History Auto racing 1894-1942

Just listed this Peter Helck print of Barney Oldfield in the Benz in Antiquated Classifieds.

 

'37, did you ever get a picture of Bluto's Blitzen Benz?

 

No, Sure wish I did. There are professional copies of this photo in a big building down the road from you. The Oldsmobile guy was the last to see them, you need a copy and so do I in memory of Bill Smith who had the copies made. Bob

 

The #24 car is the only car in the photo that exits today that I know of, owned and driven by Larry Beals of Philadelphia.


It started life as a 1908 Mercedes factory team race car, driven by Lautenschlager............

It made it to the USA when a young Spencer Wishart bought it and drove it to 4th place in the First INDY 500 in 1911.
It raced until the original four cylinder broke. Larry Beals bought it and installed the Hispano-Suiza V8 airplane engine and wire wheels. It went into an Ohio collection in 1939 and was sold in a sealed bid auction inthe late 1990's, for around 1.2 million. It went home to Germany and got a restoration it didn't deserve. I got to see it before it left, sat in it to, oldest INDY car I've been in. I meet a bidder a few years later that regretted not bidding higher, but you never have a second chance with a sealed bit auction. He told me he would have left as is, a true early Hot Rod.

Bob

 

Anybody have some photos of just the chassis of the 1909 Blitzen-Benz?

 

Oh, nice!!!

I don't have much on that race, but it was a field day for Larry Beals! He won the time trials, his heat, the main event and a handicap race - four out of four!!

It's good to see a picture of the cars, however I have twelve drivers competing in the various races, so I'm wondering if there are any missing in the photograph. On the other hand, there were never more than nine in any event, and no more than five racing at the same time, so perhaps a few of the drivers shared a car or two? I can't add much to what Larry said about the cars, except that Earl Vance's car was sometimes entered as a "Hispano Delage", and Zeke Meyer's as a "Peugeot Special". Batten's Duesenberg was evidently one of the "1919 model" early straight eights, and his car was sometimes described as Tommy Milton's "154 mph record car", so perhaps it had one of the two engines used in that contraption.

As for the drivers, most were pretty well known at the time: Larry Beals, Zeke Meyer, Norm Batten, Earl Vance or Milt MacBride need no introduction to anyone interested in the era, they were all AAA feature winners (except for Vance, maybe - I have seconds and thirds for him, but sofar no wins that I could find). Eddie Applebach was also a AAA winner (at Mount Holly/NJ a few weeks after Pottsville), but not a very prolific racer. Better known at the time was Bill Senyard, often competing under aliases like "Wild Bill", "Aquila Senyardo" etc. - he usually wasn't very far up in finishing, but around for a long time. More obscure was the rest of the racers, Joe "Daredevil" Tolson, Billy (or maybe Jimmy?) Reilly, a driver listed as Deveny, who I figure may have been Charles Devese, in fact, and another one which one source named Comedo and another just Emanuel - this must have been Manuel Quevedo junior from New York City, I reckon. Finally a driver by the name of Cash - maybe it was actually Earl Cashdollar from Trafford City, but I doubt it - Cashdollar raced exclusively in Western Pennsylvania according to what I have.

 

Here are the results that I have:

Event 1, time trials: 1 Beals 30.0", 2 Vance 31.2", 3 Batten 31.4", 4 Senyard 34.0", 5 MacBride 34.6", 6 Devese 35.0", 7 Reilly 35.0", etc.

Event 2, 5-mile race, heat 1: Meyer qualifying against Quevedo and Senyard, heat 2: Batten against Devese and Reilly, heat 3: MacBride against Cash and Tolson. Final: 1 Batten 5'33.2", 2 Meyer 5'35.2", 3 MacBride

Event 3, 10-mile race, heat 1: Senyard against Vance and Reilly, heat 2: Quevedo against Meyer and Tolson, heat 3: Beals 2'06.0" against Batten and Applebach, Final: 1 Beals 11'04.6", 2 Batten, 3 Quevedo, 4 Senyard.

Event 4, 5-mile handicap, starting order: Meyer, Quevedo, Batten, Vance, Beals, finish: 1 Beals, 2 Batten, etc.

Event 5, consolation: no info (one source ignored it completely, the other described it as "uninteresting")

No accidents during the races, but six retirements due to mechanical failures.

 

Thank you Michael! I know it was common for drivers to race under assumed names, was it just to get around AAA and other clubs rules, or wife/mother problems? Most of these cars look out dated, was it a AAA event? Thanks for all your shared information. Bob

 

I received this picture from a correspondent in Germany. I don't know where he got it. I looked back through this thread hoping to find the car with on luck. I did see a track that resembled the one in this picture. Any idea who and where this is?

