And at the core of all that promotion was racing. He appeared in the ads, gave away countless STP stickers, and turned an obscure oil treatment into a cultural icon and a wildly successful product. The company put him in charge of a small division called Chemical Compounds that had one product-Scientifically Treated Petroleum, which Granatelli renamed "STP." In the early '60s, Studebaker acquired Granatelli's company, Paxton, and he came along with it. And they had been running cars at Indianapolis as far back as 1946, earning reputations as brilliant, intuitive mechanics but finding no success at the Indianapolis 500. Granatelli and his brothers, Joe and Vince, were racing entrepreneurs. What little consumer-product advertising existed was muted and often temporary. And GM built the Camaro Z/28 to win the SCCA's Trans-Am series. Chrysler's specialized 426 Hemi engine was an instant legend. ![]() ![]() Ford spent millions to win at Le Mans and developed engines and/or models of its production cars for open-wheel, stock-car, and drag racing. Racing in the '60s was about manufacturers.
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