Showing posts with label Eagle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eagle. Show all posts

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Rainy Day Grooves

Oulton Park Gold Cup


Sunday, 23 September 2012

GALPOT Weekly #49

Welcome to  GALPOT Weekly #49 a review of the last seven blogs at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres".

Daimler LQ20, Goodwood Revival

Last weeks blogs all came from one of the worlds biggest fancy dress party's known as the  Goodwood Revival.  Monday started with an overview of the event which included the mascot of this Daimler LQ20.

MG K3, Goodwood Revival

On Tuesday I looked at some of the MG's both on the track and in the car park which appeared at Goodwood. Above is Howard Maguire in his K3 which appears to have once belonged to Otto Stone in Australia.

Tatra T603, Goodwood Revival

Wednesdays Continental Curiosities blog again featured stars from the track and car park not least the Tatra T603 seen at St Mary's corner above.

Eagle Offenhauser, Goodwood Revival

Thursdays post featured some of the cars from the Dan Gurney Presidential Campaign including Dan's 1970 Eagle Offenhauser, his last ride in the Indy 500.

Ferrari 250 GTO, Goodwood Revival

Ferrari Friday's billion dollar blog featured a hand full of the many storied Ferrari's at Goodwood, above Jean Alesi is seen driving Nick Mason's Ferrari 250 GTO, one of eleven GTO's at Goodwood last weekend.

Lotus BRM 24, Goodwood Revival

Among the Lotus cars at Goodwood, which I looked at yesterday, was this BRM powered Lotus 24 seen driven by Nigel Williams which carries the bodywork from a Lola Mk4 as it did when Peter Revson drove it in 1964.

Auto Union C-Type, Goodwood Revival

Today's post features some of the Silver Arrows dating from 1934 to 1939 from both Mercedes Benz and Auto Union which were demonstrated at Goodwood. Above is a 1936 Auto Union C-type, driven by 5 times Le Mans winner Frank Biela similar to those driven by Bernd Rosemeyer to three race victories and the European Grand Prix Championship.

Thanks for joining me on this " GALPOT Weekly #49" edition I hope you have enjoyed catching up with last weeks posts using the links provided and that you will join me daily at "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" during the week ahead. Don't forget to come back now !

Thursday, 19 May 2011

Rained Off - Eagle Offenhauser 7400

As I mentioned yesterday the 1975 Indianapolis was won by Bobby Unser and today thanks to photo's by Ed Arnaudin we can have a look at the #48 Eagle Offy 7400 driven by Bobby Unser, seen starting on the outside of the front row with #20 Gordon Johncock and #14 AJ Foyt on pole, that was declared the winner after 174 of the scheduled 200 laps.

1975 Indy 500

All American Racers which manufactured Eagle racing cars was set up initially by Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby to tackle the World Championship Grand Prix circuit and the US Champ Car and Sportscar circuits in 1964.

In 1967 Dan Gurney won the Belgian Grand Prix in an Eagle Weslake Mk 1, also known as T1G, run by the firms UK based satellite team known as Anglo American Racers. The following year Bobby Unser won the Indy 500 in an Eagle chassis.

Upon retiring from the cockpit Dan Gurney bought Shelby out and in 1973 Gordon Johncock in an Eagle run by Pat Patrick was declared winner of the tragic rain shortened race, in which his team mate Swede Savage suffered injuries from which he would later die and a member of his pit crew was fatally struck in pit road by a fire truck going the wrong way down pit road to attend to the Savage incident.

Eagle Offenhaser 7400, Indy 500

By 1975 McLaren also with two Indy 500 wins were regularly challenging Eagle for overall supremacy on the USAC Champcar Circuit and this would prove to be the third and final Indy 500 victory for the Eagle marque.

It transpires that the Eagle chassis type numbering system is worthy of a large dense volume all of it's own, however to the best of my knowledge the winning car that Bobby Unser car drove is a type 7400, if a chassis number becomes known to me I'll add it below.

Bobby Unser is part of one US Racing's elite families, he and his younger brother Al Snr competed on the Champ Car circuit in the 1960's, 70's and 80's.

Bobby known as the 'undisputed King of Pikes Peak', counts among his many success 13 Pikes Peak hill climb victories, 8 of them in a ten year period, the '68 and '74 USAC Champ Car championships, along with his Indy 500 wins of '68, '75 and '81.

In 1968 Bobby participated in two Grand Prix for BRM, after qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix he flew back to the United States and took part in the Hoosier 100 at Indianapolis, upon his return to Monza with fellow Italian GP qualifier Andretti, they were told that the rules forbade drivers to participate in 2 races less than 24 hours apart.

Eagle Offenhaser 7400, Indy 500

In 1975 Bobby also won the IROC championship to confirm his all round versatility.

Hope you have enjoyed today's All American Racers edition of getting a lil' psycho on tyres, and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Monday, 16 May 2011

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.

Indy69 001s

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.

#67 Lee Roy Yarbrough 1969s

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.

Indy69 008s

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 !