History Auto racing 1894-1942

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The Italian auto pilot Antonio Caliri, highly experienced in Europe, arrived in the capital of Chile at the end of the twenties. The economic depression meant that many Europeans ventured to South America in search of better opportunities. As a mechanical technician had chosen and been selected to take charge of the technical services of the representation of Citroen cars in this corner of the new world.

Antonio Caliri designed and then built the car that would bear his name and that would break all speed records throughout Latin America: the "CALIRI SPECIAL." This curious fireball was manufactured from a chassis of a car brand Hudson, which was installed and adapted as much as the engine of a Curtiss Falcon fighter aircraft.



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The very history of the plane from which came this powerplant is more than unique. In the late twenties the fledgling National Air Force (FAN) was only one army division, and was led by the visionary Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez, who persuaded the government of the day signed a contract with U.S. aircraft factory Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, in which Chile could produce Curtiss Falcon aircraft under license. The FAN already had some combat aircraft of the same type, but produced in U.S.

So in the air base in Los Cerrillos Airport (close to where it was located the mechanical workshop of Antonio Caliri) began the manufacture of these aircraft under the supervision of technicians who came especially from U.S. aircraft Although the contract authorized the construction of 20 aircraft, came to be built only 12 of them, those in the aviation world became known as "Chilean Falcon."

It was a biplane model for two, with wooden wings and fuselage made of aluminum tubing, with fixed landing gear, the rider on a powerful 12-cylinder engine in V, water cooled, with power estimated 430 horsepower. In peacekeeping and observation could fly only manned by the pilot. Still had four Browning machine guns in front, and two more mobile, mounted on the back where they were operated by the gunner that was located in tandem on the backs of the pilot. Under the wings had the capacity to carry up to nearly 100 kg of bombs. These aircraft would have its baptism of fire in a fratricidal war that actually happen to our history as El Combate Naval de Coquimbo.



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At the beginning of September 1931, in full economic and political crisis after the fall of Ibanez, and after the government issued a 30% reduction in the salaries of members of the armed forces, there was the so-called Revolt National Fleet, which strictly speaking was of seafarers, as naval officers were captured and locked in their cabins. Thus, the Navy ships were seized by rebel sailors who gathered the ships in the Bay of Coquimbo. The government firmly committed to quell the rebellion, responded by sending all available combat aircraft of the fledgling National Air Force, to await instructions in the nearby city of Ovalle. Gathered in their airport was fourteen light bombers and Curtiss Falcon Vickers (including several of the Chilean manufacturing Falcon), two heavy bombers Junkers, two Vickers-attack aircraft and several aircraft Wibault conditioned transport as improvised bombers.

After tense days of fruitless talks with the rebels, and after an ultimatum is not accepted, September 6, 1931 the Vice-President Manuel Trucco (President Juan Esteban Montero had left the government in his hands to run again in the next elections in October) the commander ordered Ramón Vergara Montero initiate an air strike against the rebellious fleet anchored in the bay of Coquimbo, with the express order to concentrate the bombing of the flagship, the battleship Almirante Latorre. In pursuance of these orders, the air attack began at five in the afternoon of that day, and involved a dozen aircraft, most of them locally manufactured Curtiss Falcon.


The carrier battle left many wounded and some dead among the crew rebellious. The submarine was disabled Quidor and other ships were damaged. The rebels eventually surrendered and their leaders were prosecuted and convicted. For its part, the members of the task force, five planes were hit by naval artillery but four of them managed to return to their base in Ovalle without major problems. Only one of the Chilean Falcon, which was badly strafed, failed to return and hood near the city of La Serena, despite which the pilot and gunner survived. The shot was irretrievably destroyed aircraft crashed after landing in the open, yet its motor was not damaged beyond repair ...

Shortly after these events, Antonio Caliri achieve their neighbors in Los Cerrillos, National Air Force, they sold the remains of the aircraft: its powerful 12-cylinder powerplant, and he dreamed of the possibility of reuse for motor drive race car was one of a kind.

Curtiss D12 on the chassis of a car model cabriolet Hudson. He put a strong rear axle of another variant of a sedan in the U.S. automotive brand, and we built a streamlined body of type "bucket", which had the particularity to place the pilot ahead or co-pilot and mechanic at his back, as in the Curtiss airplane cockpit. Immediately behind the driver, between the seats of both men, he located the fuel tank. Expertise due to extreme one worked all sorts of gadgets and "grafts" mechanics, especially in the transmission system, since there was no easy task to put such power in sync aircraft in harmony with the drive wheels and the chassis of a land vehicle . The spectacular body designed by Caliri, together with twelve side exhaust pipes, the radiator and the imposing huge spoiler striker gave him the "Caliri Special" look really cool. Proudly wore on his forehead a specially designed badge with the name "Caliri Special" designation was also painted on rear sides of the celestial albo. Thus was born this original two-seater racing car, worthy heir to the fighter aircraft Chilean Falcon.

