Speed sells cars. So says the gospel, according to Ford and Chrysler. (General Motors takes a different road to the bank.) Last year Ford laid out $5,000 per car souping up its racing engines, only to lose the "stock car" championship to Chrysler, which installed custom-built, $12,000 "hemispherical-head" engines in its Plymouths. That was too heady for Bill France, owner of Florida's Daytona International Speedway and president of NASCAR, who has the funny idea that somebody besides a factory ought to be able to compete in the contest. He banned the "hemi-head"—which put Chrysler in such a huff that...
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