Taxi Driver - Jim Robbins Eagle Ford T/C Mk 2

Continuing GALPOTS potted history of the Indianapolis 500 Ed's photos shown here today were taken in 1969, when Ed Arnaudin took the opportunity to get good and close to the Jim Robbins team again.



The driver of the #67 Eagle Ford is Lee Roy Yarbrough, not related to Cale Yarborough, from Jacksonville, Florida.

Lee Roy is said to have won his first race at 19 at a local dirt track and progressed through the NASCAR Sportsman Division with 11 wins and onto Modifieds where he won 83 features in 3 years.

On reaching the top Grand National Division, today called Sprint Cup he won 14 races from 198 starts over 12 years. His best season was 1969 7 wins, including Darlington, Charlotte and both races at Daytona, from 31 starts in the seasons 54 races. Many retirements due to engine failure kept him out of the title hunt won by David Pearson.

Lee Roy made just three starts in the 'Indy 500' in '67 '69 and '70 his best finish was in 1970 when he completed 107 laps and retired with turbo failure and was classified in 19th place.

His career, as were several others,was adversely affected by the withdrawal of Ford from competition and Yabrough disappeared from NASCAR after failing to secure a ride for the Daytona 500 in 1973, he was eventually admitted to a mental hospital where a fall inflicted a fatal traumatic brain injury aged 46.



Jim Robbins turned up at the Brickyard in 1969 with three vehicles the #10 and #27 Vollstedts and the #67 Eagle Ford Mk 2, seen here, a design inspired by UK free lance design consultant Len Terry. This vehicle appears to be one of several built in 1968, though at this stage I do not know it's exact history prior to the 1969 race.

After Denny Zimmerman failed to get the #67 up to speed in 1969 Lee Roy Yarbrough moved over from his ride in the #27 Vollstedt to qualify 8th for the Indy 500, during the race a turbo pipe broke sending him into retirement and a final classification of 23rd.



All of Jim Robbins 1969 entries were powered by turbocharged Ford engines, a turbocharger had first been used at Indy in 1952 on the Cummins Diesel.

With the arrival of the normally aspirated 4,195 cc / 255 cui Ford V8's in 1963, several Offenhauser powered teams turned to supercharging smaller 2,752 cc / 168 cui motors to remain competitive in 1965, following the lead set by Novi some years earlier.

A couple of Offenhauser powered vehicles had mechanically more efficient turbochargers fitted to these smaller motors in place of the superchargers in 1966. Bobby Unser drove his Eagle Offy to the first turbocharged victory at Indianapolis in 1968.

In 1969 Ford also went the smaller capacity turbocharged route and only three cars in the 33 car field of '69 did not have smaller 168 cui engines with turbochargers fitted.

Note how the large turbocharger air intake on the left rear of the #67 is rearward facing so as to avoid the problems experienced by the Cummins Diesel turbocharger in 1952 which sucked up so much debris from its front facing turbo air intake that the turbines terminally failed on lap 40.

I'd like to thank Steve Arnaudin for scanning today's photographs and Amphicar at The Nostalgia Forum for his help in identifying the car.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Len Terry inspired edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

RR two is company - Rhodes Ridley Road Train Tractor.

Todays blog comes courtesy of Ken Devine a Nostalgia Forum acquaintance from in Australia who posted this fabulous photo of the truly 'unique' Rhodes Ridley truck built in Western Australia in 1955.



The story goes that Don Rhodes was a mining, haulage and road building pioneer around the Pilbara, in Western Australia and that his fleet of British 40 ton trucks were not up to the rough dirt roads which Don's men were constantly regrading just to keep them open.

Don & Harold Ridley a workshop manager for DFD Rhodes Pty Ltd conceived a fleet of road train vehicles that could carry between 4 - 6 times the iron and manganese ore loads their existing trucks could carry, there were no drawings as such anything that needed to be built for the Rhodes Ridley was drawn in chalk by Harold on his work shop floor.

Construction started in 1955, using custom made axles, a chassis fabricated from 5/8" steel plate 16" deep and 4" wide. Two army surplus 200 hp 6/71 GM diesel motors designed for the M3 General Lee medium tank which had in this instance been originally fitted into a tank landing craft, as had the five speed gearbox and twin differentials fitted to give the vehicle a 32 mph capability.

