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Question of the Day: What’s the Coolest Factory Backed Race Car of All Time?


Question of the Day: What’s the Coolest Factory Backed Race Car of All Time?

With the racing seasons of  Ford/Chevy/and Dodge factory efforts starting and  all three companies continuing to build factory race cars and sponsor race teams we wanted to quiz you to find out what the coolest factory backed race car of all time is. While we automatically default to drag racing in some of these situations, there have been awesome factory backed efforts in stock car racing, rally, Trans-Am, Can-Am, and other series over the years.

From the road racing and sports car world of the early 1960s through the Trans Am, Can-Am, and IMSA Prototype eras, cars that bend corners have long benefitted from factory skunkworks. On the drag strips of America, factories started bleeding parts quietly out the loading dock doors to hot rodders and dealerships before diving face first into a horsepower orgy that spiraled for decades on the asphaly aisle. There were NASCAR teams that received lots of factory help while others withered on the privateer vine and even in the realm of four wheel drive trucks, factory desert and closed course race teams have carried their manufacturers logos with pride.

A simple question with lots of possible answers today.

Question of the Day: What’s the Coolest Factory Backed Race Car of All Time?

Hayden Proffitt's Rebel flopper

Christman's Comet!

 


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22 thoughts on “Question of the Day: What’s the Coolest Factory Backed Race Car of All Time?

  1. nada

    Since Chevrolet had the bad taste NOT to back the Grand Sport Corvette, I’m gonna go with the 1970 Hemi Cuda Chrysler France road raced in the early 70’s.

  2. GeorgeA

    The Ford J/Mark IV. An essentially unlimited budget, a big step forward in chassis technology, an unbreakable engine, and many of racing’s biggest stars as drivers, all to win one specific race and beat a very strange Italian man’s automotive creations.

    We’ll never know, but the planned ’68 version with wing, 3-speed semi-automatic, and 3-valve Calliope engine would have been something to see.

  3. Steve Akker

    1965 Chrysler Factory Altered Wheelbase Drag Cars . They started the craziest era of drag racing and originated the first ” Funny Car !” Love all the A/Fx cars that followed and then evolved into the flip top cars. A crazy time in drag racing that will never be repeated or matched .

  4. Patrck

    All Porsche race cars, 917, 911R, 959 Dakar, 935, Indy car that Foyt got banned because he was afraid of it

  5. Turbo Regal

    The 1963 Pontiac Lemans SD421 that Paul Goldsmith drove in the 1963 NASCAR Challenge sports car race 2 weeks before the Daytona 500.

    He put the Pontiac on the pole and lapped a field of Porsches, Ferrari’s, Mercedes and Mystery Motor Corvettes.

    Mercedes Benz purchased the car from GM after the racing ban and shipped it to Germany for “competitive testing”.

  6. Blu67RS

    Anything, after 1963, that Chevrolet ‘let out the backdoor’ because they were ‘out of racing’ but still made life miserable for those makes (Ford, Plymouth, etc.) with non-hidden factory backing. I imagine racing history as we now know it would be forever changed if Chevrolet had participated with factory backing…..

  7. Danno

    Ford GT, nothing else comes close. The drama between Ford and Ferrari. The resultant building of a sports car by an American car manufacturer in the mid1960’s unheard of at the time). And that car beating Ferrari on their home turf in the 24 hours of Le Mans. Unbelievable, except that it actually happened.

  8. Bill Greenwood

    I’m a Mopar guy, and thus lean towards the Daytona/Superbird duo and the 68 Hemi A-bodies. However, I think the prize has to go to Ford and the LeMans GT’s. Along with the war footing max effort, the resultant cars are among the most beautiful ever crafted.

  9. OLD TIMER

    FORD GT AND ALL FORD AND MOPAR IN THE EARLY 60S 406 427 413 426 REAL RACE ENGINES CHEVY HAD NOTHING FOR THEM LOOK OLD AT NASCAR FOOTAGE FORD AND MOPAR OWNED NASCAR

    1. Bill Butte

      of course they did because Chevy wasn’t racing & didn’t have factory money like they did – it’s a known part of history that Chevy woulda kicked all their buts if they had participated……

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