Classic Acid - Dodge Challenger

I was reminded of today's photograph by Geoffrey Horton at the 2008 Danville Concours d'Elegance yesterday by my response to a blog about movies beginning with the letter V by Chief 187. One of my all time favorite movies is "Vanishing Point" (1971) which features a white Dodge Challenger in the 'maximum trip at maximum speed'.



I believe the #77 Dodge 'Classic Wax' Challenger seen here is owned by Ken Epsman was originally prepared by Dan Gurney's All American Racers for the 1970 Trans Am championship and driven by Sam Posey.

Back then teams would acid dip their cars to make them lighter and allegedly after this car had passed tech inspection at the first race of the season at Laguna Seca the team offered the Chief Technical Inspector a beer, who then relaxed, resting his elbow on the roof of this car which dimpled in as a result of having spent a little too much time in the acid bath.

The Technical Inspector promptly informed the team that they could no longer run until the roof had been replaced. Within an hour the roof of a brand new Challenger in a Monterey Dodge Dealers show room was being torched off before replacing the offending dimpled roof.

Sam drove the 3200 lb 460 hp car to 6th place in the race and claimed 4th place in the championship standings at the end of the season.

My thanks to Chief 187, Geoffrey Horton and to the Historic Trans Am website.

Thanks for joining me on today's 'Acid Bath' edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

Outlaw Racer - Ferrari 365 GTB/4

Launched in 1968 the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 replaced the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 and to this writers mind represents the pinnacle of front engine rear wheel drive fastback GT cars. Until outlawed by US legislation in 1971 the 365 GTB/4 came with headlights mounted behind acrylic glass covers.



This most stylish of vehicles is powered by a 347 hp Lamperdi inspired twin overhead cam 60º V12 stretched to 4390 cc / 268 cui motor, each cylinder with a volume of 365 cc from which the model gets its name.



To optimise the weight balance and handling the gearbox is mounted as part of a transaxle just in front of the rear wheels.



As one would of expect of a vehicle this cool to look at it has performance to match being capable of reaching 60 mph from rest in 5.4 seconds with a top speed of 174 mph.



Competition versions of the 365 GTB/4 run by privateers with up to 450 hp counted amongst their successes a GT class winning 5th overall at Le Mans in 1971 along with GT Class wins in the same race in '72, '73, and '74 scoring 1st to 5th in class in '72, and five years after production of the model had ceased an amazing 2nd overall in the Daytona 24 hour race.

Dan Gurney and Brock Yates also drove a 365 GTB/4 2,876 miles from New York to Los Angeles averaging 80.1 mph to win the inaugural Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971.



It is thought just 1,406 of these cars designed by Leonardo Fiorvanti of Pininfarina and built by Scaglietti including 122 Spiders and 15 lightweight competition vehicles. The high desirability of the rare Spiders has led to several Berlinetta models being converted and several companies have made Spider replicas with a variety of engines.

The 365GTB/4 was replaced by the rear engined 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer.

I hope you have enjoyed today's Outlaw Racer edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

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.



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.



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.



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 !

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 !

Stock Block - Thompson Buick/Chevrolet

In 1961 legendary American speed king Mickey Thompson employed british Dolphin Engineering designer John Crosthwaite to design and build three challengers for the 1962 Indianapolis 500.

Aided by Fritz Voigt and his crew the challengers were transformed from blank sheet of paper into drawings and three complete cars in just 120 days.



(Photo by Ed Arnaudin)

Dan Gurney, possibly seen sitting in the vehicle above, had a lot riding on the 1962 Indy 500, at his own expense he invited Colin Chapman the genius behind Lotus Cars over to see the 1962 Indy 500 with a view to getting a deal done for Lotus to hook up with Ford and himself for a proper shot at the 500 in 1963.

Whatever else happened in 1962 Dan had to look good. Dan had originally agreed to drive the gas turbine powered #52 John Zink Trackburner, however the characteristics of the power plant did not sit comfortably with Dan who was racing on an oval for the first time, so he switched to drive Mickey Thompsons all aluminium Buick V8 stock block powered #34 Thompson instead.

Dan made a wise move, qualifying 8th and retiring with a seized rear end in 20th, the move looked doubly good for Dan when one of two drivers who drove the #52 John Zink Trackburner after Dan had left, veteran Bill Cheesbourg, followed Dan and drove the #35 Harvey Aluminium Special also a Thompson - Buick.

Cheesbourg like the previous incumbent Chuck Daigh failed to qualify the #35.