 

^^^^^^^^^Great board track photo, the track looks fairly new. Car looks to be an eight cylinder Duesenberg, but the paint job and features don't match photos in the Fox INDY 500 book. Bob

 

This is a marker on a boulder in Jackson Park here in Chicago commemorating what's considered the first American auto race, from this point to Evanston IL, in 1895. It's across the street from the Museum of Science and Industry. Most people don't even know it's there.

 

On the topic of forward extended top tanks this special sports a Hampton radiator . Cant remember what is under the bonnet - meadows, riley ? I had one for years that I was going to fit to my Model T roadster project but decided on another option. Hampton was a short lived english car of the 20s which used a meadows engine but not the model of Fraser Nash fame.

 

Nino Farina

 

I don`t do Twitter,but if any of you are,,,,,Angelina seem to have some info.

 

That's correct: 8-cylinder Duesenberg (of the type raced by Batten at Pottsville) on the Sheepshead Bay Speedway. Driver is Tommy Milton, but I don't recognize the mechanic. Maybe with a little research.

 

Michael, This Duesenberg looks to be nicely finished, pan in front of the radiator wrapped streamlined front axle and all. The number location differs from the #10 car that ran INDY. Would the factory have several cars with the same number, or repaint them from race to race? Would the number be assigned to a driver for the year? Just wondering how you keep track of things, always enjoy your posts. Bob

 

This is our Green "Super Ford" 122 C.I. engine, which is the same as the engine seen in the car in the catalog page above. It has Green's sleeves, chrome-nickel timing gear, and cam with 5/16" lift and different intake and exhaust profiles, and lightweight 1-3/4" racing valves, that are about the largest that you can fit in a Ford T block. The engine has a smaller bore of 3.437 (3-7/16") so it could compete under the new 1920s AAA rules mandating a smaller engine size no larger than 122 CI. The standard Ford engine size was 177 C.I. with a 3.75" (3-3/4") bore size.

The full-circular counter-balanced crank of the type, which Green and others offered at the time has oversized 1-5/8'" mains and 1-3/8" rod journals (all original crank journals were 1-1/4". The Green manganese bronze main caps are babbitted after the block is line-bored It has balanced T rods bored out to the rod bolts and re-babbitted and fitted with 2-ring 4-7/16" Green Aluminite aluminum-nickel pistons.

I'm looking for good images or illustrations showing the right and left-hand sides of a 122 C.I. Green engine. The left photo is needed to determine the original routing of the extra water lines that cool the sleeved cylinders.



The rectangular intake manifolds are same shape as the modified intake ports in our cylinder block. And the manifold side profile appears to raise, curve and fall in a sideways J shape.



Rectangular intake ports match the intake manifolds in the photo above.



The sleeves and large valve ports and narrow seats.



Wanted - I have the engine, but it is missing the high compression "Super-Power-Plus" head illustrated above and below. The passenger car model is shown in the 2nd photo below. Looking for both of these heads if you have one or know of one.



Below is the passenger car version of the head .






Left side of the block has four holes for fittings that add coolant to outside of the spool-shaped sleeves.



The cutouts added at the top of the original cylinder bores to the water jacket lets the sleeve coolant enter the upper water jacket.



Bottom of the block and the racing crankshaft with oversized 1-5/8" mains and and 1-3/8" rod journals. It has balanced T rods bored out to the rod bolts and re-babbitted and fitted with 2-ring 4-7/16" Green Aluminite aluminum-nickel pistons.







1 - 3/4" racing valves with keeper, and locks, an original valve spring is on the left.

 

It is 1930, you could hand Pop Green $332.00 and walk out with the four pistons and the crank, or go to the local Ford dealer and put that $332.00 down on a new 1930 Roadster that cost $450.00. I need to go to the copy center on Monday. Bob

 

I THINK we are seeing the beginning of a new project.

 

Yes! Nice when your are starting with an existing car. Not your average Model T engine.

 

The 1920 Green catalog listing for the $250 full-circular web crank in the 122 ci "T" Green motor is below. With inflation factored in today it would cost $3,546.45.

Thanks for making the copies for me

 

I'll get those copies made tomorrow. I also found out were the Pop Green 91C.I. engine is. I like your new avatar, are the holes in the crank gear for removal or crank driven blower? Bob

 

Thanks for the copies looking forward to them. I'd like to know more about the Green 91 c.i., have any photos?

The gears and crank are for my Volvo 1800S racing car after I lightened all of them.

 

Have you ever seen a Fiat s74 without the bod, just the chassis? Thanks

 

Bob I found it to be pretty cool.

 

Fun Thanks!

 

Great film of those old boat tails running. Thanks banjeaux bob

 

Thanks Bob.