Chilean Falcon, O-1E built under license in Chile (20 units under contract, became much more), plus 10 units built in the U.S.. One of these Falcon was shot down during the Naval Battle of Coquimbo, during an attack on the Chilean navy revolt by the crew.

O-1E version fitted with piston engine 324-kW (435-hp) Curtiss V-1150E (41 built). Three specimens were redesignated I-13C (Form 37K) to acoplárseles Conqueror as a power plant similar to those of the O-13B



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I finally identified this as the Eye-See-Bee.

 

Ah, is that Carl C. Smith from Brooklyn (NY), who ran his "CCS" Mercer Special at Indy in 1931? I have him in several races on the East Coast 1929-33, he even ran the thing on the Woodbridge board track several times - not too successfully, though, it has to be said, usually having trouble to qualify for the consy. Would love to hear more about this car, I believe it had an old T-head engine from a raceabout, is that right?

Interesting post, btw, re the Mercedes and Detroit Special. I believe, though I can't name a source atm, that the Detroit had a copy of the Mercedes engine with a DOHC (whatever that means - if it was a DO, it can't have been much of a copy, can it?). As for the Mercedes, it was at least once raced by John de Palma, Ralph's younger brother, at Beverly Hills in 1920, and I always figured it was the same car that John raced in IMCA events in 1925. If true, it was probably owned by Alex Sloan then, and likely went the same way as many other Speedway legends, like the Golden Submarine etc.

 

T-Head,

The "influence" of the 1914 GP Mercedes engine on American and British aircraft engines is discussed in T. Suzuki's book "The Romance of Engines", (minus the usual nationalistic pride). The story of W.O. Bentley stealing the London show car and wheeling it up to Rolls Royce is a good one. As is the letter the Germans sent claiming patent infringement after shooting down a British fighter. In praise of copying indeed.

Paul

 

Michael, I have asked Carl's great grandson Isaac about Carl's racing but Isaac regrettably knows little about it. Carl was the only member in the family that really took a liking to cars until Isaac came along (Isaac is a professional photographer specializing in exotic cars mainly). Isaac's dad I believe is still around and he used to tag along with Carl when Carl would get together with my grandfather in their twilight years so to speak. Isaac has tried to find out from the older members of his family but has not had a great deal of success. He still digs for old photos.

You are probably correct on John DePalma and I know he ran it in California in 1920. When I spoke to Herbert Book's widow back in the eighties she told me she made the trip out west with the three cars in late 1919 and they spent some time there. There was the Peugeot that Klein drove, then the Detroit Special and the DePalma Mercedes. She believed that the only car they brought home was the Detroit Special which her brother in law Frank Book kept and drove until maybe the mid thirties. That was pretty much it for the racing bug for the Books as they had to concentrate on building Washington Boulevard in downtown Detroit as a tribute to their father who had recently passed. She was most gracious and surprisingly she had a real interest in cars. She spent many hours at the DePalma Manufacturing Co race shop (mainly owned by her then fiance Herbert and his brother Frank-technically JB Book as Herbert was not yet of age when they incorporated in 1916-but JB had no interest in cars). I asked her a number of questions regarding the engine in the Detroit Special although she could not confirm the details. She did tell me that they built a number of their own engines (definitely more than one) and they were very proud of the engines and cars that they ran at Indy. She made the trip to Indy for the 1919 race with Art Klein, whom she admired. Although they were all very wealthy she told me she still hung around the cars because it was either that or not see her fiance/husband too much. The other thing she told me that I never knew was that they also had an Austro Daimler but she knew none of the details. She said they kept that until sometime in the 20s I believe (would have to check my notes). Somewhere I have pics I clipped out of a magazine where the Books were DePalma's pit men in 1915 and they were referred to as millionaire swipes.

I also wonder on how many cams the car had but I believe it to be a SOHC although I cannot take that assumption to the bank. The stats I have of the engine are close to the GP Merc but not dead on-who knows. Another mystery to ponder which makes all of this interesting-Jim

 

Thanks for all of the back ground info everyone....It all seems to fit in. Mercedes came up with so many great designs and they were widely copied from day one.....

 

Hello guys anyone have more pics of this Delage 1926 gp?



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It's funny, just the other day I found an "Austrian Daimler" in a preview about a race at Lancaster (PA) in 1922! The driver was one Ernest Gasson, a name that I had never come across before. I recall being surprised to find an Austro-Daimler racing in the US, not very common at all, not even in Europe.

