Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

Just received word that Bob Harkey has died. Godspeed racer!

 

Godspeed Bob!

 

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/news-multimedia/news/2016/01/17/tribute-to-bob-harkey-2016

 

Bob Harkey leads Bill Foster, Norm Hall at Trenton 64.


On the outside of Jud Larson, Langhorne 64.


Inside of Arnie Knepper New Bremen 64.

 

And here's a short video tribute to Harkey that has been posted on YouTube.

 

Does anyone know where I can get a Halibrand wheel straightened? Preferably on the West Coast.

 

You might ask Mr. Torque - Thrust , I think he is in the Wash state area

 

Eric Vaughn, Monrovia, Cal.

 

Jack McGrath 49 leads Troy Ruttman, Sacto 1950.

 

Johnny Thompson in the Curtis 43 circa 1956.

 

The 'bones' of Freddie Agabashians Merz Engineering Spl. 1954.

 

Is it a cast wheel? I did not know they are "straightenable". Maybe for a static display? Depending on the amount of damage I would be a little bit leery of taking a once bent wheel up to speed.

 

Godspeed to Bob Harkey...he visited with the Akin bunch in our garage at the SVRA event in 2014. RIP Mr. Harkey..

 

For everyone's information.....we reserved our rooms for the May Indy event yesterday and my friend at our motel (the Clarion Waterfront) told me that due to the 100th running of the 500 in 2016, rooms are quickly becoming booked all over the area...If you haven't made reservations for this historic event - you might want to VERY soon....Joe

Also FYI, the 2016 SVRA event at Indy is June 15 -19 which is the SAME dates as the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, KY!!!????!!! Makes it very hard to decide which event to attend, as they both are great!!

 

I'm writing what I hope will be a very affordable book about a DOHC 6 cylinder engine that was built and raced locally in 1962.

In doing some research, I tripped across a mention of a car that did not qualify for the 1946 Indy race that apparently had a Buick 8 cyl. head transplanted onto a Studebaker 8 cyl. flathead block. That same car ran pre-war as well but I am ignorant of what engine was used at that time.

Anyone have any details of who did the conversion and when and what happened to the car as far as existing today?

 

Don't have any details but in 46 it looks to have been entered as the Army Recruitment Spl. driven by Buddy Rush out of Danville Ill. Prewar it looks to have been the Greenfield Service Spl.

 

Bobby Marvin leads Al Miller at IRP 62.

 

Gene Hartley "accordians" Snowbergers car Indy 53

 

Great pic! I love these! Any idea what the trailer ball behind the seat bar is for?

 

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I believe there was a mating slot/receptacle in the front of the fuel tank that slipped on the ball. The tank was rigidly held at the very rear of the frame by the clamps that you can also see in the photo.

While the Kurtis frame in the photo may appear to be rigid there was actually quite a bit of flexing that went on. And with 350+ pounds of methanol in the tank leaks were not uncommon at Indy over the 500 miles if the tank was mounted rigidly. The same thing was true of oil tanks. The track itself was pretty rough and the brick front straight made everything on the car vibrate.

Frankie Del Roy was the mechanic on the Agabashian car and the front ball setup may have been his idea to keep the tank from flexing and cracking as the frame moved around. I'm not sure about that but I've never seen it on other Kurtis roadsters.

Somewhere around 1956 another solution to stop fuel leaks appeared. I'm not sure who did it first but within a year or two just about every roadster received a layer of fiberglass applied to the outside of the steel tank (aluminum wasn't tough enough). Even if a crack did develop the glass would stop the leak. I know that Watson used this method and I think that most later Kurtis roadsters came from the factory with glass covered tanks.

Once the front straightaway at IMS was paved after 1961 fuel and oil tank leaks due to its roughness went away for the most part. Of course, there was still the Parnelli Jones leak in 1963 but that was caused by mechanic Johnny Pouelson building an elongated aluminum oil tank that took the place of the original steel one. It developed a leak right around the weld where it was bolted to the frame.

BTW, a few years back the Sam Hanks/Jimmy Bryan Belond Special developed a fuel tank leak on one of its race morning exhibition runs before the start of the 500. Afterwards the IMS museum crew had to scrape off most of the outside fiberglass so that the crack could be welded up. They then took the tank to Mac Miller and had him apply a new coating of fiberglass to keep Quin Epperly's fuel tank historically accurate.

 

That's right, the car was a regular at Indy and many other events since 1935. It first ran as #63 Miller Special in '35, presumably with a Miller marine engine, entered and built by Carl Magnee and Ted Nowiak of Detroit, but did not qualify. The next year, it had a Studebaker engine, and was 36th fast - too slow. Did not complete the ten laps in '37, but ran the big race the next two years, retiring both times. DNQ again in '40 and '41, then Henry "Buddie" Rusch (who was actually from Texas) practiced it in '46 only for the long-time owners to lose interest.

