Register now to get rid of these ads!

History Auto racing 1894-1942

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by kurtis, Jul 18, 2009.

  1. Don Capps
    Joined: Feb 13, 2010
    Posts: 111

    Don Capps
    Member

    Lee,
    Good to know that Phil's material is apparently available for use at the Benson Ford. You confirmed one of the issues that I had earlier regarding the material, whether or not there was any cataloging of Phil's material; I suppose a "finding aid" is better than nothing. Making the trek to see exactly what Phil has in the boxes is on my agenda of things to do.
    Don
     
  2. ZigZagZ
    Joined: Oct 24, 2011
    Posts: 245

    ZigZagZ
    Member
    from LA

    I am going to be in Dearborn during the first week of October, and have already scheduled an appointment at the Benson Ford Research Center. Looks like I'll need to peek at the Harm's collection while I am there.
     
  3. LeeStohr
    Joined: Oct 21, 2009
    Posts: 108

    LeeStohr
    Member
    from Washington

    Send me an email and I may be able to help with your Benson Ford visit - [email protected]
     
  4. carl s
    Joined: Mar 22, 2008
    Posts: 745

    carl s
    Member
    from Indio, CA

    Grover Miller was quite a prolific photographer while attending Notre Dame in the mid teens. His scrapbooks are part of the ND Archives and give a good glimpse of student life in that period. In 1913 and 1914 he and some fellow students attended the Indianapolis 500 races and there are 11 photos from the scrapbook available for viewing. Link to the first and the other 10 follow in order:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/91981316@N06/15201436341/in/set-72157632565836705
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  5. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

  6. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

  7. fnqvmuch
    Joined: Nov 14, 2008
    Posts: 306

    fnqvmuch
    Member

    'Gwenda Stewart 1935 and her Derby racing car at Brooklands ... took the ultimate ... Ladies Outer Circuit lap record at 135.95 mph ...'
    re. the above
     
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2014
  8. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

  9. THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER
    Joined: Jun 6, 2007
    Posts: 5,367

    THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER
    Member
    from FRENCHTOWN

    Wow. That thing is just beggin' for a rear spoiler and chin spoiler. I wonder how it handled without? Those were brave men indeed.
     
  10. THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER
    Joined: Jun 6, 2007
    Posts: 5,367

    THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER
    Member
    from FRENCHTOWN

    The tail section does not have the same profile as the one in the link. Hmmm.
     
  11. fnqvmuch
    Joined: Nov 14, 2008
    Posts: 306

    fnqvmuch
    Member

    the caption in the link
    and on this one, we can see an example of the tested rear design.
    might have said as much before machine translation
     
  12. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

  13. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

  14. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

    Auto Union Type D

    [​IMG]
     
  15. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

    Auto Union Type C

    [​IMG]
     
  16. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

    Auto Union Type C

    [​IMG]
     
  17. kurtis
    Joined: Mar 13, 2009
    Posts: 2,001

    kurtis
    Member
    from Australia

    Tommy Hann's "Handy Andy" at Brooklands circa 1920s.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. ZigZagZ
    Joined: Oct 24, 2011
    Posts: 245

    ZigZagZ
    Member
    from LA

    Nice pictures Kurtis. I have often wondered if the 1904 Renault was the inspiration for the 1910 Buick Bug. The front end sheet metal, and sirocco style radiator being big influences here.

    ZZZ
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2014
  19. Don Capps
    Joined: Feb 13, 2010
    Posts: 111

    Don Capps
    Member

    Auto-Union nomenclature:

    Typ 1934 = "Type A"
    Typ 1935 = "Type B"
    Typ 1936 = "Type C"
    Typ 1938 = "Type D"

    Apparently, the "Alphabet Soup" designations for the Auto-Union racing machines came about after the war when Prof. Robert Eberan von Eberhorst seems to have used the letters "A" thru "D" to explain the various Auto-Union models to Laurence Pomeroy, who was in the midst of writing The Grand Prix Car. It seems to trace back to Pomeroy when it comes to the use of these designations since they are not mentioned in contemporary sources. Ditto the "W163" designation for the 1939 Mercedes W154 cars, several of which used the M163 -- or "K" -- engine.
     