 

More reversed louvres on a Packard. (Check some of the other photos).



http://www.flickr.com/photos/millerracers2000/3551869766/

 

There is British Pathe footage of some Shelsley Walsh events on the link at the highlighted points:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8648000/8648409.stm

 

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3033884/1929-duesenberg-model-j

 

Great Pic- I believe this is the 20 mile race at Chicago on July 28 1918. Depalma in the 299 was first, then Resta in his Resta Special, then Mulford in his Frontenac was the order of finish and this appears to be them at or nearing the stripe-Jim

 

e Can someone zoom in on the oval tag on the cowl, it looks like a body builders ID Tag. Nice car!

 

There are some interesting early racing car pictures here - http://www.imcdb.org/movie_12347-Kid-Speed.html - which have never yet been identified. Maybe someone on this thread might have some ideas?

 

I knew that you would enjoy this photo, it's interesting because the cars are so equally spaced. One thing I did notice is that it appears that Resta's mechanic has his arm in the air almost like he was waving to someone.

 

I saw the same thing first off and I took a wild guess that it was the finish and he was signaling some joy. The Resta Special was not really very successful and 2nd probably made them a bit excited. They were doing probably around 110 on that part of the straight so I am not so sure he could pick out mom and the kids at that speed. Who knows-great pic. There is a somewhat similar pic taken in 1919 at Sheepshead that I saw on ebay but they wanted quite a bit of money for it. Thanks,Jim

 

Mystery racing engine...... I have been trying to figure this one out for a while. My first thought was that it was a big Pope-Hartford four but all of the clues do not line up......

The front crossmember of the engine stand that it is in does not seem to agree with the bottom shape of a Pope radiator (bottom photo) and neither does the starting crank.

The engine is very similar to the third photo and it has the rounded ribs towards the bottom of the cylinders that you see on a Pope. I thought I would post all of this and maybe Fur Biscuit our resident Popeafile could chime in with his thoughts.

If it is not a Pope-Hartford can anyone ID this neat engine ??

 

I don't know if anyone else noticed but this car that MR Fire posted has what appears to be Duesenberg Model A engine and transmission. Photos below are of a standard Model A engine which was used in many second tier racing cars and also some depression era Indy racers. The following is what his grandson who is in the custom car business had to say about him.

Well back in the day Grandpa Serino was a serious racer and he turned just about any old car into a race car. He was even involved in building and racing midget race cars in the early days. It was Serino Racing back then and then he opened his own and probably the first in Long Island City auto repair shop. He continued to build race cars and had other people drive for him.

 

Thanks T-head. I was going to ask what engine was in that #8.

Not sure where he found those photos,but according to the business card,looks like the car was out of Long Island City N.Y. The shot with the bridges in the background looks right for L.I.C.

I`d say the fellow could be the same one as the driver of the midget,Joe Serino.

Maybe Michael Fernier has info on Serino?

 

These are two more photos of Joe Serino's racing cars.....and times have changed but the business is still going..... follow the link to a post on his grandsons shop......

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=412319

 

From the look of the tyre on the #12 Pope I guess this picture was taken after the race? Am I right in guessing that this Pope is a little older than the other cars (is #5 a walking beam Duesenberg?) behind it?

 

Is this the 2 litre V12 or the later 1.5 litre straight eight?

 

Good Eye...... The #5 of Robert Evans from 1913 does have a Duesenberg walking beam engine and they also built the cars. Not to be picky about this, but at that point in time they were called Mason's before the name was changed in I believe 1914. I have been called on this in the past and that is the only reason I brought it up. If you are interested in them start out on page 122 as I did many posts on the four cylinder Duesenberg racing cars.

Cheers...T-H

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380814&highlight=duesenberg&page=122

 

My first thought was his hand was in the air because the engine let go and blew out all that smoke. It is the signal to let other drivers by when the car is disabled.

 

It looks like the eight, but the exhaust is on the wrong side.

 

It's a "first generation" eight, the exhaust was changed over from right to left after the first year (1926). The twelve looked very different.

 

I don't have much on Serino. Hometown Long Island City, a few heat results in 1929 (with a Hudson) and 1930 (Deer Park Speedway, Mineola Fairgrounds, even an entry at the Altoona board speedway in PA), then an accident at Mineola in 1931 - all in AAA events. Later, he ran a car in ARA (Automobile Racing Assoc.) events for Jimmie Walker from Woodside or Astoria, Long Island. The funny thing is, I have two entries for Walker, once #8 (1933) and once #15 (1934) - probably the two cars in the pictures!

 

Did Pope built their own engines? I'm asking because I noticed that the engine specs for the Indy racers are pretty identical to the Wisconsin proprietory engines used by special builders such as Cutting, Schacht, Keeton, Tulsa, Texas etc. - even the early Stutz. I know, most box scores give the engine make as Pope, but I do wonder...