1984 engine oddity?

[MM658]

Check out this boxscore from the 1984 Caeser's Palace Grand Prix. It lists AJ Foyt's engine as a "Gilbrt" (the engine names are abbreviated, i.e., "Coswth", so I assume the full name was "Gilbert"?).

I am a pretty avid Foyt fan, and was following Indy car racing pretty closely long before and after 1984, yet I don't recall ever hearing of such an animal.

This wasn't the old Chevy V-6 hand-grenade, was it? Any info out there on what this "Gilbert" might have been???

[Brickbat-1]

Could it be a hybrid name of Gilmore + ?????, as Gilmore was with Foyt a long time, including that time period.

[KnockOff]

Here's a pic of Howard "Gilbert" who was Foyt's engine builder for many years and who worked for Foyt Sr. when they did all the Ford engines when Ford got out of the Indy engine business.

From PIR last month:

(that's Jack Starnes on the left, HG on the right)
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...731&Sequence=6

[MM658]

Thank, KO!
The 'Net asketh questions, but the 'Net also giveth answers.....

[Brickbat-1]

Originally posted by Brickbat-1:
Could it be a hybrid name of Gilmore + ?????, as Gilmore was with Foyt a long time, including that time period.

You win some, you lose some.

[Nashvilleman]

So was it a Cosworth that AJ called a Gilbert? The question has not been truly answered to my mind. Did it have Gilbert designed heads? That's the minimum, but you usually don't call an engine a new name for some porting work.

My guess would be AJ was PO'd at Cosworth and did that to show 'em who he thought really produced his power!

[Rick Jones]

My guess is that this was not a Cosworth but the Chevy V-6 normally aspirated engine. Ceasars was a parking lot course. The turbo Cosworths were not ideal for this type of track. N/A engines with quick throttle response and low end torque would have been a better choice. About this point in history Bobby Rahal and the Trueman Sleep Cheep team switched to a N/A engine at mid-Ohio and were very dominate. Soon after CART outlawed the swapping of engine designs from track to track.
Rick

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Godspeed!

[This message has been edited by Rick Jones (edited 04-12-2001).]

[KnockOff]

Probably not the same car you're referring to, but here's a pic of a March Chevy V-6 from Foyt's stable.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...435&p=30168658

[This message has been edited by KnockOff (edited 04-13-2001).]

[KnockOff]

Spoke with Howard the other day.

I'd emailed him about this engine name question.

He guessed that someone had made a mistake when they filled out the entry.

Never was a "Gilbert" anything engine.

btw: The old dinosaur is doing just fine and had been on a several week vacation of the western states.

[Ray Bell]

I've seen "Wolseley" misread and printed as "Wakeley" in the past, possibly the writing was poor (and over a fax?) and it really was "Cosworth"?

[Belanger99]

I believe the only place the v-6 chevy ran (and not for very long) was at Indy.

That motor allegedly had a lot of ponies, but as we saw absolutely no reliability.