when the Pepsi Challenger Eagle was designed?
I was watching the 80's DVD and there is a mention about it being designed in a wind-tunnel. But this was the time ground-effects were taking over, and there is no hint of side-pod tunnels, or side-pods at all.
It's a Hoosier thing, you wouldn't understand...
Boundry Layer Aero Tech.
worked pretty good untill skirts were banned.
The design required the development of what I think was the first tunnel with a rolling road.
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George Herbert
It may not have had tunnels but it had one heckuva big venturi coming out the back of the car.
IIRC, it had the best corner speeds of any car that year. Gurney was on to something with this design.
The AAR design team had inadvertintly discovered ground effects with the forward placement of the radiators in the 72 Eagle which indeed formed the first "tunnels", remember, the M15(?) McLaren was the first of the Indy cars with the closed off areo nose approach (an almost zerox copyt of the Lotus 72) with the radiators located flush with the end of the tub, and limited bodywork, Gurney and Roman Slob (many other letters) moved the cooling system forward (just behind the front suspension) and extended the bodywork to the rear wheels while venting the cooling air to the sides. Such that when the March's first appeared they were really an evolution of the 72 Eagle (my opinion only, but I, of course, have been drunk in many Holliday Inn Lounges!)
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I read his thoughts on the boundary layer, if i remember they discovered that if the air was deflected more than 8 degrees it was lost as far as downforce.
Look also at the main body of the car without the rear body work. A few years down the line F-1 cars had that bullet look.
As usual, Gurney was thinking of something, not copying the others.
The Pepsi Challenger Eagle was a beautiful race car. It sat on the front row at Indy that year with a stock block motor and then at Milwaukee it finished first from the last starting position. If you remember the Danny Ongais "Batmobile" which was a very fast car as well had a similar look to the Eagle.Originally posted by midtown
when the Pepsi Challenger Eagle was designed?
I was watching the 80's DVD and there is a mention about it being designed in a wind-tunnel. But this was the time ground-effects were taking over, and there is no hint of side-pod tunnels, or side-pods at all.
Rick
God speed!
My brother in law agrees with you, he thinks its beautiful. Me, I'm not so sure, but that's in the eye of the beholder. I was wondering how it did at other tracks.Originally posted by Rick Jones
The Pepsi Challenger Eagle was a beautiful race car. It sat on the front row at Indy that year with a stock block motor and then at Milwaukee it finished first from the last starting position. If you remember the Danny Ongais "Batmobile" which was a very fast car as well had a similar look to the Eagle.
Rick
Originally posted by midtown
My brother in law agrees with you, he thinks its beautiful. Me, I'm not so sure, but that's in the eye of the beholder. I was wondering how it did at other tracks.
Didn't Geoff Brabham win or finish second at Watkins Glen in 81 with this car?
Came from last (promoters option after a blown motor in quals) to first to a lap ahead win in Milwaukee. Was sceaming uo through the field at Mich, before it broke. Both of those were with Mosely at the wheel. Rocky Moran had a sure win at the Glenn go away when it ran out of fuel.
All with a pushrod Chevy.
IIRC it was Moran.
but I've been wrong before
Railbird - you are probably right. Moran did drive some of the rc races for Gurney.
Lets talk about the 82 Eagle. It looked to me like the 81 with sidepods. I don't think they ever really got it right as Mosely didn't make the show that year. I don't have a picture of the car but I'm sure someone here does.
The car Mosely drove in '82 was an underfunded effort with little or no development possible while Chandler's standard BLAT AAR Eagle qualed quicker than any stockblock had to that point. The picture I have of Mosely's 48 in Hugness's yearbook does indeed show sidepods but I don't really recall the car turning many laps.
The yearbook states "they ran out of engines"
It most certainly was Rocky Sr.Originally posted by Railbird
IIRC it was Moran.
but I've been wrong before
Excerpted from the start of an article I did in '03:
I still have never seen a single photo of Rocky in the #48 though...October 4, 1981: journeyman road racer Rocky Moran, with a 1 ½ year old son at home, would fulfill a lifelong dream by making his ChampCar debut at Watkins Glen. In what would be CART’s third and last appearance at one of America’s most famous road courses, Moran qualified 7th in the Pepsi Challenger Eagle stock block. It was the same car which Mike Mosley had placed on the front row at Indy earlier in the year, then won from the back row at Milwaukee the following week.
Of even greater personal significance, Moran would make his foray into CART with one of his heroes, for he was now one of Dan Gurney’s All American Racers. “It was always special driving for Dan. I grew up going out to Riverside and remember watching him race there in 1960, so that was pretty awesome.”
The awesome feeling continued well into the race. “I was in the lead and had Rick Mears behind me, and it was pretty much a static situation. And we ran out of fuel.”
Nonetheless, a sixth place finish for a raw rookie represented a significant accomplishment, and Moran reasonably expected this stellar one-off appearance would become the impetus to landing a full-time ride. “At the time, I thought that it was. I thought I had knocked the door down, so to speak. In reality, I didn’t race a ChampCar again until Long Beach 1985, four years later.”
Personally I loved all those old Eagles. Radically different and Mosely proved they, or at least his, was competitive. Not to mention those old stock blocks.Originally posted by midtown
My brother in law agrees with you, he thinks its beautiful. Me, I'm not so sure, but that's in the eye of the beholder. I was wondering how it did at other tracks.
At the time I thought the 81 Eagle was butt-fugly... and I guess I still do, but I have a much greater appreciation for it's character - and accomplishments - these days.
