Painted burgundy and silver, Moore's Cougars were driven by Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, David Pearson, Ed Leslie, and the late Peter Revson, and they managed to win four times that year. Each of the Cougars was beautifully prepared, but so were the Mustangs of Carroll Shelby that year, which also won four races and finished Second more often. So the championship went to Shelby and the Mustang, and by '68 Ford wasn't interested in watching Cougars beat its Mustang any more.
The Cougars were essentially the prototypes for the gorgeously prepared Boss 302 Mustangs the Bud Moore team would campaign during '69 and '70 (they won the '70 Trans Am championship). They deserve to be better remembered.
(Photo- Book-1)Book ReviewElectric DreamsBy Caroline Kettlewell288 pagesISBN 0-7867-1271-6$24.00 hard-bound
A book review on a story about electric cars-in Car Craft? Why bother? Because it's a good story. Carroll & Graf Publishers sent me a copy of this book, and I grabbed it on the way out the door on a red-eye flight to Detroit when I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. This true story starts out slow, introducing the main character, Berkeley graduate Eric Ryan, who is sent to Northhampton County, North Carolina, to teach physics. He is soon scooped up into auto mechanics instructor Harold Miller's enthusiasm for building an electric car to compete in a Virginia power company's competition. The high schools were asked to convert an internal combustion vehicle over to electric power to face off in a multi-tiered contest held at the Richmond NASCAR track.
Kettlewell does an admirable job of explaining electric vehicle basics, and there is the inevitable bashing of internal combustion engines that we must wade through, but the main thing about this book is Kettlewells' ability to weave an intricate, technical story into a superb human interest tale filled with dozens of interesting characters. She does such a good job that the reader finds himself rooting almost out loud for these kids from an under-funded high school deep in NASCAR country to win the race. We won't spoil the ending, but it's enough to say that hard work, an eye for every detail, and all those things that car crafters can identify with make for a great story. Of course, the message is clearly on the side of righteousness and electric automobiles, but if you are open-minded enough to get past the environmental message, this makes for great reading. We were only disappointed that the story concluded so quickly. -Jeff Smith
By A NoseThe illegal (and dangerous) practice of soaking racing tires in traction compound has long been a tech inspection nightmare at NASCAR-sanctioned circle tracks. These highly volatile liquids work on tire compounds from the inside out to soften the tire, giving it more grip at the expense of tire mileage and structural integrity.
Because of the complexity of the checking process, some tracks don't test for soaking, preferring instead to turn a blind eye toward the practice. That's until Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, California hired Sinbad.
Sinbad is the newest card-carrying member of Irwindale Speedway's tech team. At a race earlier this year, handler Scott Edmonds started strolling down the long row of Lucas Oil Super Late Models that were lined up for qualifying.
But let's go back in time a month or two ... Irwindale's Ed Branch, who runs the tire program at the track, had been thinking about the vexing problem of tire-soaking for quite a while. With the sophisticated electronic "sniffer" device that the track tech people use, it's difficult to get a solid reading.
Ed contacted Interquest Detection Canines in nearby Pasadena, California, and asked if a bomb-detection dog could be trained to sniff out the substances that are used in doping tires. Edmonds said something like, "Sure, of course, why do you ask?" The next thing anyone knew, he and his pal Sinbad, a 10-year-old retired bomb-sniffing Belgian Malinois, were working the qualifying line on opening night.