{"id":497407,"date":"2018-03-01T01:49:47","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T09:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=55644"},"modified":"2024-12-02T20:38:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T20:38:39","slug":"building-pepsi-challenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/building-pepsi-challenger\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the Pepsi Challenger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our Pepsi Challenger Eagle from 1981 was sort of unique. It didn\u2019t owe anything to Europe, it was developed right here in California. It had our own brand of aerodynamics. It had a stock block Chevrolet\u2014essentially a sprint car engine we had done a bit of development on. It was designed by John Ward and had some aerodynamic elements that Trevor Harris kind of got us started on. It was just a very successful car. In fact, it was successful enough that it sort of ticked off the establishment in CART and they changed the rules to get rid of it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Everyone was calling their car\u2019s downforce \u201cground-effects,\u201d and we didn\u2019t want to call ours ground-effects because it was so different, so we called ours BLAT, the BLAT effect. They said, \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I said, well, it\u2019s called Boundary Layer Adhesion Technology. So we had some fun, tongue-in-cheek, in those days, in addition to being able to embarrass the conventional cars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Pepsi Challenger Eagle from 1981 was sort of unique. It didn\u2019t owe anything to Europe, it was developed right here in California. It had our own brand of aerodynamics. It had a stock block Chevrolet\u2014essentially a sprint car engine we had done a bit of development on. It was designed by John Ward and had some aerodynamic elements that Trevor Harris kind of got us started on. It was just a very successful car. In fact, it was successful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":591953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11272,261,18124,18207],"tags":[12551,18323,17152,660,4595,17140,548,11382,14450,11784,17143,17220],"class_list":["post-497407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-the-stories","category-special-feature","tag-aar","tag-2010s-all","tag-car-culture","tag-chevrolet","tag-eagle","tag-members-only","tag-motorsport","tag-dan-gurney","tag-trevor-harris","tag-nascar","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Building the Pepsi Challenger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dan Gurney discusses the innovations embodied in AAR\u2019s groundbreaking 1981 Eagle Indycar.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/building-pepsi-challenger\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/building-pepsi-challenger\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building the Pepsi Challenger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dan Gurney discusses the innovations embodied in AAR\u2019s groundbreaking 1981 Eagle Indycar.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/building-pepsi-challenger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-01T09:49:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-02T20:38:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/LS201803-p4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"611\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Gurney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Gurney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/building-pepsi-challenger\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/building-pepsi-challenger\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Gurney\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e8458af8a3cd1445d7c824be3b2fe11f\"},\"headline\":\"Building the Pepsi Challenger\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-01T09:49:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-02T20:38:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/building-pepsi-challenger\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1316,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/building-pepsi-challenger\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/03\\\/LS201803-p4.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"(AAR) All American Racers\",\"2010s All\",\"Car Culture\",\"Chevrolet\",\"Eagle\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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