Archive for the ‘Vintage Indianapolis 500’ Category

Two people are responsible for saving the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after World War II.

Monday, May 27th, 2013

Wilbur Shaw and Anton J. “Tony” Hulman, Jr. are responsible for saving the Indianapolis Motor Speedway following World War II. Since its inception, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has served not just as the home for spectacular entertainment, but also as a proving ground for automotive advances. Yet, it was once in peril of extinction. If not for the foresight of Shaw and Hulman, we probably wouldn’t be able to enjoy “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” today.


Wilbur Shaw

Wilbur Shaw

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Wilbur Shaw is probably best known as a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1937, 1939, and 1940. He was also the first to win consecutive races. He was well on his way to becoming the first four-time winner of the Indy 500 in 1941 when his right rear wheel collapsed, and his Maserati crashed into the wall.

Yet that is only part of his story. Another notable achievement in his career was his leadership in restoring the IMS following World War II.

During World War II, Shaw organized and directed Firestone Tire and Rubber Company’s aviation division. He developed Firestone’s Channel Tread tire and the self-sealing fuel tank.

Following World War II, Shaw was back at the Indy track. This time he drove a 500-mile run at Firestone’s request to test the durability of a new automobile tire made from synthetic rubber. He was the first to drive the track after the war.

He found the famous Speedway in deplorable shape. Weather had almost stripped the paint from the wooden stands, and hundreds of cracks marred the track surface in all four turns. As soon as possible, Shaw visited Speedway owner Eddie Rickenbacker to ascertain his plans for the track. Shaw developed a prospectus for potential investors and finally interested Tony Hulman in saving the once-grand racing facility in the fall of 1945.


Tony Hulman

Tony Hulman

Courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

With a degree from Yale University’s Scientific School in 1924, Hulman returned to Terre Haute and joined the family’s grocery business Hulman & Company. Hulman purchased the Speedway in November 1945 and made numerous improvements to the track. The first postwar running of the Indianapolis 500 took place on May 30, 1946.

Wilbur Shaw served in the dual role of president and general manager of the Speedway until his untimely death in an airplane accident in 1954.

Throughout the years, Hulman spent millions of dollars on improvements and innovations at the track. He became famous for his traditional starting announcement, “Gentleman, start your engines!” He also established the Indianapolis Speedway’s Hall of Fame Museum to display classic race cars and racing memorabilia.

Thanks to Wilbur Shaw and Tony Hulman, the Indianapolis 500 became known as the largest one-day sporting event in the world.

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Louis Schwitzer’s design innovation and excellence in engineering continues today.

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

Louis “Louie” Schwitzer’s contributions to design innovation and excellence in engineering continues today.

In his honor, the Indiana Section of SAE International and BorgWarner present the BorgWarner Louis Schwitzer Award each year for innovation and engineering excellence in race car design at the Indianapolis 500.

The Schwitzer saga started on August 19, 1909, when a crowd of 15,000 persons gathered at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the inaugural weekend of racing. The winner of the first five mile race, Schwitzer, turned out to be an automotive engineer, not a professional racing car driver.

His car was a stripped down Stoddard Dayton touring car powered by a four cylinder engine. It traveled at an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour for five miles on the macadam track. The driver was nicknamed “Louie”.

Born in Austria, Louie had the advantage of a formal education in mechanical and design engineering. He left Austria at the turn of the century, arriving in America with only $18 in his pocket.

Louie entered the automobile industry as an engineer for Pierce Arrow, working on one of the first six-cylinder engines made in America. A chance meeting with industrialist Howard C. Marmon brought an invitation to Indianapolis.

Louie found the “action” he sought in Indianapolis with his new job as design engineer at Nordyke and Marmon. He helped design the famous “Marmon Yellow Jacket” engine which powered the winning Marmon racing car driven by Ray Harroun in winning the first Indy 500 in 1911. Later, Schwitzer joined the Atlas Engine Works as chief engineer. No longer a driver, Louie opted to join the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Technical Committee in 1912, serving as its chairman from 1919 through 1945.


Louis Schwitzer

Louis Schwitzer

Used with permission of the

National Automotive History Collection

at Detroit Public Library

Also in 1912, Louie joined the Empire Motor Car Company, leaving in 1914 to join the United States Army Motor Transport Corps. He was deeply involved in the design of class ‘B’ military trucks and the 150 240 mm gun mounts. In fact, Louie remained active in Ordnance affairs for the rest of his life.

