Ram is expected to start racing in the NASCAR truck series next year—coincidentally the same year Cadillacs, a General Motors marque, will join Formula One (F1) racing.
GM will ironically buy Ferrari engines until their own engines, developed in the United States, are approved by the FIA, F1’s governing body. TWG Motorsports and General Motors are creating a join venture, GM Performance Power Units LLC, to develop and build engines to replace the Ferrari powerplants, but these may not be ready until late 2027 or 2028. The head of the new joint venture, Russ O’Blenes, used to be head of the team that made engines for the Cadillac and Corvette IMSA series—a hybrid for Cadillac and the C8.R for the Corvette. These efforts will be headquartered near the Charlotte, North Carolina GM technical center next year.
Like NASCAR, Formula One uses unique engines that are not shared with production cars. NASCAR engines are currently made by Ilmor to a common design, ostensibly to save money for those racing “stock” cars that actually have special racing bodies, with sticker packages providing niceties such as headlights. F1 racing eschews the appearance of stock; in addition to providing prestige for the companies involved, the race efforts let companies explore and optimize new technologies.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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