2025

By A. Wayne Ferens
Published 10.29.2025

From the earliest days of the automobile, all cars were open evolving from the horse drawn buggy or carriage. The earliest forms of automobile competition were mostly done in open type cars. Weather was not a primary concern, but durability was. As early as 1903 automobiles were competing on the Ormond and Daytona Beaches, and by the 20's and 30's the hard sands of Daytona became the preferred location for land speed records.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR), a formal sanctioning organization was founded on February 21, 1948 by Bill France with the help of several other drivers and organizers to establish a unified series of racing competitors with original plans that included Modified, Roadster and Strictly Stock Divisions. It soon became apparent the fans were not interested in competing roadsters and the division was abandoned. As the car market changed during the '50's with the growing popularity of small 'drop top' imports and the introduction of new stylish convertible cars from Detroit, NASCAR decided to establish a competition strictly for convertibles. Ford dominated convertible sales in the '50's as it had in the '30's, and by 1957 convertible sales in the United States reached 5% of the total car market.

The NASCAR Convertible Division was established with the purchase of SAFE (Society of Auto Sports, Fellowship and Education)'s all convertible Circuit of Champions "All Stars" circuit in late 1955 and ran the division through 1959. The signature race for convertibles remained a Convertible Division race until 1962 with the first being run under NASCAR at Daytona Beach on February 25, 1956. On Saturday February 22, 1958 the last Convertible Series Race was held on the Daytona Beach & Road Course. It was part of the NASCAR Grand National Series.

thumbnail 58 NASCAR program 2

For two weeks each February the beach came alive for Daytona visitors with a series of festivities, races and events that were organized to both thrill and entertain over 20,000 fans. Stock cars, race cars, family cars and manufacturers latest production vehicles and prototypes were on full display to wet the appetite of the car enthusiast. The most popular event was the Measured Mile Run that armatures and professionals alike could participate even using their everyday family driver to compete in the run. The Daytona Beach & Road Course was a defined course that ran north on the 200 feet wide hard sandy beach surface and south on the asphalt paved two lane section of Florida's Highway A1A. The short tight turns were located at the north and south ends of the 4.1 mile road course.

thumbnail 1958 NASCAR convertible series The Daytona Beach & Road Course was last used in 1958. Looking south - Florida Hwy A1A on the right was asphalt paved. Photo from Wayne Ferens collection.

The '58 Convertible Series race (one of 19 races) was the Daytona Beach windup race that ran for 39 laps and a total distance of 159.9 miles with 29 cars entered. The cars competing were required to be strictly stock factory cars with the engines limited to one four-barrel carburetor. With safety in mind the cars were permitted by NASCAR to make wheel, brake, steering and suspension reinforcements, but did require a 22 gallon limited fuel capacity, roll bar, seat belts and helmet for the driver. The greatest drivers in the world including Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Buck Baker and Fireball Roberts driving the hottest convertibles from Ford, Chevy, Plymouth, Pontiac, Edsel, Olds and Mercury with 300 plus horsepower thrilled the crowds with speeds of over 140 mph on the straights.

thumbnail Lee Petty 42 Joe Weatherly 12 Daytona Beach 1958 Lee Petty in the #42 Oldsmobile and Joe Weatherly battle in the tight sand turns of the Daytona Beach & Road course. Petty went on to finish 2nd in the '58 and last convertible beach race. The Daytona Speedway opened the following season. Photo from Wayne Ferens collection.

At the start of the 1958 NASCAR Grand National season car manufacturers faced the Automobile Manufacturers Association 1957 ban on active participation in auto racing. To abide by the AMA resolution the manufacturers had to be creative and discrete in getting their latest performance equipment into the hands of the NASCAR competitors. Race car builders Holman-Moody and Wood Brothers Racing, engine builders like Smokey Yunick and dealers like Jim Rathmann Chevrolet in Florida became 'partners' and sponsors with the race teams so none of the performance parts, equipment, body modifications and tuning secrets would come directly from the factories in violation of the AMA agreement. The winner of the '58 Convertible Series and the last Daytona Beach race was Curtis Turner in #26 Ford that was the courtesy of 32 Carolina Ford dealerships, not the Ford factory. The Convertible Series became a big hit with the fans because they could see the drivers wheeling around the track, and the cars reflected the production vehicles that could be purchased at their local dealership.

thumbnail Curtis Turner 58 Ford winner Curtis Turner in the Holman-Moody prepared '58 Ford winning convertible at the last Daytona Beach & Road Course race. Turner's motto was: "Run flat out until it breaks or wins," and win he did. Turner averaged 99 mph and received $4000 for his efforts. Photo from Wayne Ferens collection.

