At the Ontario Motor Speedway garages, 72-03 (first car completed) with its temporary decor made of... contact paper by Yours Truly!
A day later, it went 191, a full 12 MPH over the record.
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How'd the contact paper hold up at that speed?
ZOOOM
"Doc, just set them fingers sose I can hold the wheel"
James Hurtubise, June, 1964
Incredibly it did. If you look in the Karl Ludvigsen book, "Indy Cars ot the 1970s" on page 64, you can see on the picture, taken after the test, that some of the white paint that was hastily applied on the main body panel has peeled off, just ahead of the stylized eagle head. So the paper itself stuck OK, but the paint did not!How'd the contact paper hold up at that speed?
You can also see it on this newspaper cut:
I had made a sketch for Dan of what I thought the decor could be and this was one day before the car had to be tested and presented to Ozzie Olson, so there was no other way to do it except to use shelf contact paper! So I took my scissors and went to work, cutting all the decor and the lettering! So it looks a bit haphazard but after we actually painted a car properly it looked pretty good and remained the decor on the cars until 1977 when the "sidehack" replaced the 1972 evo designs.
I did the same for the ARCO-Eagle in 1978 (in fact the Lindsey-Hopkins AAR had purchased because the Eagle construction was behind schedule), and they raced it with the contact paper on it and it stuck!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4668198...7623324227456/
The newest ones are at the bottom of the set page.
Another way to view my latest additions is through the photostream...the latest additions appear first......
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46681980@N03/
Hey coopert54, that ARCO Eagle was not only a great looking race car design but, those graphics were really cool!
Every race I run in is in preparation for the Indianapolis 500. Indy is the most important thing in my life. It is what I live for. - Al Unser Jr.
Everything I ever wanted in my life, I found inside the walls of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. - Eddie Sachs.
I love the '72 Eagle pics. I can still remember the rumors of the crushing testing speeds the car was posting. The rumors sure were true. lol
Jeff Downer
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indeed. My late friend Wayne was the crew chief on the car, and was until Bobby won the 1975 "500".Was Wayne Leary the Chief on the 72 car?
I had Bobby Unser sign this picture 3 weeks ago at the Riverside Reunion. He was very enthusiastic about the car and said that Dan and Wayne and him were the best team there was for nearly 4 years. They did win a lot of races but there was a lot of bad luck too...
I had painted the 1975 Indy-500 winning car for a press kit that year, and I revived the old watercolor for making a card for the reunion attendees. I got mine also signed by Bobby:
If you are going to attend the Indy car meet at Cal Speedway at the end of June, come and say hello! I will be there trying to get some laps in the car.![]()
John Lingle
2011 Texas Region CMC Rookie of the Year
It looks like Unser has his rear wing trimmed out a bit more than Ruby. Note that the back end of Unser's Eagle is cleaner than Ruby's as the intake plenum (assuming that's what it is) is not mounted above the engine. This could mean that the air flow to the wing is better and less disturbed. The result would be that the wing works better and less angle is needed...
So the pic of Rube and Bobby is with the smaller '74 wings? - they still look pretty big!
those cars from '72-'74 are awesome looking- never get tired of looking at them
"Charging a man with murder here was like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500."- Capt. Willard, Apocolypse Now
"Ain't nuthin' like a piece of p***y, 'cept maybe the Indy 500."- Bunny, Platoon
"To alcohol! The cause of- and solution to- all of life's problems."- Homer J. Simpson
Flatlander is totally correct in his assessment. On one side, the turbo plenum sitting high gave more horsepower with the reduced boost mandatory in 1974, but the "big wings' were gone and down force was way down, so a cleaner airflow was more important than a bit more power. You can also see that Ruby's Eagle is not fitted with the oil cooler vent scoop, possibly because it was cold that day and that would reduce drag just a bit. The 48 car had a much evolved fairing there that remained on that car all the way through 1976 since the car was used for 3 full seasons until 1977 when the new offset "sidehack" Eagle was put into service. And that one had the high plenum as USAC lowered the boost again. These cars were also fitted with two sets of suspension options, narrow and wide track. Everybody abondoned the narrow track quickly in favor of the wider setup despite a huge disadvantage in overall drag, because the cars were more stable with the wider suspension. One would have believed the opposite since the longer the chassis in relation with its width, the less it would over steer... but that was not taking in consideration that the car was just as high so had greater mechanical grip and was less forgiving.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security
I believe it was in 77. It's the only year I have seen him with one on. His son John told me that Lloyd despised the closed face helmets. In 75 and 76 he took the shield off his Bell helmet and still wore goggles.
The newest old stuff is the first stuff in my photostream.....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46681980@N03/
I've added a fair amount of new stuff from other series this month too.
My sets..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46681980@N03/sets/
Correction to my previous post. Lloyd wore a full face helmet in 1976 so I am going to have to guess that was the year they finally forced him to switch over.
I didn't see this anywhere else, so I thought it belonged here...
http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm4/collection....T=/SatterleePh
The Ralph Satterlee Photographs digital collection includes over 800 photographs taken by Ralph Satterlee. The photographs document Indianapolis 500 pre-race and race day events from 1960-1973.
Ralph Satterlee was the editor and photographer of Borg-Warner's Gear-o-Gram magazine from 1944-1972. In addition to documenting company and community activities, he extensively photographed the Indianapolis 500, serving as an official Indianapolis 500 photographer from 1960-1972. Satterlee covered the presentation of the traditional Borg-Warner trophy to the winner. He also photographed activities and people throughout the month of May, including celebrities, pre-race and race events, spectators, and the cars and drivers.
I miss this stand for the drivers meetings, 11 rows of 3, just like the race. The portable contraption they have now just doesn't have the same effect, no rhyme or reason, other than probably more conveient and easier to haul around.
sorry, no pics but have to say this is an AWESOME thread. the only thing is, it said "...cool OLD Indy Car pics" so I thought it was 70's and EARLIER. guess I'm REALLY old, as I don't see 80s, 90s and up to 2007 as "old". LOL
What we REALLY meant was the pictures were taken by OLD guys....
ZOOOM
Several old Indy Cars in the Mike Curb Motorsports and Music Museum in Kannapolis, NC
And BTW Im not that old!
Faster than a bullet from a gun
He is faster than everyone
Quicker than the blinking of an eye
Like a flash you could miss him going by
No one knows quite how he does it but it's true they say
He's the master of going faster. -George Harrison
The last one...is that the Eagle from 86 that Lammers and JP tried to get in the show?
I love the new sig, by the way...saw it on the AMC sched, figured they'd cut the hello out of it...![]()
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"Dogs flew spaceships! The Aztecs invented the vacation! Men and women are the same sex! Our forefathers took drugs! Your brain is not the boss! Yes! That's right! Everything you know is wrong!"
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The William Rast livery looks really odd on a '99 Dallara...
I had no idea that place was in Kannapolis, thanks for sharing.
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