Pratt and Whitney were engineers for Colt until 1860

https://www.prattwhitney.com/en/our-company/our-story

The Pratt & Whitney Company was founded in 1860 by Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney, with headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut. The company manufactured machine tools, tools for the makers of sewing machines, and gun-making machinery for use by the Union Army during the American Civil War.

In 1925, Frederick Rentschler approached Pratt & Whitney for funding and a location to build his new aircraft engine. Pratt & Whitney loaned him $250,000, the use of the Pratt & Whitney name, and space in their building. This was the beginning of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company, which evolved into today's widely known aircraft engine manufacturer.

Rentschler, an Ohio native and former executive at Wright Aeronautical, was determined to start an aviation-related business of his own

Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool was going through a period of self-revision at the time to prepare itself for the post-World War I era, discontinuing old product lines and incubating new ones.

World War I had been profitable to P&WMT, but the peace brought a predictable glut to the machine tool market, as contracts with governments were canceled and the market in used, recently built tools competed against new ones. P&WMT's future growth would depend on innovation. Having idle factory space and capital available at this historical moment, to be invested wherever good return seemed available,

P&WMT saw the post-war aviation industry as one with some of the greatest growth and development potential available anywhere for the next few decades. 

This was the beginning of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company, their first engine, the 425 horsepower R-1340 Wasp, was completed on Christmas Eve 1925. On its third test run it easily passed the U.S. Navy qualification test and by October 1926, the U.S. Navy had ordered 200. The Wasp exhibited performance and reliability that revolutionized American aviation

In 1929, Rentschler ended his association with Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool and merged Pratt & Whitney Aircraft with Boeing and other companies to form the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC). His agreement allowed him to carry the Pratt & Whitney name with him to his new corporation. 

Pratt & Whitney's large commercial engines power more than 25 percent of the world’s passenger aircraft fleet. Pratt & Whitney's Military Engines power 27 air forces around the globe, with nearly 11,000 military engines in service with 23 customers in 22 nations. 

Between 1967 and 1971, Pratt & Whitney turbine engines were used in American Championship Car Racing and Formula One. The STP-Paxton Turbocar dominated the 1967 Indianapolis 500 until a transmission bearing failed four laps from the finish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_Whitney

On May 24, Paula Murphy will be celebrated at the Petersen, 1st with a film, then with a panel discussion with her.

Paula Murphy: Undaunted, a film from the Left Behind documentary series created by Pam Miller and Cindy Sisson. The series about women in the automobile and motorsports world, who didn't create the household names that Petty, Knievel, and Breedlove did. 

Her family came to Southern California in the 1950s, where she soon won her class in an Alfa Romeo in 1959. Shortly after, she went on to teach at Dan Gurney’s racing school, and caught the attention of marketing genius Andy Granatelli.

She soon became known as “Miss STP”, and driving for Granatelli’s then ubiquitous STP oil-additive brand, she set 365 new stock-car records for Granatelli and Studebaker at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1963. 

Her success made her the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, behind the wheel of the Novi, Granatelli’s challenging Studebaker Indy race car. Back to Bonneville in 1965, she piloted Avenger, the STP jet car—despite four inches of water on the ground—to 243.33 mph.

She drove a Studebaker Avanti coast-to-coast for the Ford Transcontinental Speed record and set four transcontinental speed records. 

Her first drag racing was in 1965 driving an Olds 4-4-2 prepared by Dick Landy. Her competitive best was 12.46 at 110 mph. 

She was licensed in a Funny Car when Tom ‘The Mongoose’ McEwen, then president of the United Drag Racers Association, welcomed her and presided over her licensing at Lions and Don ‘Big Daddy’ Garlits signed off. The NHRA nixed her license, and Grantelli didn't like that, and got it reinstated. The following year saw her dip into the sevens and break 200 mph. 

For the 1969 season, Paula purchased a Barracuda Funny Car built by Don Hardy and spent most of the year match racing around the Midwest—where the money was. 

She went to England in 1973, along with Don Schumacher, as part of a three-weekend trip organized by Tony Nancy.