  20. Grahamsc
    Joined: May 13, 2014
    Posts: 466

    Grahamsc
    Member
    from Colorado

    When a traction engine( tractor) company goes racing. image.jpg image.jpg
     
  21. Michael Ferner
    Joined: Nov 12, 2009
    Posts: 813

    Michael Ferner
    Member

    It should be noted, however, that the "Jay-Eye-See Special" had nothing to do with the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co. It was a Fiat, rebuilt by Louis Disbrow who subsequently joined the Case team and renamed the car to please his new employer.

    Nice picture of the "White Streak", by the way. This is one of the 1911 cars, rebodied and rechassied. I can't be 100 % sure, but I believe it's the one raced by Jagersberger at Indy.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2014
  22. Grahamsc
    Joined: May 13, 2014
    Posts: 466

    Grahamsc
    Member
    from Colorado

    Caption under the pic of the White Streak states Joe jaegenberger as the driver.
    Also says he won many dirt track races with it.
    No mention of any race in particular.

    Actualy I'm sure this is why Case went racing at that time. image.jpg thanks for the info on the "Jay Eye See"
    My book called out Disbrow as the driver but very little other information about it.
     
  23. Michael Ferner
    Joined: Nov 12, 2009
    Posts: 813

    Michael Ferner
    Member

    Ah, that's why I didn't recognize the driver! I haven't seen that many pics of Jagersberger that I remembered, and since it's the rebuilt version of the car I only checked with 1912 pictures.

    "Won many dirt track races" is perhaps a bit of embellishment, but Jagersberger did win one big meeting at the Hawthorne track in Cicero/Chicago back in June, with the car still in its Indy specification, against a field containing Hughie Hughes in the Mercer, Bob Burman (Benz) , Ralph de Palma (Simplex) and Eddie Hearne (Fiat). The cars were rebuilt during the summer months, and Jagersberger crashed at a dirt track meeting in Columbis/SC early in November, putting an end to his promising career. He was then driving a sister car, called the "Eagle" which was later renamed as the "Bullet" and run until the late teens with many famous drivers at the wheel, including Hearne, Bill Endicott and Fred Horey. I believe that the "Bullet" was originally Will Jones's Indy ride.
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2014
  24. Michael Ferner
    Joined: Nov 12, 2009
    Posts: 813

    Michael Ferner
    Member

    Excerpt from something I wrote on the Case, "Jay-Eye-See" etc. on another forum:

    The J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company (one of the best ever names for a racing team [​IMG]) of Racine in Wisconsin made automobile racing history by filing the first ever entry for an Indianapolis 500 Mile race on October 27 in 1910. Though the brand name still exists, it is no longer connected to the car manufacturing business (which went under in 1927), and the total output of racing cars never even reached double digits, but its importance in racing is still enormous since it formed the nucleus of the very first, and possibly biggest ever team of "historic" racing cars in the world - the team of John Alexander "Alex" Sloan, and his travelling circus show under the banner of the International Motor Contest Association, or IMCA for short.

    In October of 1910, when that first Indianapolis entry had been filed, Case had only just begun manufacturing cars, and the racing car that was going to be raced at the Brickyard was no more than an idea in the mind of Lewis Strang, a young racing driver from New York. Although young in years, Strang had already acquired extensive experience in racing, having driven Isotta-Fraschini, Thomas, Renault, Buick, Fiat, Allen-Kingston, SPO and Jackson cars in competition during the last three years, mostly very successful, too.

    It was hoped to test the Case as early as February 27, during the Mardi Gras Carnival races at New Orleans (LA), but the car could not be finished in time. Luckily, though, Strang got another chance on the last of March, putting the new Case through 300 miles of a beach race at Jacksonville (FL) - actually, he completed only 270 miles, finishing 6 laps down and in last place, but at least the reliability was there. With its small 4649 cc engine, the Case was not going to win anyway, but to go through such an arduous grind without much trouble was exactly the publicity that the Racine company was looking for. The winning Pope (6389 cc) and National (7320 cc) cars were running in a different league, but the third placed Mercer (4927 cc) finished only 12½ minutes ahead, so the speed of the little Case was competitive, too.

