This 1973 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS Won the NY-to-LA Cannonball Dash 50 Years Ago. Now You Can Buy It
In 1975, Jack May and Rick Cline drove this Ferrari from New York to Los Angeles in 35 hours and 53 minutes, winning that year's Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.
Fifty years ago, this Dino made a record-setting run.
Owner Jack May and co-driver Rick Cline averaged 83 mph driving from New York to Los Angeles.
This plaque commemorates their achievement.
After 50 years, Jack May is only now selling his car.
The Dino is in unrestored condition.
Because they'd be driving flat-out, May and Cline turned the tachometer to put the redline in a more visible position.
In Wichita, Kansas, the team had to perform some emergency repairs. The parts receipt is still affixed to the car.
Keep scrolling to see more pictures of this historic Dino.
You Might Also Like
Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars through the Decades
How to Buy or Lease a New Car
Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Verge
22 minutes ago
- The Verge
How big trucks and SUVs gobbled up the entire auto industry
When I was growing up in the Midwest, everyone I knew drove small cars. My dad had a light pink Volvo 240, my mom drove a Dodge Dart, and my grandmother had a 1988 Honda Accord — which would eventually become my first car. We lived in the suburbs, so almost no one drove a truck, but if they did it was something small like a Ford Ranger or Toyota Hilux. Over time, those small cars were replaced by SUVs of increasing size. Today, anyone searching for anything smaller than a compact SUV will probably come up dry. Ford killed its sedan production in North America a number of years ago. GM took a little longer, but eventually, with the Chevy Malibu leaving the lineup in 2024, it got there as well. The decisions, the companies argue, were a reflection of shifting customer preferences. Four in five cars sold in the United States last year were either SUVs or pickup trucks. That's a far cry from the 1990s, when that number was closer to 25 percent of all sales. Americans just aren't that into sedans anymore, preferring higher riding vehicles that confer a sense of safety and dominance over the road. Small cars were out; big ones — and often really big ones — were in. But these big trucks and SUVs can be deadly. Vehicles with extra-tall hoods and blunt front ends are more likely to cause fatalities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. There have been numerous studies and investigations examining how tall, flat-nosed trucks and SUVs are more likely to cause serious injury and death than smaller, shorter vehicles. Larger front ends mean pedestrians are more likely to suffer deadly blows to the head and torso. Higher clearances mean victims are more likely to get trapped underneath a speeding SUV instead of pushed onto the hood or off to the side. And front blind zones associated with large trucks and SUVs have contributed to the injury and death of hundreds of children across the country, studies have shown. As Americans flocked to these dangerously tall and heavy vehicles, the pedestrian death rate soared: between 2013 and 2022, pedestrian fatalities increased 57 percent, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports. In 2022, 88 percent of pedestrian deaths occurred in single-vehicle crashes. When confronted with these statistics, automakers usually point to the increasing use of technology in vehicles — cameras, sensors, blind-spot detection, automatic braking — to help reduce pedestrian deaths. But rarely do they address the role that vehicle design plays in crash fatalities. That's because big trucks and SUVs are not only popular but also better moneymakers than smaller vehicles. SUVs have a profit margin that's 10–20 percent higher than smaller cars because they command a higher price while costing only slightly more to manufacture. 'We're providing the vehicles that consumers want, and playing to the strength of the company,' Kumar Galhotra, Ford's then president for North America, told The New York Times in 2019. Many people have been sounding the alarm on this trend, notably David Zipper, senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative and Verge contributor. In 2023, he wrote in Slate that the story of 'car bloat' can be explained by 'carmaker profit, shifting consumer preferences, and loophole-riddled auto regulations.' Those regulations, in particular, came into focus late last year, a few weeks before the November election, when NHTSA, perhaps a bit too optimistically, released a proposal that would strike at the heart of car bloat. Never in its 50-plus years in existence has the regulator issued new rules for automakers requiring them to change their vehicle designs to better prevent pedestrian fatalities — until now. The rules would update the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), the government's bible for everything that's required in a new vehicle before it's sold — from steering wheels to rearview mirrors — to set testing procedures to simulate head-to-hood impact, with the aim of reducing head injuries. If enacted, automakers will have to test their vehicles using crash test dummies representing adult and child pedestrians for the first time. NHTSA says the changes could save up to 67 lives every year. The proposal drew over 5,700 comments, the vast majority of them enthusiastic. But safety groups argue that the rule could have a limited impact, given the focus on the hoods of vehicles and not the front-end design or height. Still, expectations are low that anything will move forward. NHTSA lost about 4 percent of its staff as part of DOGE's efforts to slash the federal workforce. And advocates I spoke to don't expect any meaningful safety rulemaking to advance under the Trump administration. Rebecca Neal, a spokesperson for NHTSA, would only say that 'the rulemaking is still active.' Most Americans aren't aware of the danger posed by these big, hulking vehicles. They think that by ascending into the driver's seat of a three-row, 4,000-pound SUV, they are not only better protecting themselves, but also their family. Because after all, isn't it other drivers that are the real problem? This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on cars and consumer safety, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew J. Hawkins Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Cars Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Column Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All The Stepback Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Transportation
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fred Vasseur and Ferrari have a ‘clear target' for the 2025 F1 season