Just then a former grocery store owner, butcher and self-proclaimed "hobby" racing driver, who had spent most of the early forties in a POW camp, came along with an army pension and compensation burning a large hole in his pocket, and he bought the racer halfway through May: Zenon "Bud" Bardowski, also known as Bud Bardy, instantly became the darling of the press, the sought-after "human interest" story - a war hero from the Hoosier state, just married (for a fortnight) to a local girl, taking on all the big stars of motor racing! Too good to be true? Unfortunately, yes. Bardowski ran out of time and/or talent to complete his rookie test, and Rusch was drafted back in, but could only squeeze 35th time out of the old war horse - too slow, again.

 

Michael...do you know any thing as to who and when the Buick OHV head was grafted to the Studebaker block?

 

P.J.s conflagration of 64.

 

My seat was midway up Tower Terrace behind Parnelli's pit. Paulson had shortened the exhaust pipe and had put a sleeve over the pipe for the refueling. Just before top off there was a noticeable flash/bang like a back fire. Looking into the tank there was an orange glow. Paulson tried to slam the the fuel cap closed, and kaboom, the tank blew the fuel cap off. Parnelli pulls out and the rest is captured in the pictures.

 

Been a fan for life as well as an official for many years, and read everything I can about motorsports in general. I continue to be amazed at what you can learn on this website and in this forum. Thanks to all who contribute this knowledge.

 

Dean, thanks for the tip. But when I called Eric, he came back with an emphatic "I don't do mag wheels anymore, period." I guess he's had fire problems in the past, and with an enclosed lathe just doesn't want to take the chance.

 

Sorry, no. It was reported in 1946, haven't seen anything earlier but that doesn't mean much.

 

Good observation on the exhaust, Jim. And others have mentioned that orange flash.

In the photos you can see that the tail/tank has been oversized compared to the previous configurations of the car. Eddie Kuzma had worked on the car (again) after 1963 and one of the things he did was to add a much larger fuel tank. Aggie had bragged in the newspapers early in May that it might be possible to run 500 miles on a single stop. I think Art Evans speculated in his "Black Noon" book that Calhoun might have held as much as 100 gallons in 1964 although I kind of doubt that. The reason I say that is that Bob Harkey's Wally Weir roadster did hold 95 gallons in a much larger looking tank. Both Bob and one of his crewman have confirmed that figure to me.

At any rate Jones apparently wasn't running with a full tank at the start of the 1964 race because he pitted after lap 55 which was about the same place that he had pitted a year earlier when he was on a three stop strategy.

Methanol is not all that volatile and the standard procedure in a refueling fire in the pits was to close the fuel lid and the fire would quickly burn out. And there had never been any kind of explosion like Parnelli's that actually blew the top out of the tank before that day. In fact, I believe that Troy Ruttman also had the same kind of fire as Jones that day and simply closing the tank cap did put out the fire by cutting off the oxygen supply. Someone can check me on that but off the top of my head that's what I remember.

The only logical answer seems to be that Parnelli was running some percentage of (perfectly legal) nitromethane which carries its own oxygen. So when Pouelson latched the lid it turned what was just a fire into an explosion.

I hadn't thought about this in years until sometime back I happened to see a Mythbusters television show where they were trying to duplicate the spectacular gas tank explosions that always seem to happen when a car in the movies has even the most minor crash.

They used an electric spark (I think that's what it was) source inside the capped tank with various amounts of gasoline ranging from a near empty tank (with plenty of air inside) to a full one. The upshot of the whole experiment was that while they could start fires inside the tank they always quickly went out and there certainly wasn't any explosion. And gasoline is much more volatile than is methanol.

I was probably the only person in America watching the show while comparing it to the 1964 Parnelli Jones tank explosion but that's just the way I am. And even if there was plenty of empty space (and air) in the tank if Pouelson added only around 55 gallons of methanol in a potentially 90+ gallon tank that shouldn't have caused an explosion. At least that's my conclusion after watching Mythbusters.

To me the answer is that it was the use of oxygen bearing nitromethane coupled with someone pulling the sleeve off of the shorter exhaust too early that caused the explosion that blew the filler off the top of the car.

 

Indyrjc,

Herk had a saddle tank in his Tomstone life roadster for the race in the engine bay for the 500. He may have run on 1 pitstop. The saddle tank , next to the engine, was what burned him the next week at Milwaukee.

Parnelli may have pitted at that point, to go the rest of the way if configured the same way.

 

Tommy Copp, Trenton 1964.