Car and Driver editorial

     One of the fun things I get to do is read through all the magazines in the archive.

     Gerald collected hundreds, if not thousands of magazines. Remember what those were? Paper folded in half with pretty pictures and words written on the pages. Usually stapled in the center with a centerfold, not that kind(!), of a picture of something sexy or interesting made to bend the staples straight and be removed for framing, or to hang on the wall.

     Life was so much simpler back then. Usually, the magazine would come in the mail once a month. The anticipation of waiting made the arrival that much more exciting.

     Inside were articles on cars and events from faraway places. Races and new automobile test drives. There were advertisements for new cars from manufacturers, ads for oil, spark plugs and tires, and accessories.

     Companies like MG Mitten and Vilem B. Haan hawked sporty additions to make your ride even more special. Everything from grille badges to tonneau covers to racing helmets and seat belts could be ordered. Delivery in four to six weeks.

     The archive contains titles such as Motorsport, Car and Driver, Road & Track and many others. I started with the earliest issues and read through them soaking up the original reporting of the Ferrari factory.

     Original racing reports are also interesting, since they are usually first-hand reporting. The history and viewpoints tempered now with hindsight and knowledge can often be entertaining.

     Which brings me to an editorial from the May 1966 issue of Car and Driver, written by David E. Davis, Jr. For those interested in more about David E. Davis, Jr.,  I recommend using Wikipedia. For those who want the thumbnail, he was an American automotive journalist and magazine publisher widely known as a contributing writer, editor and publisher at Car and Driver magazine and as the founder of Automobile magazine.

     He was described as “a raconteur, an impresario, a bon vivant in a tweed, three-piece suit” and “a combative swashbuckler who encouraged criticism of the cars it tested, even at the risk of losing advertising.” 

                FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT

    There’s Only One Thing Sillier Than A 12-Hour Race At Daytona, And That’s A 24-Hour Race At Daytona: On the first weekend of February I joined thousands and thousands of my fellow racing enthusiasts all over the country and stayed home from the Daytona Continental.

    It is rumored that Bill France offered Enzo Ferrari $8500 per car if he would only send some kind of factory team to Daytona, but the Commendatore turned his nose up at the offer, evidently preferring to save his cars for the bigger race to come at Sebring. It has occurred to me that Mr. France would perhaps be better off if he would skip his annual distribution of favors to racing teams and his friends in the press, and offer substantial cash payments to spectators instead. Hell fire, down in that part of the country you can buy registered voters for less than fifty bucks a head, and it shouldn’t cost much more than that to get ‘em to sit in the grandstand at Daytona for twenty-four hours.

    Mr. France has expended great sums of money to build the world’s dumbest road racing circuit. He goes to great lengths to curry favor with the newspaper press. His generosity knows no bounds when it comes to lining up entrants, and it must have cost him quite a lot to have all that foul weather especially imported from Antarctica. With this enormous outflow of cash from his apparently bottomless coffers, he shouldn’t mind shelling out a few thousand more to attract some spectators ... who certainly deserve at least as much reward as the participants…

    It continues on. … Mr. France is determined to prove to the world and the CSI that he’s the one man big enough to take over the whole business of automobile racing in America, and he might do it yet. He’s capable, shrewd, and tough, and his political charm is legendary. He has good connections in the Government, and he’s demonstrated his ability to dazzle those kindly old gentlemen who rule racing from Paris on more than one occasion. However, it is the considered opinion of this writer, supported by a veritable host of knowledgeable leaders in the sport, that Bill France should stick to stock car racing and leave the more sophisticated forms of the art to those who envision racing as something more than a simple source of personal profit. Let’s face it, the mistakes of the last couple of NASCAR seasons indicate that he has his hands full with stock car racing alone, and he practically invented that! He has built Daytona and NASCAR into great enterprises, but his repeated failures in big-time road racing do little credit to him, to his organization. Or to his race track…

    Mr. France is quite capable of eating smart-aleck critics like me for breakfast, and that prospect doesn’t please me one little bit, but the Mickey Mouse road circuit on the outskirts of beautiful downtown Daytona Beach should really be scrubbed as a venue for anything more important than the Pure Oil Performance and Economy Trials … and maybe an occasional kart race. The only way this can be done is for the people in authority to stiffen their spines, grit their teeth, and give him a clear, firm NO the next time he requests permission to stage his own version of Le Mans down there in the Florida Bull Ring. They’ve been agreeing to too much for too long.

    But enough of the amenities, WHAT ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO DO ABOUT THAT RIDICULOUS 24-HOUR BOREDOM FESTIVAL DOWN AT DAYTONA?

            David E. Davis, Jr. - CAR and DRIVER

    Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959 and hosted mainly NASCAR races but it also hosted a sports car race on April 5, 1959, as a 1,000 km endurance.

    In 1962 and 1963 Daytona hosted a three-hour endurance that was expanded into a 2,000 km endurance for 1964 and 1965. The 1966 edition was expanded to a full 24-hour race which was the object of the Car and Driver editorial.

    Ferrari did return for 1967 and blew away the competition with the famous one-two-three finish using the 330 P4. Clearly, the 24-hour format was successful as the race has gained in stature and prominence over the last sixty years.

    Reading the editorial in real time would have made you believe this race would not survive. Reading the editorial with the advantage of historical perspective puts it into a whole different light.

    As I have said previously, history is recorded in real time, it is only with the passage of time can history be interpreted. Send us the history of your Ferrari so it can be recorded, the future will certainly appreciate it.