So who's ready for a twin-turbo, 10,000 rpm 3.0L V8 corvette?

[CAP1]

  English designers, bravo Ford

but ford power, and at least partial ford suspension. 

[morfiend]

 Cap,

  maybe foreman is the wrong term,they were supervisors and defenitely salary employees. Oh and the water leaks were just a simple example of the kinds of things that went on.

  I will say this though of the "big"3 I think ford is the better manufactor with GM a close second,especially in the last few years both companies have built some very good cars. Saddly the Mopars have never been great cars,oh they made some real muscle cars back in the day but the fit and finish left alot to be desired.


 I still dont think the artical on the vet is anything more than speculation and a rehash of an old story!!


     

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Gotta go with Ford's Pedigree champ.

1949 - First NASCAR race run on June 19 at Charlotte, N.C., won by Jim Roper in a Lincoln.

1951 - Jim Flock is first driver to qualify quicker than 100 mph, he does so driving a Lincoln at the old beach race course at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Look up the GT40 MkII/IV's that kicked Ferrari in the nuts from 66-69.   Also the MK IV (67) IIRC,  is STILL the only American built race car to win overall at Le Mans.  

Ayrton Senna almost won a 4th GP Driver's Title in a SEVERELY underpowered McLaren/Ford in 1993 (managed 5 wins and 2 2nd's on his skill alone).  

Ford has a successful Rally Program.   GM and Dodge cannot hang in WRC, nor will they ever.    

I don't want to downplay Ford's achievement in beating Ferrari at Le Mans, but it's still nothing parading around like you are "the big dog".   

Ford sure prepared hard and achieve their goals to beat Ferrari at Le Mans for 4 years in a row, ending 6 consecutive years of Ferrari domination ... domination at Le Mans they never got back BTW. But still 4 victories is as much as Alfa Romeo  , short of Jaguar, short of Bentley ... half from Ferrari/Audi 9 victories ... and way short of Porsche's 16 wins.

Let's not forget Ferrari owned Ford before the GT40 and after the GT40 on their on turf with "the other" famed endurance race, the 12H of Sebring. 3 Ford victories compared to 12 by Ferrari, 18 by Porsche, 9 by Audi ... heck even Nissan beats Ford with 4.

Rally being traditionally dominated by little nimble Euro/Asian shoeboxes, American manufacturers don't have much to offer. Lucky GM had a couple of Opel they could throw in their in the 80s, and lucky Ford has that Euro shoebox called the Fiesta that they decided to make a push with to increase their market share. Still despite their 06/07 championship, Ford scored 3 total, compared to 10 by Lancia, 6 by Citroen, 5 by Peugeot ... neck to neck with Subaru/Toyota's 3 championships.

I think where Ford shined was building engine for F1s, and got an early start with Lotus ... racking up 10 Engine championships ahead of Renault (9) ... but still way short of Ferrari 16, and Ferrari makes their own cars.

Anyway, each manufacturer has his fetish series, and when their set their mind/$$$$ can de-throne who ever is on top in a specific niche, but the real achievement is to stay on top. On a side note, I'm really looking forward to see how Audi/Peugeot will adapt to this year's Le Mans drastic changes and who's going to end up on top.

[Masherbrum]

I don't want to downplay Ford's achievement in beating Ferrari at Le Mans, but it's still nothing parading around like you are "the big dog".   

Ford sure prepared hard and achieve their goals to beat Ferrari at Le Mans for 4 years in a row, ending 6 consecutive years of Ferrari domination ... domination at Le Mans they never got back BTW. But still 4 victories is as much as Alfa Romeo  , short of Jaguar, short of Bentley ... half from Ferrari/Audi 9 victories ... and way short of Porsche's 16 wins.

Let's not forget Ferrari owned Ford before the GT40 and after the GT40 on their on turf with "the other" famed endurance race, the 12H of Sebring. 3 Ford victories compared to 12 by Ferrari, 18 by Porsche, 9 by Audi ... heck even Nissan beats Ford with 4.

Rally being traditionally dominated by little nimble Euro/Asian shoeboxes, American manufacturers don't have much to offer. Lucky GM had a couple of Opel they could throw in their in the 80s, and lucky Ford has that Euro shoebox called the Fiesta that they decided to make a push with to increase their market share. Still despite their 06/07 championship, Ford scored 3 total, compared to 10 by Lancia, 6 by Citroen, 5 by Peugeot ... neck to neck with Subaru/Toyota's 3 championships.

I think where Ford shined was building engine for F1s, and got an early start with Lotus ... racking up 10 Engine championships ahead of Renault (9) ... but still way short of Ferrari 16, and Ferrari makes their own cars.