Bob Welborn was the undisputed king of the NASCAR Convertible Division championship winning three years in a row from 1956 to 1958. Welborn (1928-1997) was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1996. Joe Lee Johnson won the final convertible championship in 1959 just as NASCAR dropped the series. That year Bill France Sr. opened the new Daytona Speedway just a short distance from the beach. However some tracks continued to run convertible events through 1962.

thumbnail Bob Welborn 49 1957 Chevrolet Bob Welborn with his 1957 Chevrolet championship car #49. Welborn was acknowledged as the king of the convertibles winning 19 of the 117 total convertible races. He also drove Grand National cars for Julian Petty, Lee's brother. Photo from Wayne Ferens collection.

thumbnail 1959 first Daytona race The 1959 Daytona 500 had one qualifying race for Convertibles and one for the hardtop Grand National cars. 20 of the 59 cars in the 500 miler were convertibles. Some teams ran so called "zipper top" cars that had a fabricated or modified bolt-on removable metal top that could run in either the Grand National or the Convertible Division series. The 31-degree banking at the 2.5 mile speedway was the steepest of any track at the time. With 41,921 trackside fans and average speeds in excess of 135 mph quickly established the new speedway as the fastest track on NASCAR's circuit. Joe Lee Johnson won the last NASCAR Convertible race at Daytona. Photo from Wayne Ferens collection.

Bibliography

Forty Years of Stock Car Racing by Greg Fielden 1993

Motor Trend Magazine May 1959

Internet sources

By Robert Tate, Award-Winning Automotive Historian and Researcher
Images Courtesy of the Ford Motor Company Archives
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by Brian Yopp, MotorCities' Deputy Director
Images Courtesy of the Gilmore Car Museum
Published 9.3.2025

Gilmore Garage Works group shot A recent group shot of the students and mentors participating in the Gilmore Garage Works program.

From some people's perspectives, cars provide pure utility. They can get you from Point A to Point B. For others, classic cars provide entertainment or recreation as a nice weekend hobby.

In the case of Gilmore Garage Works, cars can provide invaluable life lessons.

An earlier group of participants in the Gilmore Garage Works program

In 2012, MotorCities supported a grant to the Gilmore Car Museum to connect at-risk, Kalamazoo-area high school students with local mentors as they worked together on classic automobiles. The incentive was that you needed to remain enrolled in school in order to continue in the after-school vehicle restoration program. What the students learned about body repair and internal combustion engines paled in comparison to what they learned from auto engineers and other professionals serving as mentors from their community who showed them a world of possibilities.

A recent student participant in the program

After a brief interruption to the COVID pandemic, the program has expanded and continues to be a success. Many students who have graduated from the program have returned to act as professional mentors.

According to the Gilmore Car Museum's Director of Education, Fred Colgren, this program has filled a void regarding student access to traditional auto shop classes that used to exist at many high schools, but now are relegated to vocational education centers at the Intermediate School District (ISD) level -- if they exist at all. Students come to the Gilmore Garage Works building on the museum's campus twice a week after school from September through June and work with a mentor to develop a variety of skills, including engine building, repairs and welding. They work on restoring actual vehicles from the Gilmore's extensive collection of cars, trucks and motorcycles.

The Gilmore Garage Works building

Gilmore Garage Works is hosting an upcoming Open House on Tuesday, September 23 where parents and students can tour the building, meet their future mentors and learn more about the specifics of the program.

I recently made the trip to Hickory Corners in Kalamazoo County to the Gilmore Car Museum's campus to speak with Colgren, Program Manager John Chapman, and Eli and Conner -- two recent participants in the program. You can watch the interview here.

MotorCities Deputy Director Brian Yopp (center), flanked by the Gilmore Car Museum's Director of Education Fred Colgren and Garage Works Manager John Chapman (left) and students Eli and Conner (right)

MotorCities has also launched a new page on our website to spotlight amazing programs taking place at our partners. Gilmore Garage Works is the first program featured, and we will add new stories quarterly. You can find the new page by clicking here.

by A. Wayne Ferens
Images Courtesy of the Ferens Collection, Motor Trend, and Road & Track
Published 8.27.2025

A view from above of the Ford GT 90 concept

Today's super cars are so advanced in engineering and technology -- even the word “exotic” is passe’. Words describing these new ultra-machines being tossed around the car industry include adjectives like extreme, hyper, super, or super-hyper. Yes, these new “exotics” are probably all of those things and more.