A third #33 Thompson Buick, belonging to Jim Kimberly, who the year earlier had owned and run the Kimberly Cooper Climax, was driven by Porky Rachwitz, Jack Fairman who both failed to qualify.



(Photo by Ed Arnaudin)

For 1963 Thompson took four cars to Indianapolis all now powered by Chevrolet stock blocks, the # 85 shown here with, possibly Micky Thompson standing on the extreme right behind the pit wall, is one of the original 1962 cars, driven in 1963 by Bill Cheesbourg until he wrecked the car in practice before qualifying had even started.

Cheesbourg who seems to have made a career out of driving novel designs at Indy failed to qualify a conventional #27 Watson for the race in 1963 while the #85 is not recorded as having taken any further part in the '63 race after it was wrecked.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin who kindly scanned his Dad's photo's for me to share and to Tom, FB84, Michael, Jim, EB, Amphicar, Tim and Tom G over at TNF who have helped me identify the cars and stories attached to them.

Hope you have enjoyed today's Stock Block edition of 'Gettin' a lil psyco on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

1962 DNQ - John Zink Trackburner

The other day I caught a bit of a radio programme about interview questions asked of potential Oxbridge (Oxford & Cambridge) university students, one of which was "If you are not in California how do you know it exists ?"

This got me thinking about if one was not at a particular race how could one know what happened ?

Looking into the story behind today's photograph by Ed Arnaudin several 'beliefs' I have long held were 'corrected', namely that after the appearance of Jack Brabham's Cooper Coventry Climax T54 the next car with an engine in the back to appear at Indianapolis was Jim Clark's #92 Lotus Ford 29 in 1963.

Much to my surprise I found out that there were two rear engine vehicle types at Indianapolis in 1962 !



The John Zink Trackburner, above, and Mickey Thompson's Harvey Aluminium Special, remarkably they were both driven by Dan Gurney who invited Colin Chapman of Lotus over, all expenses paid, for the 1962 Indy 500 in an attempt to secure a deal with Lotus & Ford to have a winning shot at the race in 1963 !

The history of running turbines in Indy cars goes back to 1955 when a Kurtis Kraft 3000 chassis was fitted with a 175 hp Gas Turbine with the support of USAF General Curtis Le May. This vehicle known as the SAC Fireboid, see images at the bottom of this link, was used for testing by Firestone and for a demonstration at Indy in 1955.

In 1958 a Mr Williams of the Boeing Aircraft Company approached Frank Kurtis in 1958 to design a purpose made turbine powered vehicle, allegedly Frank drew up plans for a vehicle with the engine at the rear, primarily do deal with the 1000º F plus exhaust gas temperatures. However the powers that be at USAC were not sufficiently timely or co-operative to get the project up and running.

For 1962 the 1955 and '56 winning owner John Zink had his Chief Mechanic Denny Moore build a rear engine chassis to take a Boeing Turbine.

Prior to the Indy 500 the car was tested and crashed by John 'Jack' Zink at his own private 5/8ths mile circuit which included 11º banking ! After repairs the car was taken to Indianapolis where the rookie road racer Dan Gurney tried it after passing his Rookie test in a front engine Roadster.

Gurney managed to run at 143 mph not fast enough to qualify in the gas turbine Trackburner and felt that though more speed was achievable throttle lag in traffic would present insurmountable problems during the race. Dan ended up qualifying and racing Thompson's Buick stock block, under, powered Harvey Aluminium Special instead.

Indy veteran Duane Carter was next to run in the Gas Turbine Trackburner, Carter ran slower in the corners but faster on the straights than Gurney recording a best time of 142 mph.



Duane qualified for the '62 Indy 500 in a conventional roadster belonging to Zink and Bill Cheesebourg, most likely the driver seen in the car here, had a shot at running in the turbine Trackburner he managed a best time of 145 mph but like Gurney fancied his chances in a Buick stock block powered Thompson, unlike Gurney he could not get up to qualifying speed before crashing.

Finally Duane Carter in danger of being bumped off the grid had one more shot at qualifying in the turbine Trackburner but he could not record a time faster than 143 mph. It was concluded that despite running nearly a full race distance during qualification for the 500 the combination of throttle lag, high track side temperatures, and inconsistencies born out of the three different drivers who spent time in the cockpit led to the cars failure to qualify.

My thanks to Steve Arnadin for scanning his Dad's photograph, to Tom, E.B, Michael, Tim, at The Nostalgia Forum, for filling a large gap in my knowledge.

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