DRIVE network’s ‘Shakedown’ with Leo Parente provides a comprehensive rundown of what’s going on in the racing and motorsports world each week. In light of General Motors’ giant recall debacle, Parente decided to recall some of the worst racing cars ever put out by GM or powered by GM powerplants in the most recent episode of the show.
There are some entries on Parente’s list we agree with wholeheartedly. The Chaparral 2-series for example, particularly the 2H, was never very successful in the United States Road Racing Championship. It went through several different redesigns, each seemingly more whacky and ridiculous than the last, but was never the winning car lead designer Jim Hall hoped it would be. To his credit, the Chaparral 2-series was an icon, an innovation leader and, on a few occasions, a race winner.
However some cars Parente lists simply don’t deserve to make the “Worst GM racecars” list. The one that sticks out the most to us is the Oldsmobile Aerotech. Parente’s reasoning for listing the Aerotech as a terrible racing car is that it was a “charade of GM engineering,” because the chassis it sat on was actually from a March IndyCar. The Aerotech was never meant to showcase chassis engineering, and instead was a demonstration of the power of GM’s quad-4 engine and the super-streamlined body the GM Design staff drew up for the car, which looks futuristic even today. It also never went racing, so the use of the word “racecar” by Parente is a little dodgy.
Check out the video below and let us know if you agree or disagree with Parente’s list in the comments. You can also drop a line if you think he might’ve missed any bad GM racecars.
Comments
This guy is a real Mother! Can I suggest worst Web site.
This guy needs to know his history better.
1 The Hairy Olds was a exhibition car like Bill Mavericks Little Red Wagon or Hemi Under Glass. These car had a lot of fans and made a lot of money.
2 The Ivo car was built when Nitro was banned. He was winning with a two engine car and though 4 would be better till the NHRA removed the Nitro ban. This made the Showboat out dated before it hit the track. It too went on to a very good exhibition car life and made money.
3 Mickey Thompsons Indy car was a failure due to man reasons. One Mickey was like Smokey Yunick and was not afraid to try things. When they worked he was a Hero and when they did not he was a Zero. Not all of Edison’s ideas worked either. Indy also made him make changes to these cars the two years he used them and killed their handling and Dave McDonald too. Mickey have failures with other brands too.
4 The Aerotech was a March Indy car built by A J Foyt. Olds and GM never hid the fact it was a Indy car chassis as the whole point was to set records with a Turbo 4 cylinder which they did.
5 The Briggs cars did well for what they were and what they were up against. The LMP just never had the money to do what they needed to do and was a flop.
6 The 2H was a mess but again how many did Jim Get right?
7 Never heard of the Vega but it has a Hemi in it. Did GM even have anything to do with this.
The Mitchel car was not pretty but it was not a race care either. It was more street rod.
God that guy is obnoxious.
The Aerotech was one of Welburns’ greatest work, and this shallow-throated git poo-poos it because it because he thought GM lied about its origin?
I’d point out the laundry list of fallacies in this vid, but it doesn’t matter. It’s obvious why he hates GM; didn’t you hear – Apparently GM raped his mother.
this guy is good to ignore , he dont even know that most bmws and jags use GM gear boxes from factory he s probably some euro trash or jap crap cars lover , he likes being fooled by some fancy euro cars interior and shit, thats probably what he likes to pay for