Anyway, each manufacturer has his fetish series, and when their set their mind/$$$$ can de-throne who ever is on top in a specific niche, but the real achievement is to stay on top. On a side note, I'm really looking forward to see how Audi/Peugeot will adapt to this year's Le Mans drastic changes and who's going to end up on top.

My post was merely a comparison between Ford, GM and Chrysler.    I never said thy eclipsed the euros in the # of championships.   

Of course Ferrari came back on top in 70. 

[RTHolmes]

Ford have always done great in rallying, but its always been Ford (Europe), so British designed and built stuff originally, and more recently European collaboration (Germany/Belgium?).

wrt F1 thats the Cosworth DFV, although sponsored by Ford it was developed and built by Cosworth, a British Company, from the Ford Anglia 4-pot, again designed and built by Ford (Europe).

GT40? 95% British car.

[/flagwaving]

[SFRT - Frenchy]

I definitly agree with that, didn't mean to single you out. Yours was the last post mentioning the GT40, wanted to post my 2cts.

I wonder how the big 3 compare along the years in road racing. Like I haven't heard of viper domination since the 90, Chevy rules GT1 in the us as well as Le Mans, didn't check how they are doing in GT2. The Mustang did great in Europe I think.

Wonder how'd they stack up if we add all the  lesser world  road racing series from around the world since the 70s. I d bet Ford would win hands down.

[SFRT - Frenchy]

Ford have always done great in rallying, but its always been Ford (Europe), so British designed and built stuff originally, and more recently European collaboration (Germany/Belgium?).

wrt F1 thats the Cosworth DFV, although sponsored by Ford it was developed and built by Cosworth, a British Company, from the Ford Anglia 4-pot, again designed and built by Ford (Europe).

GT40? 95% British car.

[/flagwaving]

[Masherbrum]

95% British?   Sorry RT.     That is probably more applicable to the MKI, MKII's.  But Carroll did a host of tweaks for the MK IV's.

[CAP1]

Ford have always done great in rallying, but its always been Ford (Europe), so British designed and built stuff originally, and more recently European collaboration (Germany/Belgium?).

wrt F1 thats the Cosworth DFV, although sponsored by Ford it was developed and built by Cosworth, a British Company, from the Ford Anglia 4-pot, again designed and built by Ford (Europe).

GT40? 95% British car.

[/flagwaving]

 SO THE british suspension handled the torque of the 427?

[morfiend]

SO THE british suspension handled the torque of the 427?

  Cap,they're talking about a 4 cylinder cosworth engine,not the 427,but yes the brits built suspension that handled the 427. They even managed to build suspension that handled over 1200BHP in a 1.5 liter turbo during the turbo days in F1.




   

[Masherbrum]

  Cap,they're talking about a 4 cylinder cosworth engine,not the 427,but yes the brits built suspension that handled the 427. They even managed to build suspension that handled over 1200BHP in a 1.5 liter turbo during the turbo days in F1.




   

Correct.  Either Lola or Lotus designed it.

[RTHolmes]

95% British?   Sorry RT.     That is probably more applicable to the MKI, MKII's.  But Carroll did a host of tweaks for the MK IV's.

sure the IV was all-US, but really its a completely different car.

and it was ~5% of GT40 production ...

[Masherbrum]

sure the IV was all-US, but really its a completely different car.

and it was ~5% of GT40 production ...

Sorry man.  The MKII's and MKIV's were night and day in terms of performance and results on the tracks.

[icepac]

There is no insult if it is found that the british made or designed the highest percentage of successful lemans and formula one race cars....regardless of what brand name they carried.

The reason for this was the cancellation of many advanced english supersonic fighter and bomber programs which caused the engineers to move laterally and create the worlds most advanced hotspot of top race car designers and fabricators.

This is why most all F1 teams are based in england and even ferrari has a shop there.

Ray Mallock designed the Saleen race car and the guys responsible for lola cars did the ford gt40.

Upgrading peripheral parts does not begat an entirely new car because it is based on the same design.

Of course....the new ford GT is american......except for the ricardo transaxle (i'm tearing one down today) and various parts commonly sub-contracted out like brake and shock parts.

The new racing corvettes are also american in design so it's good to see american badged race cars actually being designed and built in america like this porsche 944 race car I worked on in the mid 80s which was built by Dave Klem of Fabcar.



And here with bodywork on along with the cars it replaced on the race team being.....1979 porsche 935 (hidden from view 750hp and 70,000 racing miles) and a porsche 934rsr.

[RTHolmes]

back OT, why build a turbo engine which revs to 10k?