American Cars of 1958

[Monksdream]

What's Behind Me Is Not Important
Ferrari and Corvette at the 12 Hours of Sebring (Part One)


Americans after World War II enjoyed a national prosperity they hadn’t experienced for more than two decades. The decade of the 1950s saw household incomes rise at an unprecedented rate. Businesses dedicated to leisure and entertainment grew exponentially. Although historians usually write of the growing popularity of Hollywood, TV, and professional sports, fads, and consumer appliances, they give little notice to the interest in motorsports.

It was during this decade that stock car racing came into prominence. Its earliest beginnings were in the 1940s when “good ‘ol boys” drove souped up cars with gallon jugs of moonshine in the trunk. They roared along narrow, winding two-lane roads in the Appalachian foothills during the week and raced each other on dirt oval tracks on Sundays, mostly for fun.

It was Big Bill France, one of the emerging sport’s most influential drivers, who organized a meeting with fellow drivers, mechanics, and owners to standardize some racing rules. Out of this meeting, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was formed. Two months later, the first official race was held on the sands of a Daytona, Florida, beach. Most -- perhaps all -- of the drivers were bootleggers.

Two years later, on Sept. 4, 1950, NASCAR held its first 500-mile race, aptly named the Southern 500. The sport would only continue growing in importance and popularity. By 1989 every NASCAR was televised. Sponsors funded individual drivers and racing teams with millions. Practically all of the American car manufacturers, as well as separate divisions within Detroit’s Big 3, sponsored cars. It was quite a change, considering the predecessors were once considered outlaws. They would now make regular appearances at the White House.

That race, which attracted 25,000 spectators (about the same as a Saturday afternoon Major League Baseball game in 1950), had a total purse of $25,000. The winner, Johnny Mantz, who drove a Plymouth, walked away with $10,000. The rest was split among the 74 other entrants. Average speed for the 1.25 mile slightly egg-shaped oval track built on what was once a cotton field, was 75 miles per hour. That is about ten miles per hour less than the average speed for a Friday evening these days on Interstate 85 between Atlanta and Washington, DC. The race took over six hours to complete the 500 miles in 351 laps.