Pete, some of your facts are incorrect.
Teflon was accidentally invented in 1938 at Kinetic Chemicals (which was a partnership between DuPont and GM). It was around long before the Space Race in the 1960s. It was first used in cooking by a French engineer in 1954 whose wife asked him to coat her pans with the material he had been using on his fishing tackle. He created his own company (Tefal) and was selling non-stick cookware in 1956. The first US-made Teflon coated pan (The Happy Pan) was sold in 1961. The US Gov't did use Teflon in the Manhattan Project though, but Teflon had already been patened in 1941. It was later trademarked in 1945.
Japan does subsidize their automakers, but look whats its getting them. Their national debt as a percentage of GDP was 225% in 2010, the highest in the world. Sooner or later the Japanese Gov't will run out of money and not be able to borrow more, and then what happens to those subsidized cars?
You are right about instant maximum torque though. I saw the American Chopper episode where OCC set the world record for an electric/battery powered motorcycle (7.469 @177mph) and even those guys were amazed at how it put down its maximum torque immediately, unlike bikes powered by internal combustion engines. I also agree wholeheartedly that many of the Big 3's problems are the result of Gov't regulations and environmental policies.
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/77...bt-by-country/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teflon
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/4/8134...-4-Record.aspx