The truck measuring 33 ft long and 11 ft wide weighed 21.5 tons with a 230 ton carrying capacity was the largest road vehicle in the southern hemisphere when it was completed in 1958.

During the period of construction the laws governing most of the roads intended for use by the Rhodes Ridley had changed, with a restricted area in which to operate plans to build further examples were scrapped and the Rhodes Ridley was reassigned, fitted with a powerhouse on it's back, an ore screening trailer and a jaw crushing trailer to process freshly recovered ore for further transportation.

It's not clear exactly when the Rhodes Ridley was abandoned but it's resurrection came about thanks to former Rhodes employee Terry Joyce who formed a club for people to help him with his enormous task of putting the abandoned vehicle back on it's wheels at the turn of the millennium.

The vehicle still needs a 'wide vehicle' permit to go to shows, more photo's and the rest of the story can be seen at the Rhodes Ridley website linked here.

My thanks to Ken Devine for bringing this fascinating twin engined vehicle to my attention and for letting me share his photograph of it with you.

Hope you have enjoyed today's two is company edition of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres and that you'll join me tomorrow for the first in a short series of home built vehicles. Wishing all the romantics out there a happy Valentines Day, don't forget to come back now !

PS slightly off topic Pocono Raceways Solar Photovoltaic System has turned the motor sports facility into the largest Solar Powered sport facility in the world, Pocono has been nominated to receive the 2011 Excellence in Renewable Energy Readers’ Choice Award at the 2011 Renewable Energy World North America Conference & Expo on March 8th. Voting for this event closes today February 14th if you have not voted do so now at http://awards.renewableenergyworld.com/readerschoice/ select 'Vote' button and then go down the list and click 'Pocono Raceway Solar Photovoltaic System', no registration required no unpleasant advertising either. Thanking you in anticipation of your response. Go Pocono !

Knobbly Cat - #61 Lister Jaguar

Thanks again to Steve and Ed Arnaudin for today's photos from Lime Rock in April / May 1959.



The story of the Jaguar powered Lister is that it only came about despite the initial reticence of builder Brian Lister and that it was only after a) the failure of the difficult to maintain Maserati engines which powered Listers in 1956 to improve on the the Lister Bristol of 1955, b) a diamond merchant Norman Hillwood had dropped a 300 hp Jaguar D type engine into his own second hand chassis after Brian had refused to do it for him and c) Jaguar supremo Sir William Lyons had shown his enthusiasm for supplying Lister with the D-type power train in order to back up the private D-types of Ecurie Ecosse to double the odds against the increasingly competitive Aston Martins that Brian Lister eventually saw sense and built 17 series 1 'Knobbly' Jaguar powered Listers and between six and eight more with small block Chevrolet motors from 1957 - 1958.



The #61 Lister Jaguar seen here is one of the Cunningham team cars, Ed Arnaudin's photo throws up a mystery since neither the Cunningham Website or Terry O'Neils Northeast American Sports car races 1950 - 1959 list the car as being present at Lime Rock for the April 24th meeting that got held over to May 9th after rain stopped play and the cops shut the show down on the original date.

The best fit theory thrown up on The Nostalgia Forum is the possibility that this car had different gearing to the #62 Lister Jaguar that was raced by Briggs Cunningham that day and may have been used for comparison by Briggs Cunningham.

With thanks to all those on The Nostalgia Forum Lister Register thread who contributed including David McKinney , raceanouncer 2003 Vince H, RA Historian Tom and Terry O'Neil.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Knobby Cat edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you'll join me for the concluding edition of this Jaguar week featuring a vehicle that out qualified Stirling Moss driving a Maserati 250 F in a historic race. Don't forget to come back now !

Brave Heart - Singer Chamois

Comparing today's Hillman Imp /Singer Chamois with yesterday's FIAT 850 it is hard to believe that the Imp/Chamoise was in production one year ahead of the 850. Unencumbered by an existing design, like the FIAT 850, the clean lines of the Imp / Chamois were the work of Tim Fry and occasional Ferrari F1 driver Mike Parkes who were given carte blanche at the start of the 'Apex' project.



