{"id":27139,"date":"2021-04-05T15:30:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T19:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=27139"},"modified":"2021-04-05T15:30:46","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T19:30:46","slug":"five-must-sees-at-the-henry-fords-driven-to-win-racing-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/five-must-sees-at-the-henry-fords-driven-to-win-racing-exhibit","title":{"rendered":"Five must-sees at The Henry Ford’s ‘Driven to Win’ racing exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dearborn \u2014<\/em>\u00a0Behind the giant McDonald\u2019s Hamburgers sign (over 160 million sold!) and sandwiched between the airplane and locomotive exhibits in The Henry Ford\u00a0is one delicious serving of motorhead red meat.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriven to Win: Racing in America\u201d opened March 27, and it\u2019s a must on Detroit\u2019s spring menu.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Occupying 24,000 square feet of floor space in\u00a0the museum\u2019s American Innovation building, the permanent exhibit is touted as America\u2019s most comprehensive exhibit of motor sport.<\/p>\n

True to The Henry Ford\u2019s purpose, it draws on multiple resources \u2014 including those of sponsors like General Motors, Italian brake maker Brembo\u00a0and Canadian racing supplier Multimatic \u2014 to showcase the evolution of U.S. auto racing.<\/p>\n

Through\u00a013 years\u00a0of planning, building\u00a0and acquisition, curator Matt Anderson and his elves have assembled the human \u2014 as well as mechanical \u2014 aspects of the sport. The narrative is both sweeping (covering everything from IndyCar to land speed racing) and meticulous in detail (a corner of the exhibit is dedicated to racing movies).<\/p>\n

It all adds up to a display that can be visited over and over again. Here are my five highlights:<\/p>\n

\"Behind<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

1) The simulators.<\/strong>\u00a0This exhibit will keep you coming back. At its\u00a0heart is a bull ring of six racing simulators. With three big\u00a0wrap-around screens and hydraulic hardware, the sophisticated sims let drivers age 10-plus take the wheel against other competitors for a 15-minute race around one of the world\u2019s race tracks. My simulated race was aboard a Porsche GT3 at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.<\/p>\n

The racing was intense, but not too technical. Follow the racing line (helpfully laid out on the pavement before you), be patient, and you might just score a podium \u2014 assuming you can survive the Turn 1 mayhem. Then go online and see how your lap times compare with other racers before you.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

2) The film.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cFueled by Passion\u201d is a big-screen, 16-minute film that immerses you in the racing world from five perspectives: Breehanna Daniels (NASCAR tire changer), Brittany Force (drag racer), Tim Hardy (Pikes Peak BMW racer), Josef\u00a0Newgarden (IndyCar champ)\u00a0and Megan Volk (Bonneville Salt Flats racer).<\/p>\n

The fast-paced film takes you to highs and lows of motorsport as these competitors tell their stories. It\u2019ll get your heart racing for the rest of the exhibit.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

3) Sports Car Performance Center.<\/strong>\u00a0Behind this doorway is the Ford GT, the most stunning supercar ever conceived, in\u00a0three guises. There’s\u00a0a full-size clay model used by designers,\u00a0two halves\u00a0of a production GT and GT race car fused together to show you how closely they compare,\u00a0and the actual #68 GT race car \u2014 still wearing the bugs and sweat of the race track \u2014 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016, 50 years after Ford\u2019s first victory at the legendary French circuit.<\/p>\n

A wall of screens take you onboard for a high-velocity lap around Le Mans with video as well as telemetry charting #68\u2019s speed, engine temps\u00a0and lateral g-loads, among other data. It\u2019s not just any lap, either \u2014 but the very lap where\u00a0driver Joey Hand overtook arch-rival Ferrari for the lead.<\/p>\n

\"Jimmy<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

4) The cars.\u00a0<\/strong>Assembled here are priceless legends of motorsports. Everyone will have their favorite. Two of mine:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u00a0Jimmy Clark\u2019s Lotus Type 38 was the first mid-engine racer to win the Indianapolis 500, in 1965. No front-engine car would win it again. The Flying Scot was also a harbinger of winners to come as today\u2019s race is populated by the world\u2019s best drivers.<\/li>\n
  • \u00a0The 2011 Ford Fusion brought 20-year-old Trevor Bayne across the Daytona 500 finish line that year, making him the youngest driver to ever win the storied race. Like the Le Mans-winning Ford, the Fusion still wears all the battle scars of the 500-mile race.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \"Early<\/p>\n
    <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

    5) Sweepstakes.<\/strong>\u00a0The car that started it all. History seems so pat in retrospect, but Henry Ford\u2019s place in it was hardly pre-ordained. With his first car company a failure, Ford rebuilt his reputation by racing. His 1901 \u201cSweepstakes\u201d car brought him renown \u2014 and investors \u2014 when he beat well-known Cleveland automaker Alexander Winton in a 10-mile Grosse Pointe race.<\/p>\n

    Two years later, he would form the successful Ford Motor Company.<\/p>\n

    There is much more racing history to come, and \u201cDriven to Win\u201d will be here to chronicle it. New exhibits will be opening in the coming months as we move beyond COVID restrictions. Kids will soon enjoy an interactive, tire-changing pit stop as well as a pinewood derby track.<\/p>\n

    As the film says: \u201cracing is in our blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \"More<\/p>\n
    <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

    Driven to Win: Racing America\u00a0exhibit<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation<\/p>\n

    Address: 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn<\/p>\n

    Admission: $25, adults; $22.50, senior citizens; $18.75, ages 5-11; children 4 and under are free (additional charge for In the Driver\u2019s Seat Simulators).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dearborn \u2014\u00a0Behind the giant McDonald\u2019s Hamburgers sign (over 160 million sold!) and sandwiched between the airplane and locomotive exhibits in The Henry Ford\u00a0is one delicious serving of motorhead red meat. \u201cDriven to Win: Racing in America\u201d opened March 27, and it\u2019s a must on Detroit\u2019s spring menu. Occupying 24,000 square feet of floor space in\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27140,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27139\/revisions\/27140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}