Although I still make it a point to watch the Indianapolis 500 every year,and actually enjoy the race itself, I've been kinda put off by the cars that've been in use over the past couple of decades. I know they're faster, safer, more modern, etc...but I always thought that the sleek Indy racers of the 60s represented the perfect evoloution of the species. They were streamlined bullets purpose-built for speed and engineered to the top standards of the day. Only motorcycles rival them in pure, majestic built-to-go-fast simplicity. The automotive equivalent of the mighty cheetah! From a young age, my grandmother was the primary 'babysitter' in our family and she'd haul my sister and I with her everywhere she went. One frequent stop was a drug store on Gratiot in Detroit that sold toys and coloring books, among other things. I clearly remember going there one afternoon and my grandma handing me a toy Indy car, telling me it was just like the ones that would be in the race on Sunday. The toy car was shaped like a flattened cigar with four fully exposed wheels, no wings or other protrusions and two chrome pipes exiting the rear. It was a simple white car with a number "5" on it. Instantly my new favorite toy! I put a lot of miles on that toy Indy racer, pushing it across the living room and the front porch, and watched clips of the Big Race that weekend on TV with Grandma, as I held that car tight. This was about 1973 or 1974. The cars were evolving some, but still...the sound they made coming down that long stretch as they blew past the camera was something else. I'd stare at my toy car and try to imagine it sounding like that and moving so fast! (In the years to follow, Grandma never missed an Indy 500. She spent Sundays at our house as a matter of family tradition, and the race was always on come that one magical weekend every year! My grandma wasn't a full fledged gearhead or anything like that, but she seemed to have a certain love for the Indianapolis 500, and I always enjoyed watching the races with her.) Okay, my own family history and childhood annecdotes aside, I still love finding pictures of Indy cars from the 60s, and they still hold the same awe-inspiring lure that they did oh so long ago. It's really cool to stumble across an old article that shows one or more of these racing machines up close and inside the sleek panels, and I could stare at 'em for hours! This one always blew me away...Mickey Thompson and Dan Gurney's Buick powered bullet from 1962! Nailheads have been a favorite motor of mine since high school when a buddy of mine had me help him with his 56 Buick project, and the notion of a Nailhead mill in one of these race cars is just something several degrees beyond cool! Okay, so the only thing really "Buick" about the motor was a highly modified block...but the engineering and skill that went into building this car is just plain impressive, even by today's standards if you ask me! John Buttera captured that same spirit in the 80s when he built a Buick V6 powered Indy car, but this one was the sleek Grand-daddy to that effort and all that followed! I may be off in left field here, and maybe it's un-HAMB-like, but I thought there might be a few others here who dig these pioneering race machines and the classic, raw beauty they embrace. If so, let's here what got you fired up about them and see some pics of 60s era Brickyard Bullets!!! For me, it was Grandma's influence and infectious enthusiasm for the Race, coupled with that one toy car, followed by a lifetime of awe and respect. Here's a couple pictures of the Gurney/Thompson car...
The new ones seem to be boring Toyotas, but the old ones were super cool. I'd be neat to build a 60s Indy-inspired rod, maybe even traditional; somebody must have gotten ahold of some of these parts and incorporated them into a street car...
Starting in the mid 50s I would gather up the newspaper from the previous day and cut out the entry list. Using this I would keep lap charts for the entire race listening attentively to the radio. The smells would almost come out of the speaker. I was hooked. Wayno
Like this ? Parnelli's '63 winner. I share your affection for these cars. I have a modest collection of the 1/18 scale diecasts by GMP.
I was born in Indy in '56. The family movrd to Ca in '58 so I have no memory of the place. My dad told me you could hear the cars from our house. He went to qualifying and the race most years we lived there. He was there when Vukovich was killed. After we moved to LA he would take my brother and I to the Sports Arena downtown to watch the race live on closed circuit TV, a deal put on by J.C. Agajanian. I can remember Jimmy Clark's Lotus winning, setting the Indy establishment on it's ear. I remember Parnelli Jones in the STP Turbine car breaking with four to go. The next year it was deja vous all over again with Joe Leonard. The '60s was probably the greatest period of change and innovation ever in racing. It started out with front engined tube frame cars and ended with rear engine monocoque cars. In between there were turbines, four wheel drive, offsets, sidecars, twin engines, roller skate wheels, turbo Offys, 4-cam Fords, Coventry Climax's, Buicks, Chevy's, Porsches. Back then the best drivers in the world came to Indy. Now they can hardly fill the field and the grandstands.
