NASCAR History - Carl Kiekhaefer

Zerkfitting

Zerkfitting

Team Owner
Joined
Jul 26, 2012
Messages
3,647
Points
593
Location
Minnesota
Carl Kiekhaefer was a team owner during the 1950s, he was ahead of his time. He was probably the first multi-car team that dominated NASCAR at a time when most teams were driver/owners. He raced Chrysler 300s which were expensive performance sedans, they were the most powerful stock cars at that time. He had transport trucks with more support for the cars than the competition. He hired the best drivers. He beat the factory backed teams. He was doing in the 50's what is common today in NASCAR.

He left NASCAR after just two seasons. His success in NASCAR caused fans to boo and Bill France to level the playing field by handicapping his teams. He wanted to promote his Mercury outboard boat motors but didn't want the negative backlash from racing in NASCAR.

More about his run in NASCAR:
http://www.chrysler300club.com/stories/ck/ck.html

About the man:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Kiekhaefer
 
Kiekhaefer was a piece of work. I read a book about him years and years ago called Iron Fist. He was the founder of Mercury Marine and I have owned several Mercury outboards and was intriqued by the story. The guy was ruthless and a cheat. Never the less, he was a win at all costs kind of guy. He paid women to sleep with Evinrude executives in order to try to get industry secrets. He cheated in so many ways to make his product look better than it actually was it was not funny. Nobody ever caught on till years later. The guy was ahead of his time so he fitted into nascar nicely.
 
Here is a little trivial pursuit for you folks. Mercury outboards were once painted white and I think several of the older ones may have been green. They started painting them phantom black back in the sixties and have stayed that way since. Does anybody know why Mercury switched to their trademark color and how it came about?
 
found a link stating the black paint gave a slimming appearance to the motor.

Kiekhaefer



kiekhaefer was apparently quite the unique individual.
 
klemmabyna said:
found a link stating the black paint gave a slimming appearance to the motor.

Kiekhaefer



kiekhaefer was apparently quite the unique individual.
Click to expand...

You win the prize.

When Merc came out with the famous "tower of power" inline 6 engines they looked huge because they were for their time. Anyway, one of the executives wife came up with the idea to paint them black to make them look smaller. Seems that is how women dressed if they got a little fat back in the day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom