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"To an average U.S. racing fan, not just sport car fanatics, they are nothing."
Ywes but we are talking about sports car racing--maybe I didn't make that clear?
As for "average" racing fans (i.e. racing fans that do Not like sports car racing) they are no different than football or hockey fans: they do Not like sports car racing.
What they think about a sport which doesn't interest them is pretty much irrelevant.
Your point seems to be that only major U.S. factory involvement will bring us back to the late '60s ... but I'd say sports car racing was at its biggest and best in the U.S. in the late '70s to late '80s or so with Camel GT/GTP---both series which depended upon a large number of foreign cars.
Another point I raised earlier about selling performance cars: When U.S. autio manufacturers used Performance ans a chief selling point for quite a few cars in their product lines-- the Musclecar/Ponycar days---well, that just happened to be the same time they spent heavily in Trans-Am and Ford went to Le Mans.
Around 1972 the EPA, pollution controls, and skyrocketing fuel prices killed off the appeal of performance cars, and at no time since has selling really fast cars (or cars marketed as being really fast) been anywhere near as important to U.S. car buyers or manufacturers.
And unless the car-buying public suddenly sees the need to spend a bunch of money for performance capabilities which it can never use ... those days ain't coming back.
Nowadays you can buy a little turbocharged $25,000 Ford which will perform on par with a 1975 Porsche Turbo--the introductory model which pretty much changed the landscape for a while. Basically any hot hatch has performance capabilities way beyond most drivers' abilities to extract or exploit.
Most buyers simply don't see the need for 600 horsepower, and "high performance" is no longer a nationwide selling point for a large part of any manufacturer's line-up---it isn't what most people want or are willing to pay for.
That makes going racing a lot less appealing as a promotional venture, and particularly with the financial issues the Big Three have had (Chrysler sold, GM bailed out, Ford close to bankruptcy a few years back) U.S. autio makers are focused on what sells, not the pride and ego of the owners (such as which drove Ford to assault Le Mans.)
Also, when the Big Four (I remember the AMC Javelins) were producing all kinds of specialty performance models they were not being outsold by foreign competitiors. Even the biggest European marques barely had a foothold int eh U.S. and the Japanese were even smaller.
Since the early '70s Detroit has been getting its butt beat in sales by particularly the Japanese, and have not had the luxury of producing whatever kinds of cars they happened to dream up--and haven't had the luxury of blowing off big chunks of money in racing programs.
Like you, I can remember when U.S. car makers produced what were basically Homologation Specials---limited runs of NASCAR or Trans-Am themed cars designed solely to allow the factories to use higher-performance parts at the track.
Nowadays the money isn't there for that. The amount it costs to design and produce, and advertise and deliver very limited-appeal performance cars is way beyond what anyone would pay for them.
The fact that NASCAR races clones with tightoly controlled motors prevents any more 426 hemis, Superbirds or Charger Daytonas, or 427 Torinos or any of that fun stuff. As for road racing, it is even less popular, and it is thus even less profitable for factories to produce small-run specialty models based on it.
"If you build it they will come" might work in the movies, but GM and Ford aren;'t going to convince their accountants to spend heavily in road racing in order to attract a fan base which existed in 1967.
"Those days are gone forever, over a long time ago."
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