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| So I recently read in a magazine review that Ford and GM did not have any real performance options from the factory on their high horsepower cars. Chrysler put bigger shocks, bigger torsion bars, stablizer bars, beefier trans. For example like D501 models, Furys, 300C... not sure if I would call a 300C a super stock? Aside from basic options like "posi" and power brake, power steering did GM or Ford offer supension upgrades/parts? I saw the guy criticize Ford/GM because they were like "the stock suspension is fine on our big engine cars"... read it here.
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 57RoadabiltyPage2.jpg (247KB - 143 downloads)
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Location: Parts Unknown | Note that the 57 Firedome convertible is shown with whitewalls, body
colored rims, and dog dish hubcaps ! 
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5006
| your right, that's unheard of nowdays |
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Location: Parts Unknown | It was pretty much unheard of those-a-days too !
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Expert
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| Lads --
Back in 1957, when the AMA put a supposed ban on auto manufacturers supporting racing, both GM and Ford disguised their efforts with "police specials" and, in fact, the Ford "Police Interceptor" engine was born. The GM effort came in the form if fuel-injection. However, both engines were banned from NASCAR because the Ford had 2X4V carburetion (a la Chrysler) and, of course, the GM F.I. because Bill France wanted to get the 300s (as well as the up and coming Dodge D-501s) off the tracks by limiting cars to a single carb. Both companies hid suspension and steering improvements in trailer-towing, police, and taxi-cab packages. By 1960, Pontiac was developing their "super-duty" cars under Bunkie Knudson's "Win on Sunday; Sell on Monday" philosophy.
I didn't get into drag racing until 1960, so my own exposure with the enemy was rather limited to 1959 and newer cars, but I seem to recall GM seemed to be more advanced as to their drag racing efforts than Ford.
Joe Godec
'57 Chrysler 300C, 1960 Fury SonoRamic, '65 Fuelie Vette, '65 Sport Fury 426S/4-speed |
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| the article I posted was talking about the off the shelf super stocks, not the extremely low production racing prototypes.
And this was talking about 57 cars and I assume GM/Ford didn't change their minds in 58-59ish. Like the 57 Ford E code car... It came with a stock run of the mill 57 ford suspension. That would suck.
The 57 Ford Custom E code car got "heavy duty shocks" at least... nothing else. This guy kind of recaps the Fords... saying they had to upgrade the whole thing.
in 57 Daytona week trials, Chrysler won the flying mile, Pontiac won the small standard displacement(class 6) standing mile races. The 300C crushed class 7 and dodge got 4th place. I know if it had a "hemi" like the supercharged ford you were in class 7.
I know Chrysler was blackballed in Nascar after 1956 where they won pretty much everything.
http://powerbyford.blogspot.com/2011/06/high-performance-1957-ford-...
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Location: So. Cal | Doctor DeSoto - 2018-03-03 10:17 PM
Note that the 57 Firedome convertible is shown with whitewalls, body
colored rims, and dog dish hubcaps !
...and some people don't believe that a Firedome could have come with rims that support the dog dish caps. But obviously, they did. |
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| Mike --
My understanding is that the '57 Ford E and F code cars had two-inch diameter shocks and the larger station wagon differential with heavier axles and bigger wheel bearings, which at that time were considerable steps forward in suspension and drive train improvement. Remember, in those days "Super Stock" in the NHRA was a brand new class (it came about in 1956) which allowed the kinda sorta pure stock cars that had some factory options that weren't readily available off the showroom floor, but not quite fitting into a modified class (I think the '56 D-500 was its first winner). For snot-nosed kids like I was then, drag racing was just getting the most horses possible and pushing pedal to the metal when the flag dropped, but the guys who were experts took the same cars and by modifying the ram tubes, reworking the transmissions, improving the exhaust systems, getting strip performance tires, etc., made those cars into true super stocks by NHRA and AHRA standards. The guys who won knew how to work the production system and the rule book.
Joe |
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Location: Parts Unknown | Mike,
I am not brand-loyal. Had my share of non-FL cars, either by choice or
the wifeperson wanted one. GM's were coil sprung living room couches
on wheels, with slushy transmissions and lumbering steering through the
fin years. Fords were always the el cheapo, lipstick-on-a-pig, and tell 'em
it's Marilyn Monroe kind of products. Still are. Frankly, I don't know how
Ford is still in business, other than the world is full of people who like
cheap, and are unwilling to look outside their familiar paradigm. That
said, ... and to answer your question as best I can, .... after owning,
working on, and driving these other two brands of cars, one will really
appreciate just how much design and engineering one got when they
bought a fin-era Mopar. Some more than others, but as a baseline, Mopar
gave the buyer a lot more on comparable makes/models, in terms of go-
fast support equipment, than did the competition. I am not talking about
race team super cars. Just takling about the Average Joe family sedan or
even a showroom centerpiece convertible that anyone could walk in and buy.
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"performance" option (sorry Ford/GM?) Super Stocks