After World War I, Louie felt he could serve the automotive industry better by improving upon existing cooling systems. He started his own business in a one room factory late in 1918 to manufacture automotive cooling fans. When asked by an interviewer why he chose a cooling fan as his first product, he calmly replied, “Because I know more about them than anyone”.

During the 1920′s, Schwitzer built probably the first high production super charger for gasoline and diesel engines in America. The experience gained in gear production from the oil pump business was easily transferred to ‘positive displacement’ (rotor) type superchargers, which used drive gears to time the revolving two or three lobe rotors. The first application was on a Stutz Bearcat.

After World War II, Schwitzer replaced the more wasteful gear driven superchargers with “turbo chargers” in which the impeller wheel was driven by a turbine wheel using spent exhaust gases. Schwitzer’s low cost, efficient turbochargers were introduced on the Cummins diesel powered racing car which won the pole position for the 1952 Indianapolis 500. Today, turbochargers are considered standard equipment on almost all diesel powered engines.

Louie Schwitzer retired from the Schwitzer Corporation (now Schwitzer Incorporated), in 1964 at age 83. He died three years later at his Indianapolis home. In recognition of this true automotive pioneer, the Indiana Section SAE annually presents the BorgWarner Louis Schwitzer Award for innovation and engineering excellence in race car design.


2013 Annual Louis Schwitzer Award winners

2013 Annual Louis Schwitzer Award winners

This year on Friday, May 17th, the award was given to Firestone engineers Dale Harrigle and Brett Schilling for their team’s efforts in developing the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 tire. First introduced in 1995, the tire has demonstrated continuous innovation and excellence in engineering.

The Firestone team carries on the legacy of design innovation and excellence in engineering today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Publishers note: Nordyke & Marmon Co., Empire Motor Car Co., and Schwitzer Corporation were all Indianapolis based firms. Thus, Indianapolis and Indiana enjoyed Louis Schwitzer’s many accomplishments from the first days of the Speedway throughout his life.

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My First Indy 500

Friday, May 25th, 2012

This past week at my Toastmasters club, each member reminisced about his or her first Indy 500. I thought I would share my memories of the race along with some documentation from the Indianapolis Star.

As some of you might know, I attended Indianapolis 500 practice and qualifications with my dad and uncles starting in the early 1950’s. I really enjoyed watching the activities from many vantage points around the track. One of my favorites is in the grandstand outside of turn one. I especially liked watching the drivers work their roadsters through the curve. Every driver had his particular groove around the track.

My dad enjoyed listening to the race on the radio instead of being there in person, so I was left to my own devices to go to the race. Finally, on Thursday, May 30, 1963, my chance arrived. One of my neighborhood buddies, dad was an Indianapolis Motor Speedway patrolman and saved us a place along the fence inside of turn one. There I was with 275,000 other people watching all of the pre-race festivities from our prime spot on the fence.


Dennis E. Horvath at Indy 500

Dennis E. Horvath at Indy 500
Copyright ©1964 Indianapolis Star

We were unaware that Indianapolis Star photographer Tommy Wadelton was documenting the action from the other side of the fence. There we were in the middle of his photograph published in the Indianapolis Star on May 24, 1964. That skinny kid in sunglasses with a flat-top in the second row is me. Just to my right behind me was Jay Skoda and to my right in the front row was Larry Stroudman. I wasn’t wearing a hat to cover my head on that sunny day and that caused me to get a bad sun burn on my scalp. So that’s why you most always see me with a hat of some kind.

Oh well, back to the race. My favorite driver, Parnelli Jones, started the race in pole position. Jim Hurtubise started in the middle of the first row. Hurtubise led the first lap of the race, but Parnelli recaptured the lead on the second lap. About mid-way through the race, signs of oil started to show on the external oil tank of Parnelli’s car. Every lap we wondered if he would be black flagged for dropping oil. Finally, the concern about dropping oil went away. Yahoo! Parnell won the race with Jimmy Clark finishing second in a rear-engine Lotus Powered by Ford racer.

Memories of my first Indy 500 are fresh in my mind today, some 49 years later. That 1963 race was the first of many at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was probably one of the things that sparked my interest in automobiles. See you at the track.

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They Call Me Mister 500, Anthony (Andy) Granatelli

Monday, May 21st, 2012

I really enjoy stories about mid-twentieth century racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and They Call Me Mister 500 is one of the best. It chronicles the events in a 23-plus year saga of the Granatelli brothers, Joe, Andy, and Vince, in their attempts to win the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Author Andy Granatelli describes their journey from a speed shop in suburban Chicago in 1946 all the way to winning the 500 in 1969.


