Hagerty Sidedrafts: Cars | Classics | Racing

In late 1959, Chevrolet debuted the Corvair, a family of cars with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine. It was the most unconventional car to ever come out of Detroit. It was also, according to Ralph Nadar, the most dangerous. The ensuing battle between Nadar and GM is now firmly in the rearview mirror and on this episode, we discuss the controversy with GM Engineer and Corvair enthusiast Pete Koehler.

The Ford GT40 looms massively in Ford’s psyche. It was, after all, the Ford that beat Ferrari in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. Four decades after that win, the company resurrected the storied machine with an all new Ford GT to commemorated Ford's 100th anniversary. Chris Theodore was Ford’s VP of Product Engineering during this time and the man tasked with designing an all-new car that captured the spirit of the original. Here he recounts the thrilling but harrowing story behind the Ford GT.

Sam Posey raced with the greats—Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and Mario Andretti to name a few—and had a front-row seat during racing’s golden era. Along the way he notched his own triumphs before applying his creativity to writing, painting, and the broadcast booth. A man of many passions, we talked with Posey at his beautiful painting studio in Sharon,Connecticut.

History has largely forgotten one of America's most influential motorcars, the 1932 Graham Blue Streak. Designed by Amos Northup, the Blue Streak pioneered numerous features including a low-slung frame and aerodynamic body. The Graham was one of the most copied cars of the 1930s, but is largely a footnote today. The President of the Historic Vehicle Association, Mark Gessler, tells the tale of this fascinating automobile.

In their new book, Cuba’s Car Culture, vintage-car hunters Tom Cotter and Bill Warner traveled to the island nation to find out what decades of Castro rule have done to that country’s cars. The pair returned with fascinating tales of fifties-era American cars still roaming the streets, ever resourceful home mechanics, and rumors of hidden Grand-Prix racers.

In August, 2017, the last Dodge Viper rolled from the factory, ending the a 25-year run as America’s most raucous sports car. Bob Lutz was the driving force behind the Viper’s birth and in this episode he explains how the Viper came to be and what ultimately sealed its fate.

If it wasn’t for Zora Duntov, the Chevrolet Corvette would probably have been just a footnote in GM’s history. But immediately after joining GM in 1953,  Duntov bulldogged a series of changes through the GM bureaucracy that made the Corvette a legitimate sports car. Jerry Burton, author of Zora Arkus-Duntov—The Man Behind Corvette, joins us to explain how Duntov’s forceful personality was an instrument of good, and sometimes bad.

Writer and artist Ben Hamper spent nearly a decade in a General Motors auto factory before publishing his brilliant memoir Rivethead in 1991. Hamper’s depiction of the assembly line drudgery and the endless fight with the clock is entertaining, maddening, and at times tragic. It’s a must read for any gearhead and in this episode Hamper reveals the stories behind the book.