You Better Win

In 2005, drifting in America belonged to Japanese drivers in Japanese cars. Then a 24-year-old IT guy from Maryland showed up at Irwindale in a Ford Mustang he’d paid over sticker for, and beat the best drifters in the world at their own game. In the series finale, James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra and Zach Redpath tell the story of Vaughn Gittin Jr. and how the Mustang became America’s drift car: from F...

Bob Tasca Sr. could rebuild an engine down to the last bolt, but if you asked what he did, he’d tell you he was a car salesman. In the early ’60s, his Rhode Island Ford dealership started building race cars, putting its own drivers in them, and beating the Chevys at the drag strip. Then he sold those same cars to the kids who watched them win. That’s where “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” comes fro...

Ford races in more series around the globe than any other automaker, and some of its best stories never made it to America. James, Vin and Zach head to Australia, Germany and England for three of them. At Bathurst, a spectator's rock knocks Dick Johnson out of the lead, and Australian fans, with Ford Australia matching every dollar, put him back on track. In Germany, Michael Kranefuss takes Ford's...

Long before the Raptor changed truck culture, a soft-spoken California race car builder named Bill Stroppe fell in love with the Ford Bronco. James, Vin and Zach trace how a publicity stunt grew into the Baja 1000, and how Stroppe and Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones turned a napkin sketch into Big Oly, the winged Bronco that smashed the Baja record by more than an hour. From there it's six decades...

When Enzo Ferrari walked away from a deal to sell his company to Ford, Henry Ford II set out to beat him at the race Ferrari owned: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. James, Vin and Zach dig into how Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles and a crew of unsung engineers turned the GT40 into a world-beater, and how Ford went from humbling defeats to a historic 1-2-3 finish in 1966. Along the way they compare the real stor...

Before NASCAR had a name, Ford V8s were already tearing up the sand at Daytona Beach. James, Vin and Zach trace Ford's stock car story from the flathead V8 and Bill France's first races to the Wood Brothers inventing the modern pit stop, the 427 wars, and Richard Petty walking across the street to drive a Ford. Then come Jack Roush's self-funded leap into Cup racing and Penske joining the Blue Ova...

In 1967, Ford paid £100,000 for a brand-new V8 it had never seen run. It won its very first race, then went on to win 154 more. James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra and Zach Redpath dig into how Henry Ford II, Colin Chapman's Lotus and a tiny engine shop called Cosworth built the DFV, and how Ford then sold it to anyone who wanted one. Suddenly small teams could beat the giants, and names like Williams and...

In 1901, Henry Ford was 38, out of work, and one failed company deep. So he built a racecar and challenged America's biggest name in cars to a head-to-head race in front of 8,000 people. James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra and Zach Redpath kick off You Better Win: The History of Ford Racing with the story that started it all. From the Quadricycle and the 2 AM test drive that required an axe, to the Sweepst...

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