Archive for October, 2009
October 28th, 2009 | 
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With the invention of the car came the desire for speed. Cars quickly evolved from practical to sporty to satisfy the desires of those that wanted to race.
The first sports cars started to appear at the latter end of the 1940’s. Ferrari, Lotus, Jaguar and Porsche all had sporting road car designs. When you think of today’s supercars you think of sleek design, high speed, high power and even higher price tags and the sports cars of the 1940’s were the first steps towards today’s technological wonders.
Throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s sports car performance progressed. 1954 saw the arrival of the Meredes 300 SL Gullwing – the first road car to top 150mph. It was capable of a top speed of 165mph and is now considered to be one of the all time classic road cars.
The Gullwing was first shown at the 1954 New York Motor Show and it wowed the public. It has distinctive ‘gull wing’ doors and was made from a lightweight aluminium body. The Gullwing had a 3 litre engine and 240bhp, and in its day was the fastest production car available.
1400 Gullwings were built between 1954 and 1957. The design was superceded by the open Roadster.
It was Ford that created what many people believe to be the first supercar. Their GT40 made its debut at the Nurburgring in 1964 but it wasn’t until 1966 that Ford took their place in American racing history by finishing Le Mans in the top three positions, beating Ferrari. The GT40 has now won more prestigious races than any other road racing car in history.
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There are few if any American sporting institutions that can rival the pomp and circumstance of the Kentucky Derby, 
and of course the Derby is run beneath the stately twin spires of Churchill Downs in the bluegrass country of Louisville, Kentucky. Nothing can duplicate the experience of sipping on a mint julep in Louisville on the first Saturday in May, and it takes a poetic voice to truly describe the depth and breadth of what the Kentucky Derby really means to the American psyche.
We are joined together as a nation by a shared experience of the times that we traverse together, and a bonding takes place between us all on some level through this mutual set of experiences. Some of these collective times are joyous, others sad, but in the end, they all bring us closer together. The Kentucky Derby seems to provide a reminder of this bond that we share, and perhaps the date of the race, the first Saturday in May, helps to lend a certain sense of renewal that is meaningful and important to us as a culture.
To trace the history of the Run for the Roses you have to go back to 1875, which is the year that Churchill Downs opened–the first Derby was run in that inaugural year, and that long standing history is part of the allure of the event. There are spring and fall meetings run at Churchill Downs, and in addition to the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs plays host to the Grade 1 Humana Distaff Handicap, the Kentucky Oaks, the Stephen Foster Handicap, and the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes.