Chevrolet and their clandestine racing efforts

[Ghoste]

Maybe this is better suited as a Saturday topic, but a buddy of mine mentioned recently that had Chevrolet chosen to participate in the racing activities of the 60's that no other brand would exist today.  I of course disagreed with him and pointed out that not only did GM participate heavily in racing and race engineering through the back door, they were also the undisputed masters of sanctioning body lobbying.  They secretly funded racers, leaned hard on race organizations to chneg rules to favor them and stood around with their shoulders shrugged like Charlie Brown going 'who me?".
Does anyone really think that GM wasn't devoting as much money to performance as Ford and Chrysler?  Albeit they had to hide it from a lot of board members but never believe that the entire managerial team at the other two was all for racing either.  Yes, they had the right people in the right positions to be able to pursue it more openly but how can you look at a car like a 69 ZL1 Camaro and not think GM was making sure they had competitive parts?

[Aero426]

Jim Hall had more than a little back door help.   I don't know how much was money versus parts and pieces falling off the truck.   He also had a lot of engineering help from GM. 

Same with Penske and the Camaro T/A program.    Another example is the Reynolds aluminum blocks in Can-Am.     GM did a lot where they wanted to, but it was not in your face. 

[Cooter]

One guy comes to mind when Chevy racing is mentioned......



Smokey Yunick. "Best Damn Garage in town"...


IMO, the one of the greatest tuners that ever lived.

[mauve66]

and the guy............... wagner i think with the pontiac and soembody else also.
i've read memoirs about wagner and his pontiac running aroun detroit testing a new cam every other weekend

[Ghoste]

Pontiac was a little more brazen about it than Chevrolet though.  I know the "ban" was a a corporate one but for whatever reason it seems like Chevrolet is the division that fans most insist didn't participate in any backdoor antics.  Wangers certainly had connections at the top and by running his efforts out of Royal Pontiac he got away with a lot.

[Aero426]

...but for whatever reason it seems like Chevrolet is the division that fans most insist didn't participate in any backdoor antics.  

They need to read this book which was originally published in 1972.    

It is back in print at the SAE book store.   Good book written by a former Chevrolet engineer covering involvement with Chaparral, Penske, Yunick, etc.
http://books.sae.org/book-r-271

[Ghoste]

Ah, never knew of it myself.  I will have to look for a copy now, thanks.