Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

Peter, the same though came to my mind!!! You trouble maker you!!!!!!

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

You need to take her to more races Casey. :-)

My wife knows the difference. But she has been to a couple.

Pretty rare car you have there Peter. :-)

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

Wonder if this is connected with NASCAR leaving ESPN, and the NHRA ratings dropping to the basement. Not to mention NHRA pays ESPN for everything.

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

The Ford folks should come out and put this baby to sleep if any or all of it is untrue. I've seen a few of them on this site. Might be a good time for one of them to speak up rather than speaking through surrogates and allowing this story to wonder around the Internet.

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

When you make your living selling the Focus, Fusion, Taurus , SUV's and trucks why you would spend a bunch of money on drag racing. Especially John Force.

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

Its either a hobby... or a Professional Endeavor to make a profit from an investment.

IMO, the line has never been more blurred.

NHRA has to make up its mind towards their future marketing plans .. and as to the Auto mfrs.' factory involvement .
I.E., The presentation of NHRA style Pro Drag racing.. as a affordable family day/weekend,that makes the attendee/fan to consider purchasing/leasing the current offerings and products of the participating Mfrs. and vendors. You know..win on Sunday.......Sign on Monday.

The fans and their families have had their limited entertainment $$ being bombarded 24/7 by every product and service imaginable ..and the automotive related sponsors must know that..
Also , I would say that 18-34 YO males(and females) are NOT taking out 5 yr. books on Current 35 grand 12 sec.muscle cars..in droves. THE demographic that companies most covet , too.

THE factory pro (& sportsman) supported racers must have a tough experience when one must explain how well they will represent /expose their product(s) ..as NHRA often presents half (once unheard of) empty stands... ( One of a handful of Exceptions : NE Drag-way 2013 ) during qualf. and sometime eliminations..so that's a hard nut to sell..going forward. Throw in some less than full 16 ProStock / Fuel car counts, .uneven ESPN start times..and National Broadcast ratings that are far from a selling point. The final say bean counter would say.. "Why Bother?."

I would not be surprised at all..a major cut in funding for the Professional contractual sanctioned racing endeavor that prove to be a "drag" on the bottom line,.... and special sportsman projects (CJ's - COPO- DRAGPACK's etc.) that are for most part , stunning showcases (ringers?) of technologically advanced (sold out) super-car engineering ..but not affordable for 95% of current or prospective (new) class racers or ?.

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

my 4 cents nascar has had there problems so they paint the seats in the grand stands multi color to make it look like there are more people there.
nhra has problems geting fans in so they dont paint the grand stands
(most likely cost to much to do mite cut into someone"s big pay check) they raise entry fees for the racers.nascar crates the chase kinda works, but sill
no improvement infan base. nhra raise entry fee then do there version of the chase no improvement in fan base. nascar the concert seires huh not working. nhra ?? not working. nascar big fines for cheating no improvement
in fan base. nhra fines for talking bad to officals no improvement in fan base. nascar has Danica works for women and famliy. nhra ???
nascar Dale jr in the # 3 car mite help. nhra naked person sponserd by
major car company and series sponser, sells magizines not cars. I mite
not be making any sense but france sr and wally are shaking there heads
just my 2 cents

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

And some of those people who can't tell a difference between them usually couldn't tell a difference between the factory showroom cars either. It's easy for us car guys to tell a difference between exactly what year a car is because of a different trim piece here, molding there and the things that are from the wrong year for a car. For others they can't tell a difference between a Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, Charger, Magnum, Cuda or Dart when they are all stock.

My inlaws are those types of people(although my mother in-law is starting to be able to identify a mustang exhaust note now because of me lol) they may have no urge to buy a Mustang but they sure were interested to sit in the F150,F250, Feista, Focus and Taurus sitting in the manufacturers midway and sign up for the information about them. The Cobra Jet also helps sells parts to the guys on the Street/Strip.

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

Most racers that I know are a loyal bunch. If they race a Chevrolet they most often drive a Chevrolet to work, etc. The fans are the same. It probably wouldn't hurt to contact your favorite manufacturer and point out what a difference their support makes in your purchasing decisions.

Re: Big Wow, news from Ford??
 

With all do respect to Jeff Burk, When he says “very expensive Cobra Jet Stock/Super Stock program”, he fails to mention Ford does not loose money when building these cars. Ford is not about to cancel a program that makes them money. I think his article is misleading. I can not speak for the pro's and NHRA, but he starts his article off by saying "


I am no expert but I doubt the Cobta Jet program turns a profit. They only sell 50 cars a year at around $100K each. That works out to total sales on the cars of 5 million bucks. Thats not much when you consider the overhead and the rest. If the race cars really don't help new cars sales, they probably should drop the program for the benefit of shareholders.