Jimmy Clark's 1966 STP Gas Treatment Special

Jimmy Clark’s 1966 STP Gas Treatment Special
Copyright ©1966 Studebaker Corporation

All three Granatelli brothers probably had gasoline in their veins as they grew up during the Depression hawking their automotive knowledge along Halsted Street in Chicago. All of their experience hopping-up cars led them to establish Grancor, a speed shop and one of the premier mail-order speed equipment businesses in the country in 1944. Plus, they had their eyes on a grand prize – the Indy 500 trophy.

A quote from Andy explains the elixir of the Indianapolis 500: “Indy is a special brand of hypnotism, and it sets up an impossible dream. And, in all this, I am like everyone else. I love it; I hate it. Yet, it draws me as it does the rest of them.” So, in 1946, the brothers modified a 1935 front-wheel-drive Miller-Ford and qualified in 33rd position for their first 500. Driver Danny Kladis improved his position to near the top 10 only to drop out of the race due to a pit stop error.

Most of my memories of the Granatelli racers are of the mid-1960s. I can remember Jim Hurtubise starting in a Granatelli-entered Novi on the outside of the front row in the 1963 race and setting a new track record while leading the first lap. Jimmy Clark drove the STP Gas Treatment Special Lotus-Ford to second place in 1966. Parnelli Jones was leading the 1967 race in the STP Turbine Car when a six-dollar bearing failed and sidelined him on lap 197. Finally in 1969, Mario Andretti drove the STP Oil Treatment Special to win the Indianapolis 500. The Granatelli brothers dreams of winning were finally realized after thinking about and working toward it for over 30 years.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Andy Granatelli uses personal stories to weave you into the story. I found it to be a riveting rags-to-riches tale of how the Granatelli brothers grew up during the Depression and later enjoyed success at the pinnacle of American auto racing.

Peruse They Call Me Mister 500 at Amazon.com

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Avanti 50th Anniversary this month

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

The Studebaker Avanti was simultaneously introduced on April 26, 1962, at the New York International Automobile Show, a shareholders meeting, and at a press preview in South Bend. Shortly thereafter, the company flew an Avanti prototype to 24 cities in 16 days to introduce Studebaker dealers to the new car designed by Raymond Loewy.

In spring 1961, Studebaker’s new president, Sherwood Egbert, enlisted the famous industrial designer to design a car to give the company’s product line a shot in the arm. Loewy then sequestered John Ebstein, Robert Andrews, and Tom Kellogg in a California studio to design the advanced car in a very short period of time. The name they selected was Avanti, which means “forward” in Italian. The Avanti had the international look and feel of a high-performance GT coupe.

The sleek, fiberglass, Coke-bottle-shaped coupe bodies where mounted on the new convertible chassis with a standard high-performance V-8 engine rated at 240 horsepower. Additional engines were available for up to 289 horsepower. One of these versions would go from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in a scant 6.7 seconds. The Avanti interior resembled a plush airplane with instruments set in neat, easy-to-reach groups with two bucket seats and rear bench seat for two.

In spring 1962, the Avanti was named the honorary pace car with a Studebaker Lark Daytona convertible was selected as the official Indianapolis 500 pace car. I clearly remember Pole Day 1962. There was a great deal of chatter up and down pit lane as the Avanti drove around the track fulfilling its honorary role. There is a popular publicity photo showing this Avanti and three Studebaker executives behind Tower Terrace at the Speedway.


1963 Avanti

1963 Avanti
Copyright © 1962 Studebaker Corporation

What a sensation! I was drawn to the Avanti’s aerodynamic Raymond Loewy styling, which I believe is timeless even today. Rodger Ward, winner of the 1962 Indianapolis 500, received a Studebaker Avanti as part of his prize package, “thus becoming the first private owner of an Avanti.”

Later that summer, Granatelli brothers – Andy, Joe and Vince – prepared a high-performance Avanti R-3 prototype to run on the Bonneville Salt Flats and set 29 American Class records.

It’s a great time to think back to the Avanti 50th anniversary! If money was no object, an Avanti would be my first selection for a collectible automobile. One can hope, can’t we?

