Bob Tasca

National Dragster, Aug 29, 2003 by Jodauga, John

FEW AUTOMOTIVE DEALERS HAVE SOLD MORE CARS ON MONDAY WITH WINS ON SUNDAY THAN THE INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEUR OF RHODE ISLAND'S TASCA FORD

Prior to the current era of corporate sponsorship, many of the nation's top drag racing teams relied on local car dealerships for financial and technological support. Quick to realize the benefits of the "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" philosophy, dealers attracted many young buyers to their showroom floors by handpicking the top racers within their area to promote their automotive brand and the services of their outlets. Among the more popular dealer/racer combinations of this period were Albertson Olds/Leonard Harris, Yeakel Bros. Plymouth/Tom McEwen, Sachs & Sons Lincoln-Mercury/Jack Chrisman, Russ Davis Ford/Gas Ronda, and Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac/Jim Wangers.

Examples of dealers involved in motorsports are many, but in terms of behind-the-scenes developments, such as the creation of special engine/body racing combinations and potent engine packages and pioneering innovative promotional strategies, few dealers were more influential than Bob Tasca of East Providence, R.I.

Not only was Tasca the longtime sponsor of drag racing legend Bill Lawton and a major player in the development of such memorable cars as the 427-cid '64 Ford Thunderbolt Fairlane, but he also helped create the famed 428-cid Cobra Jet engine and was the man who lured 12-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force away from General Motors to compete under the Ford banner.

Tasca's dealership involvement began half a century ago, when he opened his first outlet in Bristol, R.I., in 1953. He moved to the present East Providence location in 1956 after Hurricane Carol destroyed the original operation in 1954, and he became involved in motorsports competition in 1961.

Said Tasca, "Everybody was running Chevrolets back then, and there was this hotshot kid named Bill Lawton who always hung around our dealership and bragged about how his Chevy could beat our Fords. One day, I told him that he had just won his last race in a Chevy, and to prove my point, I had my top mechanics, John Healey and Dean Gregson, specially prepare one of our new 406-cid '62 Galaxies. The fastest Bill's Chevy had ever run was a 13.66, and John shocked him with a 13.33 [in the Ford]. All of a sudden, Bill's attitude about Fords began to change, and he asked me if he could drive our car. His first run was a 12.96, which didn't surprise me because I knew he was a natural driver. After that, Bill came onboard with us to race Fords until his retirement in 1971."

One of Tasca's first innovations was campaigning a '62 Fairlane with a 406-cid engine for A/FX competition. The car, called the Challenger, was built by Andy Hotten's Detroit Steel and Tubing firm and required many modifications to shoehorn the large engine into the midsize engine compartment. A second version, Zimmy I, was built in 1963 with a 427-cid high-riser engine, and Lawton drove it to a new A/FX national record of 12.21 later that season.

Ford was so impressed with the package that it authorized Detroit Steel and Tubing to construct 100 427-cid Fairlanes for NHRA Super Stock competition in 1964, and Lawton drove his '64 Zimmy II entry to new S/S national records of 11.69 and 122.22 at the Division 1 race at Maryland's Cecil County Dragway.

The Tasca Ford Zimmy III, an A/FX '65 Mustang equipped with Ford's new single overhead cam (SOHC) 427-cid engine, was the most potent of the series, and Lawton drove it to wins at that year's NHRA Winternationals, NASCAR Nationals, and inaugural Super Stock Nationals.

With Lawton's success on the dragstrip increasing the sales of new cars at Tasca Ford, Tasca also was becoming one of the country's more successful merchants of high-performance Ford parts.

Said Tasca, "We always measured performance in car lengths. Let's say one of our customers was getting beat by two car lengths. We'd sell him the right parts to win by a couple of car lengths. And if he wanted to win by four car lengths, we had the parts for that, too."

Tasca's extensive background in optimum engine-part combinations resulted in the development of the Ford 428-cid Cobra Jet engine in 1968.

"By that time, our Ford SOHC 427 was the fastest engine in Top Fuel and Funny Car, but it wasn't something we sold for the street," said Tasca. "The best we could offer our customers was the 390-cid engine, and it just wasn't cutting it against the new 396-cid and 427-cid Chevy engines that had been out for a while.

"So I got together with Bill Gilbert, who followed my specifications and helped develop the unit," he added. "We also worked with Bill Ennis, Bill Gay, John Cowley, Charley Gray, Danny Jones, Les Tinsler, and 'Pop' Sullivan, who did the work on the camshafts. We came up with the 428 Cobra Jet. It won right off the bat with a Super Stock victory at the 1968 Winternationals, and it proved to be the best street/strip engine that Ford ever had until that time. We ended up selling a ton of them."

Another of Tasca's unique talents was producing positive results out of negative events. "Bill Lawton broke a Hurst shifter once on the 3rd to 4th gear shift," Tasca remembered. "Even though he won the race because he was so far ahead, George Hurst was furious, but I told George to calm down because we could turn this into a good thing. We promoted the fact that Hurst shifters came with lifetime guarantees, and before you knew it, the Hurst sales went right through the roof."