It must've been in the water, in 1974 I carried one of these around like most kids ('cept you and I) carry teddy bears. I got a couple of them off evilbay a few years ago. It's still fun to play with. I guess I was destined to move to South...
I don't know a whole lot about indy cars but I did get to do some body and paint on a 1964 Indy car. I like to know a liitle about the cars I work on so I did a little research. It was one of the MG Liquid Suspension cars. I believe it has an Offy engine. It was driven by Walt Hansgen in the 64 Indy race and placed 13th. I remember reading something about a horrible crash involving several cars at the start of the race. The car is now vintage raced.
Laguna Seca Around Monterey,california Will Have Old Indy Cars As Its Marque Next August. For Any Of You That Have Not Been To The Laguna Seca Vintage Race Weekend, It Is A Sight To Behold! It Is A T-total Overload Of Cars Weekend!
I too remember these cars and drivers fondly. Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Mario, AJ, Art Pollard, Jim Hurtibes, there was a traditional fella.... My father's yearly tradition was to wash and wax the car under the tree while listening the the race on the radio. Corvair in the late sixties, Chevelle in early 70's to Monte Carlo in late 70's... This was before even a replay was given, late 60's-early 70's. A couple of years we treked to the time trials, I remember a guy in the stands saying once we told where we from that we were "crazy to drive from Jamestown NY for this!!" The programs from these trips are some of my favorites in my library..
I remember getting to sit in one of these after the 1959 race I was 16 ,It had blown up earlier in the race and there was oil in the floor pan. I got it all over my shoes , i didnt care . You sound like me ,i did all those things, and remember listening to the race on the radio,then later watching them on closed circuit at the movie theatre. Very memorable. Those guys had BIG ones, can you imagine Any of todays whiners trying to manhandle one of those roadsters? they couldnt. Thanks for the memories
I was at the 1984 Indy 500. Little johns buick V6 car sounded strange. It was a party atmosphere and I had a great time. Went again in 1992. Not as much fun but Indy is always an event to attend if you can. Everyone should go at least once.
One of my faves was Smokey Yunick's black and gold car that had the driver and the engine sitting side-by-side. Anybody have a pic of that one?
I found this pic: http://www.fireballroberts.com/smokeyhurst.gif http://www.jalopnik.com/images/2006/05/yunick_sidecar.jpg that it???
greg, i know that this is a tad earlier than what you started talking about, but the Novi front wheel drive roadsters (first pic and top two cars in pic #2) of the late 40's (& early 50's?) and anything harry miller touched were breathtakingly beautiful. go here for lotsa pix of miller equipment. eventually miller and novi were connected, i think actually during the entire history of Novi.
ok, i just googled harry miller and see that he died in 1943, so i guess that it's his engine design that carried through into the Novi racers.
If/when I get my new place, I'm going to build an F1 "style" carlike the one Flexicoker posted, just cause I think it'd be fun. I've got most of teh parts, and everythinbg planned out, I just need the space/time to get started
I got this toy as a kid. Its metal and plastic, has an electric motor, but it was before the days of remote control.
Atch, In a way you are correct that there was some association with Miller and the Novi(and then again you may have more knowledge on this than I). There is some differences of opinion as to whom was behind the actual origin of the Novi. Some give credit to the Winfield brothers in Ca. but others have Lou Welch the owner of Novi Industries from Novi Michigan (the No. VI. coach stop out of the City of Detroit allegedly) coming up with the idea in the late thirties. Novi Industries was in the auto parts business (and I believe he was associated with Ford if my memory serves me) and Welch was a racecar afficianado so it was a natural for him to want to throw his money into the big hole known as auto racing. In any event the Winfields became involved from the outset and they and Welch went to the best in the business for design and that was Goosen and Offenhauser, although there was definite influence by Welch. Of course with the bankruptcy of Harry Miller, Offenhauser had taken over the Miller racecar business which we all know became the Offy racing business. There were some similarities in design but the Novi was of course a V-8 and study of the Novi and Miller/Offy will show many similarities but yet many subtle differences. By the way, I enjoyed the sounds of the BRM and the Auto Unions but the sounds of the Novi in my humble opinion is unmatched. They are unbelievably loud and throaty. I would love to see a thread on the American iron vs the fellas across the pond, from the late twenties /early thirties lets say through around 1962 and I imagine there may be some lively disagreement. Great cars all around-Jim
The Cooper that started the shift to the Rear Engined Cars. Jimmy Clark in the Lotus 38 And some pics of the later Wedge Shaped Lotus Indy Racers...
Cool! Great replies so far! The additional pictures got me feelin' like a kid in a candy store! (Glad to know I ain't the only one who thinks these things are cool!!)
The Jalopy Journal