    On Memorial Day, the three Case cars lined up in the hopeful expectation of giving a good account of themselves: On Memorial Day, the three Case cars lined up in the hopeful expectation of giving a good account of themselves:

    [​IMG]

    1911 Case #1, Lewis Strang, relief driver Elmer Ray


    [​IMG]

    1911 Case #8, Joe Jagersberger, relief driver Louis Larsonneur


    [​IMG]

    1911 Case #9, Will Jones, relief driver Russell Smith

    All three cars now sported the flashy look of the #9 car, but none of them managed to stay in the race for more than 300 miles - the steering gear proved to be the weak point on the rough bricks of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Undeterred, the team commenced an exhaustive schedule of racing over the following weeks: the Algonquin Hill Climb on June 8, the Hawthorne Track race on the 11th, Kenosha Driving Park on June 18, and Wisconsin State Fair Park on the 21st. With fair success, as Jagersberger even won the main event at Hawthorne, but Strang was injured the following week in Kenosha (WI), just a few miles south of home base, breaking an arm and an ankle. Worse was to come, as within a month he was dead, crashing fatally during a reliability tour through Wisconsin - at zero mph!!! Strang had stopped his Case touring car at a newly built bridge, in order to let a horse-drawn carriage through, only to find the fresh road shoulder giving way, and tumbling down the steep embankment - he was pinned under the car, and killed instantly.

    Bereft of its leading light, the team soldiered on, now headed by Jagersberger, an Austrian-born racing veteran, and a promising young Californian named Jay McNay, but incredibly, within little more than a fortnight two more careers ended in Case racing cars during November, with Jagersberger suffering very serious injuries at the South Carolina State Fair races in Columbia, and McNay perishing in a practice shunt at the Vanderbilt Cup and Grand Prize meeting in Savannah (GA)! That was the nadir of a debutant year that could perhaps be best described as "character building", but thankfully, fortunes improved from here on. Two factors or, to be more precise, two persons were chiefly responsible for that reversal of fortunes, and one of them had already joined the team previous to that disastrous month of November: Alex Sloan. A former member of the management team of the already legendary Barney Oldfield, Sloan was a master manipulator, educated and entrepreneurial, with a vast experience of sports in general, and racing in particular. It was probably he who contacted Louis Disbrow, the second piece of the jigsaw puzzle, and one of the leading drivers in the country, who had only just announced that he was leaving the Pope-Hartford factory team to branch out on his own, with a "new" car he had just purchased, of which more anon.

    Disbrow was present at Savannah to race the potent Pope "Hummer", merely fulfilling his last contractual obligations for the team that was about to close its storied racing department, and consented to drive Jagersberger's Case in one of the supporting races. It was an inauspicious debut for the driver, but Disbrow still joined the Case team over the winter, apparently liking the itinerary set out by Sloan: dirt track racing, dirt track racing, and more dirt track racing - every day of the week, if at all possible! That was right up Disbrow's alley, who really didn't care that much about road racing, having been reared on America's dusty fairground ovals - he and Alex Sloan would be partners for the rest of his career, well into the twenties! The setup is now complete for our journey, the "magical mystery tour" with Alex Sloan and his travelling circus show: within a few short years, the "old" Case racing team will be totally revamped, expanded and disguised, and it's so easy to lose orientation. So let's start right here with our inventory:

    Three Case cars had been built for the Indy 500, all three basically identical, with 4-cylinder T-head engines built by the Wisconsin Engine Co., 4 1/4 * 5 inches (283.7 CID/4649 cc). It does not really look plausible to assume that there were more cars, but we should investigate: what about Strang's car at Jacksonville (March 31)? Occam's razor leads us to suggest that it was the same car he raced at Indy, and indeed, looking at the pictures of the two unpainted cars, Strang's looks slightly "used", while Jagersberger's has a fresh finish. Did the team ever enter more than three cars? Not to the best of my knowledge. And the accidents? No "terminal" damage? The most difficult question, as only very few pictures exist to help us out. But we mustn't forget that in those times, almost anything was repaired, over and over again - even the engines were likely special developments, and any damage, even major engine failures would be put back into action after suitable time in the workshop, as there would be no complete spare units, only parts. Yet we should be prepared for "transformations", i.e. cars being rebuilt with more or less major changes in appearance, and maybe even specification - this should become more clear in the process of our survey.