Look at some of today's “extreme machines” and see what they have in common -- those super Ferrari limited models like the LaFerrari, Lamborghini Veneno, Koenigsegg Regera, McLaren Senna, Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Zonda to name a few. For starters, all use advanced construction materials like carbon-fiber, high-strength aluminum, magnesium, titanium and other exotic materials. Most are hand-assembled using advanced structural adhesives or welding techniques. When automation is used, it is of the highest-tech most advanced computer controlled robotic manufacturing processes known to man.

When it comes to hyper-performance, many use radically designed V8s, V12s even V or W-16 cylinder engines with multi-valves, multi-cams, multi-turbos, etc. Some are even using advanced hi-tech hybrid systems that produce four-figure horsepower levels from their power units. Many of these super cars are not evolutionary, but revolutionary to say the least. So, when did this "hyper-revolution" start and who started it? Let's take a look back to the 1990s.

A front end view of the Ford GT 90 concept

One car comes to mind -- the Ford GT. No, not the early welded steel/fiberglass, cast iron carbureted V8 GT40 from the 1960s, but Ford's hyper-super-exotic concept car built in 1995 known as the GT-90. Some call it the greatest concept GT car ever made. Yes, it was made to run and drive. When a large high-volume automobile company like Ford Motor Company invests hundreds of thousands, even millions (estimates of $3-million for the GT-90) into a “dream car,” one must dream down the road so to speak.

Starting with some super car basics -- as used in the then Ford-owned Jaguar, as in Jaguar XJ-220 -- Ford laid the foundation of the GT-90 on the XJs chassis and suspension, and also used the Jag’s smooth shifting five-speed manual transmission.

The cockpit of the Ford GT 90 concept

Ford molded it's “New Edge” designed body out of exotic and very expensive hand-laid, light-weight, high-strength, carbon-fiber material. This 3,200 lb. super car had subtle styling details reminiscent of the original GT40, especially on the front of the vehicle.

A rear view of the Ford GT 90 concept

To give it that mind-blowing super hi-performance, Ford sliced and diced two of its modular 4.6-liter fuel-injected V8s as used in the Lincoln and created a 6.0-liter DOHC 48 valve, quad-turbo (Garrett T2s) aluminum V-12 -- pumping out 720 horsepower and 660 lb. ft. of torque from its mid-engined power unit. Other hi-tech features included touch-panel entry, passing car sensors, speed-activated air dam and a gorgeous spacious blue oval-colored interior with individual gauge pods and a multi-control center console.

The powerful engine that drove the concept to high-performance heights

First debuted at the 1995 Detroit Auto Show, the Ford GT-90 super car became an instant sensation. On the track, it produced performance numbers in the range of 0 - 100 mph in six seconds and a top speed of 230 mph. If the super or hyper name fits, wear it!

Ford never intended to put the car into production, but the company continued the “New Edge” design through the 2000s on many of its popular production models. Was this just a styling exercise, or did Ford secretly intend to build an exotic super performance hyper-car? I mean a ultra-super-performance-exotic-hyper car like the new Ford GT that can be purchased through special order -- in limited numbers of course ...

Bibliography

Motor Trend, December 1, 1995

Road & Track, April 1995

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Images Courtesy of the Ferens Collection
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2025

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The Ford Econoline Truck

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Remembering Vincent Geraci, Automotive Designer

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Remembering the General Motors Class of 1956

Exploring Southwest Detroit's Industrial Legacy

Chrysler Had Great Success with Their Muscle Car Advertising

Gilmore Garage Works: Training the Next Generation

Remembering the 1995 Ford GT-90 Concept

Remembering the Great-Looking 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle

Remembering the Rare Ruxton Automobiles

Bryan Nesbitt Becomes General Motors' 8th Head of Design

Checker Cab's Michigan Connection

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Remembering the Chevrolet Vega

Inside Facts on the 1951 Studebaker Line

Remembering Racing Engineer Phil Remington

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Remembering "Mr. Corvette," Engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov

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Remembering American Motors' Class of 1967

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Remembering the 1969 Mustang Shelby GT 350/500 Models

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Remembering Bill Porter, Great GM Designer & Auto Historian

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Remembering the Oldsmobile Aerotech Concept by Ed Welburn

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The 1955 Ford Thunderbird Turns 70 Years Old

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