Generations of Fast.(Column)

Byline: Kevin A. Wilson

What does your ideal race car look like? For me, it's cigar-shaped like a Lotus 33 or Eagle-Weslake. Sports cars are harder. Porsche 908, Ford GT40, McLaren 2D and Chaparral 2C are all contenders, and there are more Can-Am cars I'd still willingly travel long distances to watch. A stock car ought to look like a Ford Talladega, says my gut, and a salt-flat racer couldn't go far wrong resembling one of Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America jet cars. And though I was a Jim Clark fan and loved the 1965 Lotus-Ford, when people say "Indy car,'' the first image that comes to mind is still A.J. Foyt's 1967 Coyote, the Sheraton-Thompson Special, followed by the Lotus Turbine wedge.

It has to do with what makes an early impression, obviously. My dad, my youngest son, 16, and I had a chance to debate "what makes a race car look cool?'' while celebrating a belated Father's Day. (I had been away to the Formula One race at Indy.) We went to the Eyes on Design show, which this year had a racing theme and returned to its original and best venue, the grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford house in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan.

We had just examined that Lotus Turbine and were standing at the nose of a Can-Am Lola when Dad said, "I really don't know anything about Can-Am.'' Though he was the source of my car enthusiasm, this pronouncement did not come as a surprise. While I was sponging up all the news, even as a child I could see his interest waning. He was keeping up on the F1 champ and who'd won Indy and Le Mans, but the cutting-edge stuff, the new series, the new technology, the youngest drivers, just weren't capturing his interest.

My son doesn't know Can-Am, either. He's got an artist's eye and his favorite at the show was the Oldsmobile Aerotech. What about the new F1 and IRL and Champ Cars he's seen running? "Meh,'' was his response, his latest all-purpose ...