Download Free Stock Car Racing In The 50s Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Stock Car Racing In The 50s and write the review.

Human beings have always been driven to compete. Foot racing became horse racing became automobile racing, and we continue to redefine the word “fast.” Whether you prefer the tales of American bootleggers customizing Prohibition-era automobiles to outrun the law or the natural progression of cars replacing horses on the streets and on the racetrack, automobile racing flourished as a sport for many years in the United States before stock car racing truly came into its own in the 1950s. The economy rebounded after the end of World War II. The GIs brought home skills and knowledge about advances in technology, and civilians had learned how to get the most out of old machines during the war. Scrap steel was no longer reserved exclusively for the War Effort, and the junkyards were filling up with worn out cars as people started to invest in new ones to replace them. A very competitive stock car could be purchased at the junk yard for $25 or so. By adding another $75, a clever builder could make it race ready. Teams of weekend warriors could compete head to head against well-funded, highly trained teams and have a real shot at winning. It was a perfect combination: knowledgeable mechanics and fearless drivers in cars that the public recognized from their daily life. The grandstands filled and new tracks turned up all across the countryside to satisfy the public's interest in watching these race cars compete. Associations formed to standardize the tracks, which were often farm fields that had been lovingly sculpted and paved by the farmers themselves to give the drivers and their crews a place to showcase their talent. These men and women entertained, awed, and inspired a generation of "motor heads" and race fans. This book is a tribute to the drivers and other figures from Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania who shaped stock car racing in the 1950s.
Traces the history of stock car racing and looks at major drivers, teams, and racetracks.
Never before has a national publication featured a collection of photos of the Northeast’s favorite stock car racing’s division – the modifieds. The author brings together photos and text of the region’s best-loved drivers and their cars, as well as the “also-rans,” during the ‘60s and ‘70s when modifieds were built in backyards by local mechanics utilizing junkyard parts, no two cars looked alike, and there were so many tracks to race at. See them now as they were!
Glory Days documents the early history of stock car racing in the Duluth-Superior area. It is a journal of the racing activity, both on the track and off, and describes the racing experiences of hundreds of drivers who competed at tracks in Proctor, Duluth, Cloquet and Iron River.
In this history of the stock car racing circuit known as NASCAR, Daniel S. Pierce offers a revealing new look at the sport from its postwar beginnings on Daytona Beach and Piedmont dirt tracks through the early 1970s, when the sport spread beyond its southern roots and gained national recognition. Real NASCAR not only confirms the popular notion of NASCAR's origins in bootlegging, but also establishes beyond a doubt the close ties between organized racing and the illegal liquor industry, a story that readers will find both fascinating and controversial.
The formative years of the 1950s are explored in this fourth installment of Evro's decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and teams. When the World Championship was first held in 1950, red Italian cars predominated, from Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati, and continued to do so for much of the period. But by the time the decade closed, green British cars were in their ascendancy, first Vanwall and then rear-engined Cooper playing the starring roles, and BRM and Lotus having walk-on parts. As for drivers, one stood out above the others, Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, becoming World Champion five times. Much of the fascination of this era also lies in its numerous privateers and also-rans, all of which receive their due coverage in this complete work. Year-by-year treatment covers each season in fascinating depth, running through the teams -- and their various cars -- in order of importance. Alfa Romeo's supercharged 11⁄2-litre cars dominated the first two years, with titles won by Giuseppe Farina (1950) and Fangio (1951). The new marque of Ferrari steamrollered the opposition in two seasons run to Formula 2 rules (1952-53), Alberto Ascari becoming champion both times, and the same manufacturer took two more crowns with Fangio (1956) and Mike Hawthorn (1958). Maserati's fabulous 250F, the decade's most significant racing car, propelled Fangio to two more of his five championships (1954 and 1957). German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz stepped briefly into Formula 1 (1954-55) and won almost everything with Fangio and up-and-coming Stirling Moss. Green finally beat red when the Vanwalls, driven by Moss and Tony Brooks, won the inaugural constructors' title (1958). Then along came Cooper, rear-engine pioneers, to signpost Formula 1's future when Jack Brabham became World Champion (1959).
The true story behind NASCAR’s hardscrabble, moonshine-fueled origins, “fascinating and fast-moving . . . even if you don’t know a master cylinder from a head gasket” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). “[Neal] Thompson exhumes the sport’s Prohibition-era roots in this colorful, meticulously detailed history.”—Time Today’s NASCAR—equal parts Disney, Vegas, and Barnum & Bailey—is a multibillion-dollar conglomeration with 80 million fans, half of them women, that grows bigger and more mainstream by the day. Long before the sport’s rampant commercialism lurks a distant history of dark secrets that have been carefully hidden from view—until now. In the Depression-wracked South, with few options beyond the factory or farm, a Ford V-8 became the ticket to a better life. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of cash. Driving with the Devil reveals how the skills needed to outrun federal agents with a load of corn liquor transferred perfectly to the red-dirt racetracks of Dixie. In this dynamic era (the 1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford V-8s—convicted felon Raymond Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red Vogt, and war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champ—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a sport for the South to call its own. In the tradition of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, this tale captures a bygone era of a beloved sport and the character of the country at a moment in time.
Chronicles the events and societal trends that created disturbance and conflict after World War II, discussing school integration, migration into the cities, the civil rights movement, and the breakdown of traditional values.