Mike Mosley drove the #12 Sugaripe Prune Eagle in '76. Vuky drove a Morales Tamale Wagon.
Mike Mosley drove the #12 Sugaripe Prune Eagle in '76. Vuky drove a Morales Tamale Wagon.
The Ayn Rand of Indycar
No one had to badge the Offy.
Sounds logical except that son Vince Granatelli has said that they had two exact Lotus 56 copies built. And I think that they always called them Lotuses even though they didn't come from the factory. Who knows, maybe Gerhardt had a hand in these as well? And information from the Granatellis is always a little suspect and I'm not sure that they still had any turbines left. At the end of 1968 Firestone/Parnelli Jones had two of the original Lotus 56 chassis (#20 and #60). Firestone was basically the real owner of the cars all along with STP/Granatelli being the entrant. That's how Vel's-Parnelli Jones ended up taking over the operation of the turbines after Indy since Parnelli was tight with Firestone. The crashed #30 turbine was back in England in the possession of Colin Chapman where it ultimately became a Formula One car that Emerson Fittipaldi (among others) drove. The orignal agreement also called for Chapman to retain ownership of the Graham Hill #70 car but I'm not sure where it was at the end of 1968. Maybe it stayed behind and was copied by the Granatellis? I've always been a little confused as to where the four Lotus 56 turbines were right after 1968 but there is no solid evidence to my knowledge that the cars were ever raced again in the United States (the #30 car did race in Europe after being rebuilt and is still active in vintage events today). And all four of the Lotus turbine cars have been accounted for and still exist today. The two copies that Parnelli Jones built and the copies that the Granatellis built (and were later scrapped) have always confused the issue. And it gets even more confusing since certain components on the copies (suspension pieces, drivetrain, etc.) were apparently spares that Lotus had leftover and were used on the new tubs that were built in the United States for 1969. There are a couple of people around who know what went on and one of these days I'm going to try to pin them down on what really happened with the copies.Originally Posted by RayC
According to Art's website, the Superwedge was a Gerheardt chassis. That car was slow and the Plymouth was dropped into a modified Lotus 56 (#20). Art spun that car in practice and the team gave up on that car - thus the #40 turbo Offy Lotus Art qualified 12th. Lots of detail on his site.....
artpollard.tripod.com
Please visit the tribute to my longtime friend Mel Kenyon
This explains why in the photo that started this Plymouth tangent, the motor is in what appears to be a Lotus, with white body work.
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God speed!
Found this browsing for something else... but it had some vintage obscure Indy pics in it... anyone remember Jimmy?
http://home.earthlink.net/~jimmythra...te/album1.html
Great stuff, DIA, thanks for sharing. I love that shot of Jimmy and Bear and company pushing the Vollstedt (one of the best looking cars of the 70s IMO) in the Alley.
TrackForum Pick 5 2013 Point Standings
"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!"
Brian's Wish * Jason Foundation
That guy has led an interesting life
That Roseburg spdwy is still in operation
Never been to that track but I still keep track on the short tracking in the PNW
Ive posted this pic on TF before, but it was still on my photobocket page so I figure theres some here who havent seen it
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1954 and Jack McGrath. Notice the tires and the tread.
What an interesting photo. It looks like it was taken at a service station somewhere. And since the car only ran once a year at Indianapolis and was based in St. Louis the photo was likely taken in one of those two places. McGrath is in street clothes so this might be some kind of personal appearance. It kind of looks like he could be wearing his Champion Hundred Mile an Hour jacket. And the tires are interesting as well. Although they often looked alike (with the two and three groove "treaded" tires) Firestone did sometimes make subtle changes from year to year. The tires in this photo are from 1954. Believe it or not Firestone actually narrowed the tire in 1955 for what was believed to be aerodynamic purposes. Everyone was into streamlining attempts that year and Firestone got into the act as well.[IMG]
1954 and Jack McGrath. Notice the tires and the tread.
As an aside back around 1975 I knew an old race driver who had known McGrath in his earlier days. I once asked what he remembered most about McGrath expecting him to mention a race somewhere. "Man, that guy had a wicked right cross when he got in a fight," was his answer. Ever since I've always thought of that comment whenever I see a picture of McGrath.
Last edited by indyrjc; 12-12-2009 at 09:00 AM.
Maybe it was in McGrath's hometown of South Pasadena, California, or Glendale, California where he was living. Jack was the son of a butcher in S. Pasadena.
Are you sure the guy wasn't thinking of Walt Faulkner? I haven't heard of McGrath being a fighter, but Faulkner was a different story altogether.
My All-time favorite Indy 500 photo
Pat O'connor in the 1957 500
OK.... What is this?
Jeezzzz....that's some kinda hot. Question, the two brass end plates that seem to have vacum ports on them, what would they control? Vacum for the distributor?
Just heard about this forum a couple of weeks ago. First time posting.
ZOOOM: excellent thread!! Looking thru these photos has brought back some great memories.
Ovalmeister: I used to have a picture almost identical to your photo back on page 18 of Gordon Smiley sitting in pit lane holding that Champion umbrella in my collection. We must have been standing right beside each other that day!
indyrjc: Thanks for the info about the early 80's Eagles chassis concerning the changeover from stock block to Cosworth. The Pepsi Challenger & the Jet Engineering Eagles were awesome looking race cars!
Keep those pictures coming!!
Hey racefanindy!
Glad you found the thread and are enjoying it. I too love looking at the old photos, tons of great memories. If you have any photos, post away! Like you said, it's amazing some of the photos, we were all probably standing a few feet from each other, at some point, over the years. Ahhhh....good times!
David.
Looks like they are plumbed for plastic tubeing. That would be for liquid or air. My guess would be for fuel. Looks to me like twin fuel pumps...
ZOOOM
"Doc, just set them fingers sose I can hold the wheel"
James Hurtubise, June, 1964
Hi all, haven't been posting much lately. Did buy a new DSLR body, so we took a quick road trip to the museum. Results of the "body test" are shown here. Thanks to all who have posted so far and those will do so in the coming days and months. Merry Christmas to all.
Dudley
1925 Miller Spl
Dean Van Lines roadster
The Belond Spl
Offy block
Cummins diesel engine
Novi
One of the reasons they race.
Bobby Johns' Lotus from 1965 (Clark's teammate) More to come but for now, gotta 'run.
Offenhauser Crankcase Casting...Offy block
Compare the stud pattern on the side of the casting to that on the breathers of your photo of the fully built 255. Also the small 4 stud pattern that angles downward on the near end of the casting...
Who knows? But that was what he said about him. I'm not sure but I think the story was about McGrath in his very early days in California. At the time I wasn't smart enough to ask any follow up questions. I was a little surprised as well since I had read all of those newspaper stories about "Gentleman Jack".
Looks to me like an Offy 270 used from '45/'56.
Lower four studs on an angle were for the oil to and from the engine.
The 270 could be cut down by reducing the deck height to bring it to 255.
So this is prolly a 270 that was reduced to 255 by lowering the deck height...
ZOOOM
Don't know the exact date, but the number on the car might help. I took this one of Rahal testing at IRP sometime in the 80s.
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