Word: daytona
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...cars that rolled onto the hard sands of Daytona Beach last week for the eighth annual safety and performance trials of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Rating, Inc. were-as the admen promised-roomier, lower and more powerfully propelled than ever before. To some of the spectators who crowded the dunes and gabbled knowingly of racing cams and fuel injection and four-barrel carburetors, the competition was a sporting event. To auto-industry pitchmen, it was the beginning of a multimillion-dollar campaign designed to keep a performance-happy public popeyed and buying...
...Disappointment. Calling the competing cars "stock" models, to imply that they are the same as any on view in the showrooms, was playing fast and loose with auto-show language. Many of the cars at Daytona contained special power packages (superchargers, fuel injection, etc.) that pushed their motors up to maximum performance and all were assembled and tuned with a care given to no car sold off the showroom floor. Detroit's assembly-line mechanics always allow for a certain amount of "slop tolerance"; Daytona's setup experts allowed almost no tolerance at all. They had thousands...
...Three. For spectators interested in true showroom models-minus any special power packs and equipped with automatic transmission, single carburetors and standard exhausts-Daytona's most significant event was the special "Big Three" competition between Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth. Again, Chevrolet spread-eagled the field. Chevies finished one-two-three with a top speed of 118.460 m.p.h., nearly 7 m.p.h. faster than the nearest Ford, which finished fourth. The fastest Plymouth trailed in eighth place. In the 160-mile beach-and-road race for new convertibles Atlanta's Tim Flock set a NASCAR record of 101.32 m.p.h...
...disappointed to appear in your March 5 report as one who could have contributed to the evasion of rules [during the stock car speed trials at Daytona Beach, Fla.]. I followed a reasonable course in bringing a weight to help acceleration and then asking officials if it was permitted. It was not allowed, and the weight was removed. I was not as confident as TIME'S reporter that added weight would have helped -that any increase in traction would offset the increased inertia. If it had been allowed, I would have experimented with the best results, with and without...
Died. Fred Merkle, 67, oldtime New York Giants first-baseman famed for a pennant-losing blooper in 1908 (see SPORT); in Daytona Beach...