stalwart of the early stock car racing community as 1930s Ford coupes, roadsters, and sedans became the hot iron at local racetracks and stock car events throughout the country. The original engine measured 221 ci and produced about 65 hp. Juiced up with aftermarket items such as multiple carburetors, performance pistons, heads, and crankshaft, the Ford Flathead V-8 could easily be pushed to over 200 hp. The engine made the early stripped-down Fords the cars to beat in the early days of stock car racing and remained a stout competitor into the 1970s.

      18 Today’s NASCAR Modified division СКАЧАТЬ