So, What Is Your Favorite Era in Racing?

[Florida_Slotter]

I keep going back to the mid 1960's to the mid 1970's for my favorite era of racing.

1964 to 1970 - Ford and Chrysler were slugging it out on the big tracks in NASCAR with "Motor Wars" and later "Aero Wars". All that resulted in some might fine cars being produced.

Around the same time you have those folks that thought about putting large displacement American V-8s into British Sports Cars and along came the Can-Am cars.

Of course you also had the "Pony Cars" that were to be know as "Trans-Am".

Yep, they were some pretty good years.

Guys like Andy Granatelli put a turbine engine from a helicopter into an Indy car and look what that did!

So, what era do you like the best?

[chappy]

I've got to agree with your era Marty, but not just for what you've mentioned, but for the
Fantastic F1 cars that were produced in that era .
Admittedly I saw many of the classes you mentioned run at Mosport back in those days, and perhaps that is why I like that era, as I can relate it to actual memories.
Most of the famous drivers I can remember were from that era, when it was still seat of your pants and the tail hanging out. A lot of heroes from that time period.
Good post
Bob

[waaytoomuchintothis]

This is getting monotonous. All I can say is, "Me too, me too." Although, I do miss the days in the 50s when there were 1930s and 40s cars in every junkyard that were $100 away from being raceable by anyone with a wrench in his hand. My uncles built themselves their first cars that way. A couple of the nicest '48 DeLuxe Coupes you ever saw. I never could talk them into building me a car (I was 7 or 8 years old), and I never talked them into building a jalopy racer. either. But they did take me to see all the car movies.

The guys who love today's version of NASCAR will pipe up and be heard here, I hope. Then we'll get some variety.

[ElSecundo]

Let's see, there were so many....
Grand Prix -- 1935-1940
Grand Prix -- 1960-1968 (no wings)
Grand Prix -- 1968-1980 (wings and ground effects)
Sports car and sports car prototypes -- 1950-1971
Indy cars -- 1967-1980
IMSA/Group 5 -- 1973-1979
Group C -- 1980-1990
They all got my blood moving, very hard to pick a favorite. :)

[Ember]

Late 50s to mid 60s, particularly European for me, just because some of the most staggeringly beautiful sports cars came out of that era. And some of the very best drivers.

And domesticly the 70s tin tops. I was too young to realise how much influence the cars produced in this era would have on Australian culture, but even at age 6 I could feel the excitement in the crowds milling around Sandown Park.

And there is also the really early days pre-war when it was all new and some ingenuity and pluck could get you almost anywhere.

[Reslotted]

The 70's for sure. :D :D :D

[Xr4ti]

[oldtymer]

[Florida_Slotter]

[pastor bubba]

I attended my first races around 1972 when I was 5. I remember all the 70s camaros that ran as late models and sportsmans but nothing compares to the old coupes and sedans. At our local track here in Salina, my favorite weekly division is the late models as it has been since I have been going to races. But even the late models cannot come close to the old coupes and sedans and it doesn't matter if they are the old jalopies or old modifieds powered by big blocks.

[dreinecke]

Bueller, Bueller... I'm in the "me too" crowd.

Trans-Am up until about 1973
Can-Am
Mid-1950's stockers until lat 1980's
GP from the beginning until F1 became what it is in the mid-90's
Most anything else on wheels...

[OL Mike]

Before the big bucks in a time when a young man could dream you knew your car like the back of your hand

[Modlerbob]

I guess my favorite era was the late 60's and early 70's sports car racing. One of my best friends at that time was a SCCA club racer who liked hill climbs the most. He also took me to my first three Daytona 24 Hr races when it was called the Continental. He had gotten us press credentials and in those days I was allowed in the pits during the race. I also attended the 12 hours of Sebring a couple of times. Then he moved to California and I to Atlanta and my race attendance dropped off drastically.

[TsgtRet]

I have to go early 50s to early 60s;
The original Carrera Pan Americana, SCCA airport & "street" racing, classic time at LeMans, formative years for sanctioned drag racing, stock car racing with real "stock" cars.....everything after that, while still great, just doesn't have the same "flavor" to me.

[Mayberryman]

My favorite era of racing of all types would have to be the 60s, most especially the mid to late 60s. I am sure that my being a teenager and early twenty something would have to have something to do with my choice, however, there are other and more valid reasons. In the 60s there was a mystique to racing that included new and ever evolving technology. To me CanAm racing was the high point of this technology from the movable wings, to the front air foils to the famous Jim Hall Sucker Car. Indy was going through a massive change with not only the first Lotus rear engine car but to the last roadster I can remember when Jim attempted most likely the last qualification attempt for a front engine roadster. TransAm type racing was the "New Thing" with both SCCA and NASCAR attempting to corner the market on racing these new and aimed at a younger person American Sports Personal cars and NASCAR was changing from the H&M dominate team to the new Hemi and the starting of aero packages. Last and an issue that many of us do not even like to speak of, there was a sense of danger associated with motorsports that made the drivers of that era seem more like Gladiators with a real possibility of injury and or worse than the Three Piece Button Down corporate types that rule today's racing. Yes, racing was still young and filled with the bigger than life Greatest Generation Drivers who could settle scores on the track, off the track or behind the tech shed. One more thing to consider is that it might seem that way to me because I was still young and amazed by all of the above aspects of the sport.