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1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine

Sunday, December 18th, 2011

Following the 1964 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, Ford Motor Company decided to develop its 500 horsepower 1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine. Many of the 1965 Indy 500 participants designed or purchased vehicles built around this now famous engine. Here is the story from my collection of mid-1960s Indianapolis 500 Mile Race press kits.


1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine

1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine
Copyright © 1965 Ford Motor Company

Ford Engineering was assigned the task of preparing the basic double-overhead-cam engine for production. It was primarily a job of redesign for production, plus durability improvements based on findings from the 1964 race. For instance, the 1964 engine experienced valve-spring failure due to excessive interference of inner to outer springs. This situation was corrected by a controlled select fit.

The engine’s lubrication was improved to protect against anticipated higher RPM and greater loads in 1965. The oil pressure was increased from 65 to 115 pounds. The entire lubrication system was enlarged to allow for freer flow and better cooling.

The connecting rods were strengthened and the crankshaft redesigned for 100 percent internal balance. As a result, the loading of the main bearings was improved.

In addition to the push for increased engine durability for 1965, considerable time was spent improving fuel economy. The 1965 version had two basic fuel systems – the modified Hilborn pump used in 1964 and a Ford injection system using a boost venturi in place of an injector nozzle. Economy was improved as much as 20 percent with the second system.

Since the selection of fuel for the 1965 race was at the discretion of the car owner, Ford calibrated fuel systems for blends of 80 percent methanol and 20 percent toluene, benzol, or gasoline. Additional tests were run on methanol with small percentages of nitro methane added, because most owners used some nitro in qualifying. These tests yielded information needed to determine calibration of the fuel system and spark requirements.

The 1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine developed close to 500 horsepower at 8,600 RPM and 333 pound feet of torque at 6,700 RPM, an increase of over six percent over the 1964 offering. The engine’s operating limit was raised to 8,800 RPM.

Considerable attention was given in selection and training of personnel to assemble the production engine. A service manual was prepared to aid the car builders and mechanics in maintaining engines, and facilities were established for factory rebuilding engines if desired by owners.

The Meyer-Drake firm was the sole agent for the sale and servicing this engine. The company established an Indianapolis facility for parts and equipment for the racing fraternity.

Ford hosted a 10-day seminar for race mechanics in Dearborn, MI, devoted to care and maintenance of the engine. They observed engine disassembly, reassembly, and explanations of all design phases. Ford personnel were available at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to provide technical assistance and parts selection to meet owners’ performance requirements.

All of this pre-race preparation paid-off for Ford in 1965. Seventeen of the 33 cars in the starting field had this engine. Jimmy Clark drove his Lotus powered by Ford to first place in the Indianapolis 500. In fact, The 1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine captured positions 1-4 and 7-9 finishing positions.

The 1965 Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine in various configurations enjoyed success in Indy Car racing and other venues for a number of years.

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Jimmy Clark in a sprint car?

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

The other day, while perusing my collection of mid-1960s Indianapolis 500 Mile Race press kits, I found this photo of Jimmy Clark sitting in a Ford Model T sprint car. Let me tell you the story behind this photo.


Jimmy Clark in Ford Model T Sprint Car

Jimmy Clark in Ford Model T Sprint Car
Copyright © 1965 Ford Motor Company

In 1965, Ford Motor Company entered two Lotus powered by Ford specials in the Indianapolis 500. In the process of developing these racers, the company developed the 495 horsepower Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine available for use by the entire racing fraternity.

The 1965 Ford Motor Company press kit explaining their entries included this photograph showing the old and new look at Indianapolis. A Lotus-Ford is in the foreground with Jimmy Clark trying out the cockpit of the vintage sprint car in the background. What a contrast between 48 years of technological development, front-engine versus rear-engine, four-cylinder versus eight-cylinder, and valve-in-head versus double-overhead-cam!

In 1963, Clark won “Rookie of the Year” honors for placing second in a Ford-powered Lotus entry. Clark earned the coveted pole position with a speed of 158.828 mph in 1964 in another Lotus-Ford. Unfortunately he dropped out of the race after 47 laps with mechanical failure.

The third time would be the charm for Jim Clark driving the Lotus powered by Ford entry to first place in 1965 Indianapolis 500. A second Lotus-Ford driven by Bobby Johns finished seventh. The Ford double-overhead-cam V-8 racing engine powered a number of other entries in this race.

So, that’s the story of Jimmy Clark sitting in a sprint car. I often wondered how would Jimmy Clark do driving around a ½ mile dirt track in a 1960s era sprint car? I guess that’s a discussion for another day.

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