Incredibly, well incredible to my 2010 eyes with 2020 hind sight the FIAT 850 out sold the Imp / Chamois nearly 5:1 despite the Imp / Chamois being in production for 5 more years from 1963 - 1976. This particular vehicle apparently first registered in Bristol in 1966 is the badge engineered high end Singer Chamois Mark II with a conventional throttle cable and manual choke replacing the pneumatic throttle linkage and automatic choke of the MK I in 1965.



The Imp / Chamois vehicles were built in a brand new factory in Linwood near Glasgow by a workforce more experienced in building mighty ships than assembling little cars. Knockdown kit versions were also assembled in Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Venezuela, Uruguay, Costa Rica, South Africa and Australia.



Nearly 200,000 of these vehicles were built from 1963 - 1966 it then took another 10 years to build the same number again. The engine in the rear started life as an iron block FWMA Coventry Climax fire pump engine but was made, unusually for the time, entirely out of aluminium with a redesigned cylinder head in this application.



The 875 cc 53 cui engine delivered 39 hp enough to take the car to a respectable 80 mph. The car was perhaps hampered by having the engines cast in Glasgow and machined in Coventry before being shipped back to Glasgow for installation, a round trip of some 600 miles, but more than any thing the vehicle appears to have been a largely wasted marketing opportunity when compared against the similarly sized FIAT 850.

Thanks for joining me, I hope you have enjoyed today's Scottish edition wishing everyone with a heritage north of Hadrian's Wall a happy St Andrew's day.

Hope you'll join me again tomorrow for another exciting instalment of 'Getting a lil' psycho on tyres', don't forget to come back now !

A day at Thompson CT - Austin Healey 100-Six

On the 20th of July 1958 Norris Crosby Chief Engineer at Orangeburg Plastics loaded up the trunk of his Austin Healey 100-Six and headed for the 'Old' Thompson Raceway in the North East corner of Connecticut, on the way he picked up Ed Arnaudin who took these wonderful photographs kindly provided by his son Steve for us to enjoy.



The Austin Healey 100 was designed as a private enterprise by Donald Healey to run on the historically disastrous Austin A90 Atlantic running gear including a 2660 cc /162 cui motor with a three speed gearbox fitted with overdrive on 2nd and 3rd gear the 100 name was chosen because the vehicle was capable of over 100 mph.



When Austin MD Leonard Lord saw the Healey Hundred prototype a deal was struck for the bodywork to be manufactured by Jenson and then shipped to Longbridge where assembly was completed alongside the Austin A90 Atlantic.



The #65 seen here is listed twice as being the 4 cylinder '100' model however the horizontal crinkled grill bars and air scoop tell us that this vehicle is actually a BN6 '100 - Six' manufactured between 1956 and 1959, fitted with a 117 hp 2639 cc / 161 cui in line 6 cylinder BMC C Series motor from the Austin Westminster and a four speed gearbox, overdrive if fitted was optional.



The car on the outside row of the grid from the #65 and the #114 are both earlier 4 cylinder '100' models with distinctive vertical radiator grill bars and no air scoops .



Norris blew his exhaust muffler during the race and came in 5th overall 3rd in Class D in Race 5 behind the race winning smaller Class E AC Bristol of E Hamburger.

(Note results corrected 03/04/11)



In this shot Norris leads F Twaits in his rare Fraser Nash 100/163 down the yet to be finished Thompson CT pit road.

Ed Arnaudin describes riding in the car with Norris on the way home on a dark, cold evening as being "loud as hell" thanks to the muffler blown during the race.

A lovely fuss free way to go racing no trailers just get in your race car pick up your buddy on the way, race and go home.

With thanks to Ed and Steve Arnaudin for taking and providing these photographs, additional material from Northeast American Sports Car Races 1950-1959 * by Terry O'Neil.

Hope you have enjoyed today's edition from the race in 1958, looking forward what tomorrow brings, don't forget to come back now !

* Please note :- I do not in anyway endorse, or have any commercial interest in the products or distributors highlighted in today's feature, I am merely passing information on as an enthusiast of all things motoring, I have no experience of handling these products nor have I used these vendors. I recommend anyone interested in these items or distributors do their own thorough investigation into suitability, reliability and particularly prices of both products and vendors before making any purchasing decisions.