Those pictures of towing with a single axle trailer are perfect! Just think about racers before the thruway system, towing on 2 lane roads with rigs like the pickup with the trailer. And racing 4, 5, 6 days a week…
There's a plaque on a brick building in Old Colorado City identifying it as Louis Unser's garage. It's a hop,skip and a jump to the road going up Pike's Peak from this location. FYI, the Unser museum in Albuquerque was moved to the American Museum of Speed in Lincoln NB.
Super cool photographs. The Zion sign is the South entrance (Springdale side). Definitely not crowded like it is today. And you just got to love the photo of the Cadillac driving with its hood up. It sure looks like they were doing it intentionally; I assume to help cool the motor going upgrade?
A word on digging through this mess—it hasn’t been easy. Even with some heavy-hitters in my corner, it’s been like trying to reconstruct a crime scene with nothing but cigarette ashes and smudged blood patterns. The only real clues? Car numbers. And from what we’ve pieced together, these shots were taken in either 1959 or 1960. But pinning it down further has been like wrestling a goddamn ghost. The Porsche RSK has been the biggest lead. Mike Collins didn’t bring the #62 car in ’59. In fact, I can’t find any record of an RSK running in North America that year. Wouldn’t be shocking if Collins had the first one stateside, but as early as ’59? That feels like a stretch. Meanwhile, Louis Unser ran the #5 Raybestos Special in ’59—but not in 1960. No one ran a #5 in the open-wheel class that year. So what’s the answer? Right now, my money’s on 1960. Bobby Unser may have run the #5 car under a different number while Louis hustled his Pontiac Stock Car up the mountain. But until something more concrete surfaces, this is all educated guesswork and caffeine-fueled speculation.
The Thunderbird with the single wheel trailer, now that takes guts and a lot of moxie, to be confident pulling that down the freeway! But it was easy to back up, with out looking, when dealing with parking spaces! "Everyone's results may vary greatly"
“The Unser family from nearby Colorado Springs were famous at Pikes Peak. I remember Al Unser giving a talk and describing all the work that it took to win at the 1960 Pikes Peak race. Bobby Unser in his Chevrolet Special # 92 in the winners circle with brothers Louis on the left and Al on the right. All the Unsers participated. Here is Louis in his 1960 Pontiac Catalina attacking the climb. Number 92 must have been a family favorite.”
What a time to be alive. I've always thought the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s would've been the era I would love to go back to as a late teen / into my 20s. This Tbird -
As a previous owner of a 56 Continental, I can say they were well built heavy cars with many luxuries, chrome in places you don't normally see chrome. Towing that race car was nothing for a Continental. They unfortunately were not the easiest to find parts or work on as the frame was "X-d" so you could not just drop the transmission to work on, but had to remove both the engine and trans together which means out comes the radiator as well. Ford's luxury model to go head to head with Cadillac. A brand new one was about $10,000 , the most expensive car at that time.Ford actually lost over $1,000 per car in 56-57 and in todays money is over $10,000. Talk about a Tow machine - I have always loved that Model. BTW my 56 was identical White with Wide whites, hub caps just like the one pictured. Just wish they weren't so challenging to work on, or the cost of, finding parts or I would still have owned mine. But not to be....
That was the first thing I noticed, the 60 chevy, and no snow, so it had to be 1960. And two VW busses up there, I bet that was a slow drive up the hill!
My dad knew Uncle Louis when he worked at Colorado Springs Auto Parts, said he was the best of the bunch. Here is a pic of Uncle Louis open wheel car in the alley at Colorado Springs Auto Parts.
Edit: Roger's car in that magazine looks like a 550... and I thought the magazine got it wrong... But actually, that's an early transition car marked as an RSK rather than a 550. Mike's RSK is a later car:
That Pontiac stocker photo reminds me of the one of an Unser sliding an early Toronado. We lived in Colorado Springs in 1953+ and I remember going to a jalopy race and driving up Pikes Peak in his Model A with my Dad.
And I’ve said it before, V8-60 tube axles are everywhere if you look closely. Look at Bobby Unser’s car’s front axle, and the Hemi powered sprinter on the dirt track. Both V8-60 axles. And yes I know that I have developed an obsession about them…
But no one is sticking there head out the window to see. Where they are going . Maybe it blew open like my friend's 69 f250 did in highschool when were driving to school at 90 on the highway!
The Jalopy Journal
