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racephoto1 (Offline)
  #11 2/2/13 9:11 PM
Gurney's Plastic Express is a Watson, just as nice as Grant's cars.
ISF (Offline)
  #12 2/3/13 12:37 PM
Sorry 'bout gettin' a little off track posting the Watson but with all those other beautiful Champ Cars posted I thought I'd throw Junior Kurtz' beauty into the mix.

That car was dern near unbeatable with Chuck Gurney behind the wheel at Springfield. I think that car/driver combination won the Bettenhausen Memorial 100 something like 5 times!

Was the Kurtz Watson car the one that got wadded up in a nasty tumble at the Hoosier Hundred in 1991? I might be off on the year but I think it was '91.

Silver Crown Championship Dirt Cars properly driven on a one mile dirt track are classic poetry in motion. Using that analogy, Jack Hewitt is one of the greatest poets of all time.
cecil98 (Offline)
  #13 2/3/13 12:42 PM
Did any one notice that the triangulation on the roll cage of the two Viceroy cars (in the photos posted here) is different?
ISF (Offline)
  #14 2/3/13 1:03 PM
I was pretty young back in the days when these cars were racing and winning just about every race they ran.

Given that as it is I read a while back that all they had to do to was to relocate the heads from one bank to the other to get the exhaust pointed towards the ground. That eliminated the nest of snakes that those cammers had on top of the engine that went to the turbo when used in the rear engine asphalt cars.

Watched a Ford cammer engine strapped to a wooden pallet sell for $35,000.00 at Smokey Yunick's auction at his shop in Holly Hill, Florida back in '88 or '89.

Silver Crown Championship Dirt Cars properly driven on a one mile dirt track are classic poetry in motion. Using that analogy, Jack Hewitt is one of the greatest poets of all time.
cecil98 (Offline)
  #15 2/3/13 1:41 PM
Originally Posted by ISF:
I was pretty young back in the days when these cars were racing and winning just about every race they ran.

Given that as it is I read a while back that all they had to do to was to relocate the heads from one bank to the other to get the exhaust pointed towards the ground. That eliminated the nest of snakes that those cammers had on top of the engine that went to the turbo when used in the rear engine asphalt cars.

Watched a Ford cammer engine strapped to a wooden pallet sell for $35,000.00 at Smokey Yunick's auction at his shop in Holly Hill, Florida back in '88 or '89.
My favorite sound in all of my auto racing history/experience was the sound of the 4 cammer with the "spaghetti" exhaust on top of the motor. They were incredibly loud and they simply screamed. The very first time I heard them was, as a 10 yr old, on the first lap of the 1964 500 sitting in Stand J! WOW!!!!
Likes: Bruce Harrison
Bruce Harrison (Offline)
  #16 2/3/13 1:48 PM
Originally Posted by cecil98:
My favorite sound in all of my auto racing history/experience was the sound of the 4 cammer with the "spaghetti" exhaust on top of the motor. They were incredibly loud and they simply screamed. The very first time I heard them was, as a 10 yr old, on the first lap of the 1964 500 sitting in Stand J! WOW!!!!
They sounded sweet with the hammer down on the miles as well
racephoto1 (Offline)
  #17 2/3/13 4:42 PM
Bruce, both the Cammers and Offys sounded sweet on the miles. The cars were beautiful, and looked like a race car, not a door stop.
2 Likes: Bruce Harrison, Speedwrench
SC12 (Offline)
  #18 2/3/13 6:33 PM
The reason the triangulation was different is that both cars were built in different years.

Al Unser's 1 was built in 1969, the cage is an add on and you can see that car in the Speedway museum as part of the Parnelli Jones collection that has found it's way there. Yes, that is (per Jones) the Johnny Lightning car.

The Andretti car is newer (73 I believe) and ran with the Viceroy team through 75. It later ended up in the hands of none other than Junior Kurtz and was driven by Rutherford, Gurney and Chassey. It has been restored to it's 1974 livery.
Stealth87 (Offline)
  #19 2/4/13 3:29 PM
Originally Posted by cecil98:
Did any one notice that the triangulation on the roll cage of the two Viceroy cars (in the photos posted here) is different?
Good catch. Now that I look at it, there are multiple things different on those 2 chassis'. Is it possible that only one is a Grant King?
cecil98 (Offline)
  #20 2/4/13 3:53 PM
Originally Posted by Bruce Harrison:
They sounded sweet with the hammer down on the miles as well
Absolutely Bruce! but, they did have a "slightly" deeper exhaust pitch in the dirt format. However, either way, there's been no sound like it in racing since.
Likes: Bruce Harrison
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