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

To Dick L
Chippewa Falls Aug 1970 and Jerry has just set a new 5 lap record, man those were the day,s.

 

Rootie
Here,s a better size of that 69 car from Oct of 63, and that pic on the bus door made my young heart almost stop- back then.
Compare this car to the Mcdonald car for the hood and hair pins.

 

I agree with you, Rootie... While the car has some similar features, namely the cowl panel, the tail itself looks shorter and taller than the M/R tail. Probably one of the many copies?

It would be neat if anyone who is interested in the "Rabbits" could help fill in the blanks on the three cars, and we could create a time line of each car, and post it here?

The last time I was in the Speedway museum I looked at the Joe Saldana "Rabbit" real close and discovered that this paticular car had a torque rod running from the rear end to the motor plate, because Joe's car ran an open drive line instead of the more common close drive line. When I was younger and saw this car run I was more concerned with the looks of the car rather than any of the technical details.

If you get a chance to go to the Speedway museum, you should check out Joe's roadster, it is beautifully restored. I remember when Bill Smith got the car some years back, it had been run pretty hard over the years and it showed it. I believe Mark Randoll and Bobby Layne restored it for Bill, and it is amazing.

 

Ardun, if you go back to page's 358-359 the MRs were discussed at length. 'OldBill' had a bunch of pics and info on the later years of the MRs. Unfortunatly he doesn't post here anymore but he was a wealth of information and must of had a photo collection to die for.

 

Thanks Rootie... Don Brown sure built some beautiful cars, didn't he.

 

Yes he did, but all of the old style roadster builders are aces in my book.

 

It was not as it turns out. But it appears to be the Kenny Weld copy of them.

So far from what I gather, Kenny and Greg got together and copied Gregs Rabbitt, for Kenny to run in PA. It looks like Kenny got the Wiekert Livestock ride, and didn't need the roadster anymore.


Eventually Kenny's version was sold to the Marshall family in Texas, with son Bobby Marshall looking on. Bobby was too young to drive it, but he dreamed of the day he could. He loved that car, and cried (real tears) the day it crashed and burned. The remains of it were sold and eventually the car got a wing and so forth, with Tommy Johnson driving.

Bobby Marshall went onto known as an excellant driver in his own right.

When the team that put a wing on it wanted to get even more radical, they built a totally new car for Tommy, and let the roadster sit. Smiley Sitton has the latter car that was so radical with the offset wing and everything crazy.

 

There seems to be some to be some confusion regarding the K. Weld roadster that he ran in Pa. in the early 70s. It's not one of the three original MRs and a fellow in the NW has posted that he has it and someone else has said that Lynn Paxton has it. So one might wonder if the one in the NW might not be one of the originals. It's not inconceivable as many old Indy and other roadsters found their way up to UT./ID./Wash./B.C. to run the the CAMRA and other circuts, often modified/reworked beyond recognition. Not trying to stir up any controversy or anything, just wondering. hmmmm.

 

The Kenny Weld car burning at Devils Bowl

 

Before the fire, owned by the Marshall family at Houston.

 

Waldo Harper from Austin may have been the owner before it went to Dallas

 

Thanks Brian, you were posting while I was typing. But now it seems the plot thickens.

 

From Bobby Marshalls facebook page stating how much it looks like the car his Dad had

 

Looks to me like went to a small block but kept the Weld wheels and the hood bulge over the valve cover.

 

New sponsor, new number, Marshall family still owned it at this time.

 

This shows the car after it sold to Tommy Johnson

 

Other than the steering it sure looks like it, the little bubble over the valve cover is quite telling.

 

John Gano looks into the car as the painter (left) and Tommy , (right) look on.



Looks like about this time, John and Tommy were having to observe going with a wing. The rules were changing, The WoO had convinced Lanny Edwards to go with wings at the Bowl.

 

Thanks for all the pics, Brian, but especially this one! That, my friend, is one BADASS looking race car.

 

Gano and Johnson build a new car and show up at Knoxville at some point.

 

The latter version of all this confusion is this one, and it is in Smile Sittons shop right now from what I hear.

 

The story of this car is very confusing.

There are those that believe it went all the way from being the Kenny Weld Roadster, to being the ultra-radical "Computer car".

I looked over the 'computer car' in October 1987. It was more of a car of the future, than a car of the past.

When I saw the 'computer car'-

1/4 eliptic springs on the rear, coil frontend, the front of the frame cleared the front axle (not a single frame tube under it), a stryfoam tailcover, extreme downtube cage. Crazy wings, a carb instead of injectors, unsually wide track width it seemed.

Nothing looked like a roadster at all, not even a notable offset.

 

I got a couple of shots of the Weld car at the EMMR museum at Latimore for the past 2 summers..................................Rich

 

Yeah the whole Mech. Rabbits (and their offspring) is a can of worms. The more I try to figure it out the more confused I get.

 

The Kenny Weld car?

 

Yeah Its the Weld car. For the past 45 minutes I've been tryin to upload shots I took of it at the EMMR museum at Latimore but they won't upload....Rich Still tryin!!!!!!!!!!

 

Since we are talking about lost and found roadsters, I thought I might add another story into the mix. Back in 1968 Hot Rod magazine had a cover with 3 Super Modifieds running at Eagle Nebraska, one of the Modifieds was an old Federal Engineering Kurtis 500 roadster which had been changed to run as a Super Mod, and was owned by Jim Golden of Palmyra Nebraska. Jim ran the roadster until his more conventional upright sprinter was finished, at which time the old dinosaur roadster was parked and it disappeared.

I always wondered what happened to that roadster, but I could never find any traces of it, and Golden unfortunately was killed in a racing accident a few years later, so I thought the car was gone forever. I was looking around a few years ago on the internet searching under "Indy roadsters", and I came across an auction listing for an Kutis 500 roadster that RM auctions was going to sell. The listing was for an old Federal Engineering roadster which was restored, and in the auction discription was the history going back to when Jim Golden had owned it. I guess someone had the same idea that I did, but they succeeded in finding it and restoring it.

I followed the auction when it sold, and I think it brought something like $475,000.00 If we only would have known back in the day!

 

FINALLY!!!!!!!! I Got them to upload.........................Rich

 

Isn't that the truth... The length of this "Mechanical Rabbit" discussion thread proves that a lot of us think alike. I still think we should try to sort as much out as possible, and maybe add some new information to the history.

As a side note, as I sit and type this I am less than 6 blocks from where Joe Saldana's roadster was built and stored at when he owned it.

 

That's K. Welds upright super not his offset.