11 of the Greatest American Race Cars of All Time
Racing is in America's blood.
Racing is in America's blood. This country has created some of the boldest, most successful, and most innovative racecars in history. Here are 11 of our favorites—and they only scratch the surface of America's rich racing heritage.
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1Media Platforms Design Team
Chaparral 2E
While the 2D was a successful chassis, and the 2J earned immortality with a couple of snowmobile-engine-driven suction fans, the 2E was the product of Texan ingenuity. It ushered in the aero-downforce age with a driver-adjustable rear wing (via a pedal in the cockpit), and introduced side-pod mounted water cooling. It wasn't merely an icon, it was the vanguard of modern racecar construction.
Photo: Jeff Bloxham/LAT Photographic
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2Media Platforms Design Team
1967 Gurney Eagle-Weslake Mk. I
An American, Dan Gurney, built this car. An American, Gurney, also won a Formula 1 race in this car. That's as good as it gets. The 3-liter, 11,000 RPM, 410 hp, 60-degree V12 and evil shark-torpedo looks are icing on the cake.
Photo: John Lamm
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3Media Platforms Design Team
Lotus 56
The Lotus 56 isn't just a turbine-powered IndyCar, a development of the Granatelli team's STP-Paxton car of 1967. It was a car that solidified the shape and form of most high-level racecars from there on out, consigning the cigar-body shape to history adopting an aerodynamic wedge profile. Also, it had a one-speed transmission and AWD. Turbines and AWD would be banned from Indy, but the shape remained, evolved, and influenced pretty much all race cars after it. And remember, despite the Lotus name and Colin Chapman modifications, it's still essentially an all-American STP-Paxon.
Photo: John Lamm
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4Media Platforms Design Team
2016 Ford GT GTE
From the moment it stole the spotlight at the Detroit Auto Show, there was very little mystery about what Ford was going to do with it. Racing? Only natural. The 3.5-liter EcoBoost has already been proven in TUDOR racing, Chip Ganassi is onboard and hungry for a new challenge, and it has enough rear diffuser to julienne a field of potatoes. The fact that it debuted in an ultra-patriotic livery is just that much better.
Photo: Ford
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5Media Platforms Design Team
Dodge Viper GTS-R Mk. I
The original Viper GTS-R didn't take long to prove that an immense V10 is an asset when endurance racing. On only its third outing at Le Mans, the SRT Motorsports team took a class win in 1998. And again in 1999, and 2000. Don't forget the overall wins at the Nürburgring, Daytona, and Spa, and the five FIA GT and two ALMS championships. Most of all, don't forget how intimidating the big snake was.
Photo: R&T
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6Media Platforms Design Team
Corvette Racing's C5-R, C6.R, and C7.R
For 17 seasons, the Corvette racing team has put three generations of the ".R" (the first was a "-R", to be accurate) on the track, and its proven itself again and again. 1999 marked the debut of the C5-R, which took three class victories at Le Mans (among many other wins). The C6.R took 7 liters of American muscle abroad and won many times, and the latest C7.R just took a class victory in GTE Pro at Le Mans.
Photo: Marshall Pruett
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7Media Platforms Design Team
Panoz LMP-1 and LMP07
Well before Nissan's GT-R LM was causing folks unfamiliar with front-engined LMP cars to scratch their heads, the LMP-1 Roadster-S and its less-successful LMP07 proved definitively that prototypes need not carry their engines aft of the driver. Neither car had the sort of success Panoz wanted at Le Mans, but the LMP-1 in particular diced it up with the BMW V12 LMRs and Ferrari 333 SPs to take the 1999 ALMS team championship.
Photo: Marshall Pruett
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8Media Platforms Design Team
Ford 999
Henry Ford deserves credit personally as a decided badass when he took the remarkably crude, inarguably dangerous 18.9-liter Ford 999 racer to 92 mph—a world record—over a frozen lake. It made 80 hp and a hell of a racket, and had just killed a man the year before. It was a brash, outrageous car that put Ford on the map, even though his fame would be built on utilitarian and economical Model Ts.
Photo: R&T
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9Media Platforms Design Team
DeltaWing
No American creation has so upended the conventions of what a racecar should look like as much as the Ben Bowlby-designed, Panoz-managed, Gurney's All American Racers-built DeltaWing. The DeltaWing massively reduced frontal area to reduce drag and fuel consumption. It worked, even if it didn't achieve any incredible successes—and the concept was solid enough to inspire a copycat, the Nissan ZEOD RC, and a lawsuit.
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10Media Platforms Design Team
Cadillac ATS-V.R
Cadillac terrorized the Pirelli World Challenge Series competition for 10 years with the monstrous CTS-V.R, and now it's the ATS-V.R's turn. A twin-turbocharged 3.6 liter V6 making somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 hp dwells somewhere under the massive flares and giant extractor hood. Between this and the Ford GT GTE, it looks like the future of American racing will be forced-induction.
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11Media Platforms Design Team
Swift 007.i
In 1997, the team owned by Paul Newman and Carl Haas stopped running a Lola chassis and switched to a chassis from American constructor Swift. They had a Ford Cosworth engine, Goodyear tires, and an all-American driver in Michael Andretti. Oh, and it won on its first ever race appearance. That's how you make a debut in style.
Photo: Pascal Rondeau /Allsport
From: Road & Track
Alex Kierstein, Web Editor
Web Editor
Web Editor for Road & Track in Ann Arbor, MI. Lover of old J-tin and even older American tin.
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