the track and fully equipped with the proper electronic timing gear, we decided to use the Westhampton drag strip for our acceleration runs. Choosing a driver was more complicated. He had to be of top caliber, with an established reputation in the United States. Ideally, he would not have contractual agreements with any of the Big Three that might prompt anything besides absolute objectivity. Masten Gregory was our man. An American who has been living in Paris for the past few years, Masten had recently ended a run of poor luck with a sparkling performance at Indianapolis and a well-deserved victory at Le Mans. He had an acknowledged ability for handling nasty, overpowered racing cars, and his ability to articulate his reactions behind the wheel had gained him favor as a test driver in Europe. Not only was Gregory completely unconnected with any of the Detroit manufacturers involved in the test, but also, he informed us by letter, he hadn't ever seen, much less driven, any of the cars! This meant that we could expect some highly impartial-and probably surprising-opinions from him. Firestone had supplied the tires for the Ferrari-Pontiac test program and expressed their willingness to provide rubber and a crew of experts to handle operations at both Bridgehampton and Westhampton. Because this comparison would be based entirely on 1'streetability" and not on maximum performance, it was imperative that a highspeed passenger car tire and not an outright race tire be used. After consulting with Firestone officials, it was decided that the cars would be shod with the company's 7.75 x 14 "Super Sports 50V tire that offered high cornering power in both wet and dry weather at speeds up to 120 mph. Realizing that some sort of inspection procedures would be necessary to ensure that stock parts were being used on the cars, we contacted the Hurst-Campbell Corporation in Warminster, Pa., and they came up with an ideal solution. They enlisted the talented group of young men who make up their performance division in Detroit. Headed by Jack Watson, they are probably as wise to hot .domestic machinery as any aggregation anywhere. A number of them are former technical officials of the National Hot Rod Association, an organization which has an unequalled record for keeping their thousands of entrants abiding by the rules. The Hurst people agreed to run compression and displacement cheeks on the six entered cars, to check suspensions, and to generally scrutinize the automobiles to ensure that stock components were being utilized. In addition, Hurst forged aluminurn wheels were offered for all of the cars. Because of the excessive strain that would be placed on the stock wheels, we had decided early in the planning that some sort of special wheels would be necessary, and the Hurst products were perfect. Having been designed and tested to be stronger than most other custom wheels offered to the public, the Hurst wheels would not only greatly increase the inherent safety of the test, but would give		each of the six automobiles the same amount of unsprung weight with regard to wheels and tires. Now all we had to do was get the cars. Late last summer we contacted the manufacturers by letter. After outlining the basic format of the test, we added a paragraph stipulating clearly the rules of the test: "We want the cars to be stock. They can be set up for absolute maximum performance using available optional components, but we don't want any NASCAR or NHRA race cars. Furthermore, we don't want any rear axle ratios or tires changed between the quarter-mile tests and the timed laps on the road racing circuit." To make sure that our position was unmistakable, we sent a follow-up letter that said, in part, "We want stock cars. Any optional equipment that can be purchased on the car from the dealer is acceptable. We do not want any non-standard shock absorbers, camshafts, stabilizer bars, carburetors, ignition equipment, exhaust headers or any other special equipment of this sort. We want these to be good examples of the cars our readers can buy, not specially- equipped competition cars." We were to discover later that not everybody was completely intimidated. Nonetheless, our rules were tacitly accepted by the companies that consented to take part in the test. Only Chrysler Corporation notified us that they were unable to participate, and their action was prompted by several official and unofficial reasons. Publicly, both Dodge and Plymouth withdrew because production Hemi engines would be available until after the test was completed. However, several highly-placed officials dealing in the Corporation's performance activities privately felt the test would prompt a great flurry of rules-bending and subtle cheating. "Whether you guys like it or not, you're running a race involving a bunch of very serious competitors. Frankly, we don't know how you're going to keep everybody legal," one Chrysler man said. In all, a rather prophetic observation. Plymouth indicated that no Hemis would be available and said no more-ofricially. Dodge, which sometimes indicates more enthusiasm for fun and games of this sort than its sister division, tried hard to get a special preproduction vehicle prepared, but had to give up when costs became prohibitive. A convertible was available, but it was agreed that the additional weight and slightly more flexible chassis would place an undue disadvantage on the car during the handling phase of the program. Exit Chrysler Corporation. Meanwhile, word began to filter into our office about where and how the test cars were being prepared. We heard that former race driver and sports car builder, John Fitch, was doing the final tuning on the Oldsmobile 4-4-2 and had gone to the trouble of renting Bridgehampton for a day to sort the car out. This was initially a bit alarming, but an exchange of correspondence and telephone calls with Fitch satisfied us that he was operating with completely available showroom parts. The Chevrolet people called up several times to double-check a few minor points in the CONTINUED

CAR and DRIVER		MARCH 1966
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