Documenting the historic Corvette racing trials, tribulations, and successes is David Friedman's recent creation, Corvette Thunder, 50 years of Corvette Racing, 1953-2003. This impressive 400-page books charts the evolution of Corvette racing from the early days of the SR2 record runs on the sand at Daytona Beach through the efforts of Pratt Miller's C5R team at Lemans in 2003. With large detailed photographs, many never before published, and detailed captions, Corvette Thunder offers not only great visuals of Corvettes in competition, but insightful commentary giving perspective on the challenges faced by the drivers and teams at the time.
With most of the Corvette racing efforts coming while Chevrolet's corporate "no-racing" edict was in place, locating and documenting this information required significant investigative efforts with former competitors rather than through one simple Chevrolet archive. The history of the John Greenwood Racing Team is a great case in point, as much of the documentation of his team was lost due to the illusive nature of team owner John Greenwood. Corvette Thunder contains unique Greenwood Racing Team photographs showing his legendary Trans Am Corvette at various venues and giving detailed information concerning the Greenwood racing era.
Corvette Thunder is a beautifully detailed and well-researched hardcover book featuring over 700 black-and-white and color images and encased in its own protective slipcover case. Priced at $75, the book is autographed by David Friedman and legendary Corvette racer Dick Guldstrand when ordered from the Web site, www.corvettethunder.com. For more information contact Guldstrand Motorsport Productions, 805 S. San Fernando Blvd. , Burbank, CA. 91502, 818/840-6880.-Cam Benty
Virtually a Mopar[Photos 116-0504.SCUP 8 on disc]Are you craving to drive a new Dodge Magnum or Chrysler 300 and scared to ask a dealer to let you take one for a testdrive? Or are you just too impatient to wait a few months before they go on sale? Then you need to snake a copy of the Chrysler 300 or Dodge Magnum editions of the Project Gotham Racing 2 video game for the Microsoft Xbox that were featured in dedicated kiosks at the Detroit Auto Show.
The games (along with a Jeep version) were developed by Microsoft Xbox and Terminal Reality so that show-goers could "testdrive" the new Mopars on display without risking a lot of prototype sheetmetal. So far there are no plans for commercially available versions.
However there are three online racing games, developed by a company called Wild Tangent, available on DaimlerChrysler's various Web sites. "Jeep 4x4 Adventure" can be accessed at Jeep.com, "Dodge Racing-Hemi edition" is at Dodge.com, and "Chrysler West Coast Rally" is accessible at Chrysler.com.
Race Car Of The Month'98 Ford Taurus[Photos 116-0504.SCUP 10 on disc ]It's only in the last two years that the true significance of the '98 Taurus for NASCAR Winston Cup competition has become apparent. And it's not because it was the first four-door to race in the series.
During 1997, Ford decided it would end production of its big, square-shouldered Thunderbird coupe. Interest in two-door coupes had waned among buyers generally, and in the overweight, generally underpowered T-bird in particular. But the big 'Bird was also Ford's NASCAR racer and the only vehicle in the manufacturer's lineup that fit the sanctioning body's general rules-the Mustang was too small and there was no two-door version of the Taurus. So for 1998 Ford petitioned NASCAR to let it race the four-door Taurus, and NASCAR, not wanting to lose one of the three manufacturers involved in the series, acquiesced.