We're number 1

If it’s foreign, it’s faster – that’s been a virtual mantra for many years, ever since the emission controls of the early 70’s made it seem that big, powerful engines were a thing of the past and even worse – uncool. It must strike some of as amazing to consider that 1970 ended 35 years ago and I say that because the opinions one hears would make it seem like those three and a half decades never happened and that the ’72 Oldsmobile 88 still represented the height of American engineering.

People still look to driving machines that are “ultimate” and cars for which “there is no substitute” as the fastest and best handling and most reliable or even more vaguely: the most “high tech.” I’m always amused to listen to breathless advertising telling about the latest thing from Toyota that my Chevrolet had back in ’93 or the new, exciting thingie that was standard on the 1948 Tucker. People still think that small engines spinning at 60 jillion rpm are inherently more virtuous than one with more displacement and yet which are smaller, lighter, more fuel efficient, more powerful, reliable and cheaper, but it’s all about fashion and de gustibus non disputandem est. Besides, nobody knows how anything works any more and if Volkswagen tells us they’re made of Turbonium, we believe it.

Last week, General Motors’ fastest son, the Corvette C6-R won the G1 class at LeMans, beating the next entry, a far more expensive Aston Martin DBR9 by five laps. Number three was an old C5-R running as a private entry. This marks the 5th first place finish in 6 years since Corvette returned to international racing.


G1 is the class for the fastest, production based sports cars. One would think this would stop Porsche pilots from harassing Corvettes on the highway, or give pause to the Honda Civics with enormous wings and coffee can exhaust, but it does not. The power of fashion and the might of advertising are far stronger than fact.

Face it, we don’t make much here any more other than cars and airplanes and yet we have no pride in them. We’re convinced that Europeans in their Fiat Pandas and horrible little Ford Ka’s are having all the fun while we are not. Europeans in the know disagree. I’ve driven very prosaic American cars in Europe and the locals all but chase you down the street waving cash.

I met with the President of the Aston Martin Club of Belgium last week in Luxembourg and he told me that if Corvettes were available there without the lengthy wait and massive taxes, he would gladly trade. That’s quite an admission and it’s too bad we flag waving types can’t find anything worth buying or even being proud of that’s made in our own country. We may indeed be amoral, imperialist warmongers who can’t play soccer worth a damn, but sometimes – just sometimes, we’re number one.