Ferrari rocked the Formula 1 world before the start of the 2024 season, reaching an agreement on a contract with seven-time Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton to begin driving for the team in 2025. But while Hamilton arrived in Maranello to much fanfare, the results have yet to follow. The living legend has yet to secure a grand prix podium this year, and aside from a win in the F1 Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix and a podium in the F1 Sprint at the Miami Grand Prix, the results have not matched the hype. Ferrari is locked in a tight battle with Mercedes, Hamilton's former team, for second in the Constructors' Championship race, but they are miles behind first-place McLaren. And last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix was a difficult result for the team. While Charles Leclerc started on pole, his pace in the later stages of the race faded as his SF-25 had suffered chassis damage, and he finished a frustrating fourth. As for Hamilton, he qualified 12th and finished 12th, and sounded like a driver who could not wait for the Summer Shutdown to arrive. In a video interview with the official F1 channel, Team Principal Frederic Vasseur addressed the team's present, and future. 'I'm really convinced that it takes time,' said Vasseur. 'It takes time, not just at Ferrari, but everywhere. 'If you look at any good story in F1 – when Christian [Horner] joined Red Bull or Jean [Todt] joined Ferrari before – all these good success stories took time before the first win. Also, because that resource system in the paddock, you need a couple of years to build up a team, to accrue people that you want to have with you. And then it also takes time to work together.' Vasseur's own tenure with the team came under pressure earlier this season, when reports in Italian media surfaced that his position was under threat at Ferrari. The team put those rumors to rest ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Vasseur put pen to paper on a new multi-year deal. Vasseur called the move a 'good step' for the 'stability' of the team. 'It's a good step,' he said. 'We had a couple of discussions. There were some rumors in the press, the last couple of weeks. I think it's not easy for the stability and mood of the team, but now it is behind us. 'It's important, it's a good step that we have to be ready for the last part of the season. That we are fighting for P2 in the championship with Mercedes and Red Bull and we want to win some races before the end.' Winning races in 2025, and starting 2026 on the front foot, is the target for the team. 'We want to be very agile in Formula 1, but the reality is that we have a lot of inertia. We are pushing for this. We have a clear target, a clear goal. Everybody in the company is aligned in this project and pushing in the same direction. This is probably the best feeling, when you have a goal and everybody is convinced we can achieve it,' described the Ferrari boss. 'As usual in a season, you have pros and cons. You can see the glass half-empty or half-full. 'It's true that in the championship, we are in front of Red Bull and we're in front of Mercedes, but we are also a bit far away off McLaren. But I think, overall, we're improving. Improving on the methodology, on the approach, on the process. Sometimes it's not visible on track, day-by-day, but I think overall we're making steps forward. It's important for us to remain P2 [in the Constructors' Championship] and to win more races until the end.' However, the incoming regulation change gives Ferrari a chance to begin next year at the front of the grid. 'The 2026 project, it's a huge challenge that we have to be all fully aligned together to manage it,' said Vasseur. 'It's not a secret that Ferrari want to win again. We have the target and the goal is very, very clear. We will do everything to achieve it. We all want to win the championship. We've made a decent step forward everywhere, but now we need perhaps a bit more time to put everything together. The 2026 challenge is a good opportunity. 'We made a step, probably, in Spa. Now, we have to understand a bit more the new suspension and to be able to fine-tune it. But we are now fully focused on 2026. That means we need to get the best from what we have. I still want to win races this season, but the main part of the focus is on 2026.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why Does The Airbus A340 Have Four Small Engines Instead Of Two Bigger Ones?
Passengers on Airbus jets operated by U.S.-based discount airlines like Frontier and Spirit may have a bad experience that feels like riding on, well, an actual bus. With hard plastic seats and legroom best suited for children, it's an unpleasant way to travel. But back in the late 1970s, when films like "Saturday Night Fever" graced the big screen, Airbus was itching to bring the fight over prestigious long-haul dominance to more established aerospace companies like Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. The two widebody jets that emerged from that development process in the early 1990s were Airbus' A330 and A340, which are quite similar, sharing the same fuselage, flight deck, and wing design. As a result, pilots and crew can move between them with little additional training. However, one important distinction is that the A340 has four smaller engines compared to the A330's two larger ones. The main reason for offering the A340 with its quartet of engines was that some airline customers preferred the redundancy of having four engines in the event of an engine failure while flying long routes over open oceans. American carriers were comfortable with two engines, but Asian airlines operating across the Pacific preferred four. However, since the A340 debuted, twin-engine jets are increasingly being certified for flying longer distances without a backup airport nearby. That detracts from the need for the A340 with its higher operating costs. Of the 377 total A340s built, only 49 operate in regularly scheduled passenger service as of May 2025. Read more: Nobody Does Land Yachts Like Cadillac, And These Are Five Of The Best Ones Twin-Engine Jets Have Proven Reliable The death knell for the A340's popularity came in the form of ever-increasing ETOPS ratings for twin-engine jets. ETOPS is short for Extended-Range Twin Operations Performance Standards, although it's also been joked that the acronym stands for "Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim." Basically, ETOPS determines how far away twin-engine aircraft can stray from contingency airports in case one engine fails. For example, the Airbus A350 has an ETOPS rating of 370, which means that it can continue flying for 370 minutes to safety using just one engine. That's significantly longer than the first ETOPS rating of just 120 minutes, granted to a United Airlines Boeing 767 in the 1980s while the A340 was in development. Before ETOPS became a thing, twin engine jets were only allowed to fly paths that continually placed them 60 minutes or less from the nearest airport, in case they needed to divert. To circumvent the 60-minute rule, aircraft manufactures turned to trijets (three engines) like Douglas' DC-10 and even larger four-engine jets like the fuel-thirsty Boeing 747 and our subject, the Airbus A340. Nowadays, relatively few jets with greater than two engines remain in commercial passenger service, though some are still popular for carrying cargo due to their slightly higher weight capacities. As for why the A340's engines are so diminutive, it's so the four engines' fuel consumption and noise level weren't totally noncompetitive with twinjet aircraft. That said, the A340's fuel economy is still marginally worse, not to mention the cost of servicing, or replacing when necessary, four engines versus just two. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