    A little help may be provided by the nicknames the cars acquired during the year, presumably under the influence of Sloan's management. The first occurence of these nicknames that I can detect is from the September 13, 1911 meeting at Comstock Park in Grand Rapids (MI). McNay was there with his Cutting, presumably as part of the Ernie Moross équipe with Bob Burman, Lee Oldfield (not Barney!) and Juddy Kilpatrick, complete with a team of cars including the Blitzen-Benz. Ray Harroun was also there, giving various "exhibitions" with the Marmon "Wasp", including a wheel-change race - if ever somebody tries to tell you, that both car and driver retired upon winning the inaugural Indy 500, don't listen! [​IMG] Sloan arrived with only two cars, both carrying names much in the same fashion as the "Wasp" or the "Blitzen": Jagersberger was to drive the "White Streak", while the former Marmon chauffeur Lou Heinemann was down to drive the "Little Case Giant", or "Little Giant" for short. Interestingly, a few weeks later at Springfield (IL), the "Little Giant" was entered by one A. McFadden, as opposed to the Case factory (or Alex Sloan) for the other cars, as usual - anomalies like that will happen from time to time, and though I can't be sure if it has any meaning, it's perhaps best to take note just in case. This Mr. McFadden also appears to have gotten some seat time in the car during the afternoon, and this will also become a recurring theme: the swapping around amongst the drivers. Other than that, one Austin A. McFadden appears as the promoter of two race meetings at Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo (MI) the next July, both (naturally) attended by Sloan and his team. Racing is a small world indeed, even in America...
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2014
  25. Michael Ferner
    Joined: Nov 12, 2009
    Posts: 813

    Michael Ferner
    Member

    Some background on Alex Sloan and the IMCA from yet another thread on yet another forum:

    Ralph Hankinson grew up in Kansas, and was said to have worked as a shepherd in his youth, probably many years before he saw his first automobile. Somehow, herding sheep doesn't seem to have satisfied the adventurous spirit, and he soon joined a traveling carnival show, and that's where he met George A. Hamid (4 Feb 1896 - 13 Jun 1971). Born in the Lebanon, Hamid came to the USofA in 1908 as part of an acrobatic troupe touring with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in Europe. Within less than a decade, the entrepreneurial Hamid entered the booking business, providing State and County Fairs with a myriad of circus acts, sideshows, rides and food booths, and this soon developed into the biggest agency of this kind in the States, perhaps the world. It is not known whether Hankinson preceded the younger Hamid in the booking business or followed him, in any case he became a part of the management of the Hamid organization by the late teens.

    Before that, it was apparently Hankinson who invented the sport of Auto Polo, which was quite popular in America during the teens and twenties. What in the world, you ask, is Auto Polo??? Well, it's actually quite simple: two teams of two cars each, mostly Model T Fords, stripped down to the bare minimum (frame, engine, a bucket seat and a running board), each manned by a driver and a player with a mallet, playing polo without horses (in the early 20th century, America seemed hell-bent on losing its pre-industrial heritage, no matter what, and horses must have lived in constant fear of the slaughterhouse). The word "sport" in connection with Auto Polo is perhaps a bit of a euphemism, as it was essentially a circus act, which makes the theory that it was invented by Hankinson certainly more plausible! One of the most interesting things about it was the appearance of superstructures on the cars, not unlike roll-over bars, and these were quite necessary as the little wagons had a tendency to topple over in the heat of the fight. Whether its inventor or not, Hankinson definitely made a business out of Auto Polo, and in 1916 was reported to be touring Japan and the Philippines with his show!

    From Auto Polo to Auto Racing is just a small step, and the link was provided by John Alexander "Alex" Sloan (c. 1879 - 10 Mar 1937), a former athlete and newspaper man from Minnesota. Sloan became involved with racing by becoming the manager of dirt track star Ben Kerscher and his Grand Prix Darracq in 1909, then accepted a post as PR man and assistant to Barney Oldfield's manager William H. "Bill" Pickens the following year. With Oldfield and Pickens, Alex (or "Tod", as he was known back then, after a prominent jockey) learned the business of "barnstorming", and travelled the country in advance trying to book exhibitions for Barney's car park and tout the colourful racing veteran as the "Speed King". Unfortunately, 1910 was the year in which Oldfield incurred the wrath of the AAA by running an exhibition against a pugilist, and though Sloan wasn't involved he got "booked" a couple of months later in connection with an "outlaw" meeting at Ascot Park in Los Angeles, which Barney and his cronies had instigated in response to the banishment.

