True American Wins Front-Line Spot at Indy 500

The specter of a Japanese-built pace car at this year’s Indianapolis 500 has been averted by patriots working overtime at Chrysler Corp.

Chrysler’s marketing experts, citing a “dramatic shift” in the nation’s mood because of the Persian Gulf War, unveiled a scheme Monday to replace the foreign car with a new, 400-horsepower hunk of muscle from Detroit.

The deal worked out with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will put a running prototype of the Viper, a powerful, $50,000 two-sea ter performance car not due on the market for a year, at the ceremonial front of the pack of the 33 Indy race cars this Memorial Day weekend.

Chrysler officials insisted that the change had nothing to do with the heat they took last September on the news that the coveted pace car competition had been won by the Dodge Stealth, built in Japan by Chrysler partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Although American-built cars haven’t raced in the nation’s premier auto-racing event for years, union leaders and others were outraged by the announcement. A United Auto Workers union leader from Indianapolis called it “a slap in the face of the American worker.”

The fuss also focused the spotlight on what some consider Chrysler’s hypocritical criticism of Japanese automotive trade policies, even as the company imports thousands of Mitsubishi-built models for sale under the Plymouth and Dodge nameplates.

Most recently, Chrysler boss Lee Iacocca has been calling attention to Japan’s controversial non-participation in the Gulf War. The same war has created the surge in patriotism that cried out for a new, all-American pace car, publicists explain.

The change in the choice of a pace car a scant three months before race time was made possible by the Indy Speedway’s willingness to waive certain requirements.

“These are extraordinary times,” said Tony George, president of the Speedway, “and we’ve all stepped up to the challenge to make Viper the pace car.”

The Viper is to enter production late this year in a small, low-volume Detroit plant. It will be powered by a newly developed V-10, 8-liter engine and has captured a lot of attention among auto enthusiasts.

“It’s as All-American as you can get,” a spokesman said.

Like the high-tech military hardware that has brought Iraq to its knees, the Viper illustrates American technology at its best, declared John B. Damoose, Chrysler’s marketing vice president.

Certainly, the Viper presents further justification for wresting oil-rich Kuwait from Iraqi control: The car will need a large and reliable supply of oil. It hasn’t been rated for fuel economy, but a Chrysler spokesman conceded “it’s definitely not a gas-sipper.”