A couple of weeks ago Geoffrey Horton visited the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and kindly sent me today’s photographs to share.
The Hall Scott Four was built in San Francisco for the 1917 Vanderbuilt Cup it used an Reo Model M frame and was powered by a 110 hp Hall Scott aircraft 9.9 litre 605 cc motor that produces the same torque as a modern day Chrysler V10 Viper motor. This car was reconstructed for Dick Deluna by Tom Batchelor in Reno Nevada and Denis Webb in Anaheim California amongst many others.
Charles McAbe is seen warming up his 1934 Bugatti Type 59 with it’s distinctive wire and alloy wheels.
Looking particularly purposeful in black above is Bob Patterson’s 1957 second generation Chevrolet Corvette C1, a very successful sports car and racer in it’s day that sold with the strap line “FI = 1 H.P. per CU. IN. x 283″.
John Staver, Ed Grierson and Bill Larson based their Echidna race cars on highly modified Corvette frames and mechanical running gear. The cars clothed in bodywork by by Bill Devlin won 8 races outright from 35 races and took 17 class victories. The Bob Hardison’s 1959 example seen here is driven by IMSA Endurance racer Rick Knoop.
Frank Kurtis built just one new car for the 1958 Indy 500 the Kurtis KK500-H seen above which featured novel, for the period at Indy, independent rear suspension. It’s best finish was 7th with Duane Carter at the wheel in 1959, running with a more conventional tub rear axle installed by new owner Smokey Yunnick.
Al Arcerio is seen at the wheel of his 1958 Knobbly Lister above.
After seeing first hand the apparent chaos that ruled in the factories of several top European racing car manufacturers Lance Reventlow returned to the United States determined that he could do far better. The first product of his determination was the 1958 Scarab Mk 1 with which Lance won 9 races in 1958. Only two Mk 1’s were built, I believe the example above, owned by Rob Walton, is the first of the two.
The Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione chassis #2701 GT was crashed on it’s debut at the Le Mans test weekend after setting the 6th fastest time, fastest in class, in 1961. It was rebuilt and bought for a paltry DM 6,000 in February 1967 by Egon Hofer who won his class with it in a couple of hillclimbs before tackling the Taga Florio with Anatoly Arutunoff where carrying the #74 it failed to finish. Ned Spieker has owned the car since 2004.
Dwight Matheson’s 1969 AMC AMX is seen above in the Bruce Morehead Racing colours as raced by Bruce in 1970 in the Sebring 12 hour race where the car failed to finish. Bruce is known to have scored at least one class victory in an SCCA regional race run at Sebastian towards the end of 1970.
My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photos, please spare a thought for him last I heard the the Rim Fire was causing Geoffrey and his neighbours some concern.
Thanks for joining me on this “Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !
PS Thoughts and opinions on the weekends Belgian Grand Prix can be found here at Motorsports Unplugged.