    While sitting out his suspension, Sloan accepted a post as sports editor with the Los Angeles Times in 1911, and later that year was reinstated by the AAA in advance of Oldfield, so he took a job with the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co. of Rascine, Wisconsin. As the name suggests, this was a farm equipment manufacturer which had recently branched out into the manufacture of automobiles. To promote its line of affordable cars, Case had earlier contracted the services of Lewis Strang, a young racing driver from New York. In 1909, Strang had been part of William Crapo Durant's famed Buick team, alongside Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet, which had toured virtually the whole sub-continent in an effort to promote their products. It was probably Strang who suggested Case do the same, with a focus on small county fairs as Case was using its established net of farm equipment dealers to sell their automobile products. Strang was also chiefly involved with the design of the Case racing cars, but unfortunately died in a road accident in Wisconsin on July 20, and so the Austrian-born local driver-cum-engineer Joe Jagersberger took over the technical lead, but the team desperately needed someone with "barnstorming" experience to spearhead this tour de force. Sloan's availability was a heaven-sent opportunity.

    For the next three or four years, Sloan toured the country with an ever expanding entourage of cars and drivers, which soon included New York dirt track star Louis A. "Lou" Disbrow, who took over as the Case leading man after Jagersberger had been seriously injured in a racing wreck in late 1911. With Disbrow came not only a new star driver, but also a very enterprising and fiercely independent mind, who not only brought his recently acquired ex-de Palma Simplex "Zip" into the team, but also built a Fiat-engined special with an upside-down boat body which he named the "Jay-Eye-See Special" in deference to his new employer. The J. I. C. company, though, took more and more of a back seat, and the Case team became the "Sloan circus" in due time. Along the way, Alex kept helping the boards of the smaller county fairs with the promotion of the racing events, and by 1913 was registered as a AAA promoter in his own right. Effectively, he was now staging races with his own cars and drivers, so that apart from the promoter's profits, every dollar that went into the purse ended up in his pockets as well - this must've looked like a great business model!!

    The AAA looked at all of this with a jaundiced eye - as much as the sanctioning body wanted its promoters to be successful, there was always the suspicion about "hippodroming", i.e. staged and fixed racing, hanging in the air, and that was something the AAA Contest Board was actively campaigning against. For all its faults and shortcomings, the big sanctioning body was still and always composed of a bunch of enthusiasts, who wanted to see to it that the Sport (capital "S"!) of motor racing remained clean and prosperous. The idea of hippodromed racing was simply anathema to them. The fair executives, on the other hand, loved it - after all, autoracing was to them like any other fairground attraction they routinely booked at agencies such as Hamid's: the high-wire artist, the dancing poodle or the bearded lady, you name it. They couldn't care less about cubic inches, record keeping or administration by AAA representatives, all they ever really wanted was a good gate. It was essentially the old conflict between love and money.

    In the winter of 1914/5, the conflict finally boiled over. Although he kept well in the background, it is quite difficult to not see Sloan behind all these shenanigans. Unlike many of those involved at this level of the sport, he had a college education, coupled in his case with an extraordinary business acumen. He may well have been the prime mover, or at least must've put the flea in the ear of the fair executives who began an open rebellion against AAA politics, demanding less administration (costs) and fewer regulations, but Contest Board chairman, Richard Kennerdall, couldn't or wouldn't budge. To be fair, the rebels did have a point, since the sanctioning body had issued repeated statements over many years condemning dirt track racing in general, and declaring it had no specific interest in sanctioning these meetings, only waiting for them to die a natural death. This attitude was a direct result of the close partnership between AAA and the Manufacturers Association, which wanted to dissolve its links to the often lethal racing at the fairgrounds. As an example, the National Motor Vehicle Co. (manufacturer of the 1912 Indy winner) once went to lengths in press releases following a (non-fatal) dirt track accident of a National driver in the fall of 1911 to declare that the driver was in no way connected with the factory, and that it was "preposterous" to think that a company like National would engage in something as silly as dirt track racing! Such was the state of affairs, and the AAA officials in all probability had few qualms about letting the fairgrounds slip out of their grasp.

    The outcome of this commotion was the formation and incorporation of the International Motor Contest Assoc. (IMCA) on March 10, 1915. Basically, this organization was designed to act as a government of puppets, and give a free hand to the fairs and the racing promoters. There is evidence that, in its early years, a few of the IMCA directors didn't grasp that concept and tried to administrate and regulate, forgetting entirely that their sole raison d'être was the complete and utter intolerance for these actions amongst their associates! Unlike the non-profit AAA Contest Board, however, the IMCA paid dividends to its stockholders, and so any discontent soon quieted down. All of the IMCA directors held company shares, you see.

