The year of 1951 was a pretty special period in Stock Car racing. It marked the beginning of factory involvement in the league and as such, just about every American manufacturer was represented at one race or another. The biggest event was most like... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
A great story & good video. Love to see the big cars tearing around dirt, especially those Hudsons. Too bad NASCAR doesn't do dirt track racing anymore, it'd be fun to watch today's drivers "turning right to turn left".
In the still photo I see a Hudson (no surprise), a Nash (interesting) and... what is that? A Dodge Wayfarer? A Volvo P544? Pretty cool, I might even consider watching NASCAR if they really ran production models today. -Dave
Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Nash, Hudson, Studebaker... all contenders then and all orphans now. 1951 was a good year for Studebaker too: " June 16, 1951 Driving a Studebaker, Frank Mundy wins the 100-mile NASCAR Grand National event on a Saturday night at Columbia Speedway in South Carolina. It is the first NASCAR Grand National event to be staged under the lights, Mundy's first career NASCAR Grand National victory, and the first win for the Studebaker nameplate."
I don't think my car will reach 82.23 MPH on dirt,.....or asphalt.....with a down hill slope. Pretty neat to see those old cars tearing around the track like that.
A buddy of mine owns the #98 Plymouth in the picture, restored. It was driven by Johnny Mantz. Kinda surprising to see that pic when I opened up the page!
This illustration is great, and hilarious! Any idea what the article was about? Thanks for putting it up!
I bet those racers would have laughed if you told them there would eventually be a Japanese company racing someday, too bad everything's about the money and not the pride they had back then.
The end of an era came the other day...Petty Enterprises announced on December 31st that they were shutting down after 60 years in NASCAR. What a Shame! Read more by clicking the link below. http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-lights-out-at-petty-enterprises/
I knew a six cylinder Plymouth was a winner in early Nascar but didn't know the paticulars ...found this link :http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Johnny_Mantz.htm that sheads some light on the story behind the car and driver Johnny Mantz and how he won the 1951 Southern 500 at Darlington ...I know there is more to this story, but what has been told is the stuff of legends... Great photo of # 98 the car that was a gopher car (go for this and go for that) was turned into a race car that came from last in line to beet the V-8 powered, Cads, Olds, & Lincoln and Twin H-Power Hudson's ...read the reast on the link.. I read where Nash in the early years was the first to send factory sponsorship... Tom (09)
It was on the cover of Popular Science. The article was about the forces in an auto crash, they compared it to driving off the top of a tall building. You can read the article here: http://books.google.com/books?id=fyYDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0_0
Wow, you mean stock cars actually use to be actual stock cars? Yet another fine example of how interesting racing use to be.
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