I'd never heard the Rocky Moran story!!! Heck 81 was the first year I followed CART throughout the whole season and I never knew they raced at the Glen at the time! I do remember watching Mosely at Milwaukee and thinking "Oh no, that ugly car is going to win!" ... but I was only 14, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it;-)
Originally posted by Roadrage
Personally I loved all those old Eagles. Radically different and Mosely proved they, or at least his, was competitive. Not to mention those old stock blocks.
There wasn't much Stock in that so called stock block anymore.
About everything that could be made in aluminum (up to the actual blocks themselves!) and was available at the after market was granted as being stock by USAC and used within the Gurney engines.
(Sigh)
Oh, almost forgot, neat looking car, should have had a real (racing) engine in it instead, that might have made a difference.
AccipiterNL
Prettiest Eagle ever IMO.
IIRC, in '82 or '83, CART turned up the boost on the Cosworths to ensure they wouldn't get embarrassed by a 350 Chevy anymore.
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You recall correctly, 'Writer. CART couldn't handle stock blocks being a legitimate part of the show. Not "high-tech" enough.
I loved that car, and I especially loved that the powerplant was a stock block. Mike Mosley also has the distinction of being my last childhood hero. The moment I read about him getting killed in an auto accident--just like every other childhood hero I'd had to that point--I stopped having childhood heroes.
'Course, I was 17 at the time and getting a little old for such things anyway.
http://www.motorsport.com/stats/champ/data/ch198110.pdfOriginally posted by theunions
It most certainly was Rocky Sr.
I still have never seen a single photo of Rocky in the #48 though...
Rocky's Glen race stat.
Agreed. I still need to get that Butera Eagle picture posted. I liked all of those cars, especially the 81 Gurney car, and the 82 Chandler and Firestone cars. Chip Mead had a spiffy 81 Eagle with White Castle sponsorship. Even Chet Fillip made one look pretty.Originally posted by Racewriter
Prettiest Eagle ever IMO.
IIRC, in '82 or '83, CART turned up the boost on the Cosworths to ensure they wouldn't get embarrassed by a 350 Chevy anymore.
That's true and it shows why I don't like equivelancy formulas. In order to make sure the racing engines weren't obsoleted, they had to obsolete the stock blocks. It's nearly impossible on a long term basis to be fair to all parties.Originally posted by Racewriter
Prettiest Eagle ever IMO.
IIRC, in '82 or '83, CART turned up the boost on the Cosworths to ensure they wouldn't get embarrassed by a 350 Chevy anymore.
Some people will do nearly anything in order to be able to not do anything.
Evil CART
who were those owners anyway?
The stated reason for changing the regs was to relieve the majority of the team owners the extra expense of running two engine programs.
Same bunch that is in the IRL now, for the most part.Originally posted by Railbird
Evil CART
who were those owners anyway?
And the IRL's "stated reason" is for open access. We all know how "stated reasons" are.
We all know how "stated reasons" are.
exactly
But, and it's a big butt indeed, once Ernest Henry let the genie out of the bottle there was no going back.
imo of course
It's all Gurney's fault.Originally posted by Railbird
Evil CART
who were those owners anyway?
They were trying a turbo stock block of some sort or another, I think, which wouldn't stay together. Steve Chassey made the show in 83 driving an 82 model for Hammond, the only time that variety made the show.Originally posted by Railbird
The car Mosely drove in '82 was an underfunded effort with little or no development possible while Chandler's standard BLAT AAR Eagle qualed quicker than any stockblock had to that point. The picture I have of Mosely's 48 in Hugness's yearbook does indeed show sidepods but I don't really recall the car turning many laps.
The yearbook states "they ran out of engines"
The 83's were the prettiest lot, I think. Galles, Simon (yes, Dick Simon!) and Tom Mitchell all got one. Simon actually ran faster in his--which was the quasi AAR entry, numbered 48--than the March he qualified. Chet Fillip got his car into the show--just barely, and some 4 miles an hour slower than the next slowest qualifier (Krisiloff, irony to follow) while Galles made history of a sort with Little Al as a rookie doing his "messin' up the air" routine with Snively...
John Buttera brought another back in 84, with Krisiloff aboard. It was very fast, but Steve pretty much broke it in half during practice.
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My memory is of Geoff Brabham just smokin' 'em at Riverside in '81.
The Pepsi colors looked great, the Chevy stockblock sounded wild...a quick check says Brabham sat on pole at 1:31.69 @ 129.5 mph
P2 Al Unser 1:33.31 @ 127.3 mph
P3 R. Mears 1:33.58
That day the performance was like the McLaren Can Am days.
Led the first 17 laps then "handling problems". Mears won.
Anyone out there that knows that story off hand?
How about Michael Chandler's performance at Long Beach, you got to get a copy of that race!
I was at the track the day Michael Chandler crashed the Dubonette Curb Eagle Pontiac in turn three. It was a bad wreck. I can't remember the year but I was in the infield in turn three looking for a parking space at the time of the wreck. The track was packed with fans that day and there was very little parking in the infield. I think is was a fast Friday. Anyone remember the details? My guess is 1984 or 85.
Rick
I remember that the car got up on top of wall and the caution light was broken off after hitting the cockpit area. This is where Michael received his head injuries. He has never totally recovered parts of his memory and reasoning facilities. I saw him walking around a couple of years after the crash and people who talked to him told me that he couldn't stay on one subject very long. Michael was a real nice guy and a pretty fast race driver as well. Who knows how far he could have gone.
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