    After promoting two more AAA meetings in May, Alex Sloan was more than ready when the IMCA opened for business on Memorial Day at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit. With a team of about a dozen cars, including the "Blitzen Benz", the "Jay-Eye-See", the "Simplex Zip" and several old Case racers, and drivers of the calibre of Disbrow, Eddie Hearne, John Raimey or Bill Endicott, there was no stopping this steam roller, and the great circus director finally enjoyed his freedom and success. To augment his shows, Ralph Hankinson's Auto Polo troupe was right up Sloan's alley, and the two of them soon became associates. With an ever increasing demand for his services (i.e. the promoting of the races, and the guarantee to provide entries), Sloan began to reign and divide, and amongst others Pickens and Hankinson were sent on their way to establish their own circus and tour. This is where his contacts with George Hamid came in handy, and Pappy had little trouble in establishing one of the busiest travelling racing shows in the country, touring many southern states from Florida to Kansas. Whether it was Hamid, Hankinson or Sloan who wanted to expand north is not exactly clear, but it was Hankinson who arrived in Reading June of 1924, to sign contracts with the Reading fair executives Abner S. Deysher and Charles W. Swoyer. The contracts were for four nights of Auto Polo, and a big afternoon of automobile races on the closing day of the annual Reading Fair, September 16 to 20.
     
    Grahamsc likes this.
  26. Michael Ferner
    Joined: Nov 12, 2009
    Posts: 813

    Michael Ferner
    Member

    More on the "Jay-Eye-See":

    Before the Case team started its 1912 campaign in California, Sloan saw to it that the press knew what to expect: for one thing, joining the team now as a full-time member was Louis Disbrow, as has been mentioned. The other big news item was the cars he was bringing to the team: early in November of 1911, it had been reported that Disbrow had bought the "200 hp Fiat" of E. W. C. Arnold, allegedly the car Felice Nazzaro had raced at Brooklands in 1908, (in)famous for its alleged lap record of over 121 mph - actually, it appears to have been an identical "twin" of that particular car, an 18,146 cc (190 * 160) OHV monster with an actual output of 175 hp, according to the most reliable sources. It had been driven for Arnold by Lewis Strang and Ralph de Palma in exhibitions at the Atlanta Motordrome, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Los Angeles Motordrome at Playa del Rey. Its only race appearance, as far as I can determine, happened in a 50-miler at Indianapolis on Labor Day of 1910, where de Palma finished 4th behind Eddie Hearne (Benz), Ray Harroun (Marmon) and Al Livingston (National) - not quite the performance of a champion!

    Shortly after the purchase of the big Fiat, Disbrow announced plans to convert the car over the winter into the fastest dirt track racer in the world, but consented to a public tryout during a motorcycle meet at the Guttenberg track in New Jersey, during which the Fiat caught fire and inflicted painful burns on the driver. Both he and the car were restored to health by March 31 for their first competitive event at the Lakeside Inn Speedway near San Diego (CA), where the big Fiat sported the now well known upside-down boat body as well as the name "Jay-Eye-See Special", and was reportedly powered by a 290 hp engine of 1,760 CID - first indications of the Sloan flair for embellishment that would become a virtual trademark for IMCA later on! Somehow, Sloan seems to have become "confused", and quoted the specifications of the new Fiat S76 record car instead (apart from adding another 30 CID for good measure) - oh, well... [​IMG] The quoted weight of 3,150 lbs (1,429 kg) was likely more accurate, and indicative of some actual gains in that department - not really surprising, either, as the car had been devoid of any ornamental features such as bodywork, originally!
     
    Grahamsc likes this.
  27. carl s
    Joined: Mar 22, 2008
    Posts: 745

    carl s
    Member
    from Indio, CA

    Thanks Michael. Saved to WORD doc
     
  28. jimdillon
    Joined: Dec 6, 2005
    Posts: 3,291

    jimdillon
    Member

    Good stuff Michael- thanks
     
  29. Grahamsc
    Joined: May 13, 2014
    Posts: 466

    Grahamsc
    Member
    from Colorado

    Glad I posted the pics now.
    Thanks for all the info Michael,.
    Never dreamed Case had all that racing history.
     
  30. ZigZagZ
    Joined: Oct 24, 2011
    Posts: 245

    ZigZagZ
    Member
    from LA

    Wonderful material. Thank you Mr. Ferner!
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.