Murphy went on to Grand Prix racing, where she was the only American selected to represent the United States in the first Women’s Grand Prix Race in 1974.

https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/petersen-automotive-museum-honors-racer-paula-murphy-1234842078

https://www.gregwapling.com/hotrod/land-speed-racing-history/land-speed-racing-paula-murphy.html

https://ahrf.com/paula-murphy

STP lube in a tube... never heard of it until now

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/323666261471?hash=item4b5c0335df:g:q74AAOSw64xcS3Gw

this kid had it made!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/226675368608297/permalink/301414537801046/

Doing right by your sponsor is showing their logo in the most "in your face" way possible. This nails it

https://cncenginedynamics.tumblr.com/

Thanks Steve!

Studebaker briefly tied STP into its advertising as an abbreviation for “Studebaker Tested Products”, it went on to be more famous than Studebaker, who was quickly forgotten

how in the hell did the employees survive the flip flip flippety flip of the company for profit?

In 1961, the STP company was acquired by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.

Studebaker bowed out, STP was spun off into a publicly traded company in 1969
In 1976, it was acquired by Esmark
which itself was purchased by Beatrice Foods
Beatrice sold STP to Union Carbide
STP, Prestone and Simoniz (UC companies) became the First Brands company
was purchased by Clorox in 1998.
In 2010, Clorox sold ArmorAll and STP to Avista Capital Partners.
It named the business Armored AutoGroup.

Thats 9 times it was bought, sold, changed ownership

In 1976, STP  paid a $500,000 civil penalty over claims, as it had no scientific backing for certain statements, and making false claims.

In 1995, STP paid $888,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges of false advertising


When STP hit the market, it competed for customers with similar products by Rislone, Bardahl, Wynn's, Miracle Power and others.

So, really, why didn't Consumer Reports, or Hot Rod magazine, or anyone else test all these products and determine is any of them were effective, lived to the marketing hype from their own advertising, or out performed the competition?

Well, Hot Rod was giving away stickers in the magazine, opting to profit from association with a winning company instead of benefitting it's readers and subscribers. Reminder that magazines are a profit making organization that owe their readers nothing, and won't get into truth telling that might intrude on profits.

STP hired Richard Petty with $250,000 and the promise of lots of advertising, but, the agreement had one huge problem to deal with 1st... the color Petty Blue.  STP wanted it's red color on the car, and Petty insisted that his trademark blue, be on the car.  That blue was the result of Lee Petty telling his boys Richard and Maurice to paint his race car, and they had some white, and some blue, but not enough of either, so they mixed the two together and bingo, Petty Blue.

Andy Granatelli met with Richard and a compromise was reached that was a more famous racing car paint scheme than either all blue or all red.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STP_(motor_oil_company)
http://www.mopardealer.com/petty.htm
http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/31085/racing-history-minute-march-5-1972
http://read.uberflip.com/i/1010498-september-18/59?

newest discovery in the cars advertised as given away in a contest, Cougar GT

Found on https://www.facebook.com/Vintage-Automobile-Dealerships-and-Automobilia-280823595287791/

All the rest that I've collected are at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/contest%20give%20away%20cars

Paula Murphy.... and very 70's big white boots, sure put a "why haven't I heard of her" on my morning

Raced as Miss STP and was all Mopar? How cool is that!

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/331539540273153/

the STP 500 promotional rig is the coolest rig I've seen in weeks!

found on https://www.facebook.com/MartinsvilleSpeedway and they are giving away a STP Mustang too:

https://www.facebook.com/STP/app_350329958409304

interesting stuff I saw at the swap meet this past weekend

this portable tach goes to 3500 rpm, the seller wanted 20 bucks, and it's not for a vehicle. It's for machinery, you put a rubber tipped back shaft on the rotating machine, and the portable tach indicates it's speed. I'm guessing it's not much use, and never used, because it's perfect inside that can.

Seller thinks it's worth more than 15 thousand dollars to him.

Everythign you'll need to replace all the wood on a woodie

"I used more STP than the other guys" that is what I call great advertising

Mario Andretti, ain't that cool!

STP ads from the 60's

The below column references the above advertisements typed letter, click on it for full size

STP most likely is best known as the sponsor for the Petty race team, and I bet you'll be surprised to learn that STP was the Chemical Compounds division of Studebaker (it's in the fine print... look at the 3rd ad very closely once you click for full size)