LHD | Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Ole Bardahl was the embodiment of the American dream aged 20 he arrived in Seattle from Norway in 1922 with $32 in his pocket and unable to speak a word of English, by 39 he had become a millionaire building contractor and went on to found the Bardahl Oil Company in Ballard Seattle.

Kurtis Offy 500G, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea,

From 1950 to 1959 Bardahl sponsored Offenhauser powered Kurtis cars started in every Indy 500, two third places from Sam Hanks in 1952 and 1953 were the teams best results in this period. In 1956 a Bardahl showed up with the unique Ferrari powered Kurtis for Giuseppe Farina but the car proved too slow.

Kurtis Offy 500G, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea,

For reasons that have not been determined during the research for this blog for 1957 Bardahl had Kurtis build two left hand drive Offenhauser powered 500G’s,all the other ’57 Kurtis Indy cars were right hand drive so far as I have been able to determine the #16 was driven by Al Keller and the #19 seen here by Jack Turner. Al Keller started the ’57 Indy 500 from 8th on the grid but crashed on lap 75 and was classified 27th, while Jack Turner started 19th and classified 11th last car on the lead lap.

Kurtis Offy 500G, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea,

The ’57 Bardahl Kurtis Offy was by no means the only left hooker Indy car the manufacturer built, regular readers will remember that the Ross Page Special I looked at a couple of weeks ago was also a left hand drive machine, but the question remains as to why so few left hookers were built at all when almost all the other vehicles that participated in the Indy 500 at the time featured either a central driving position or a right side driving position ? If you have any references for an answer please do not hesitate to chime in below.

Kurtis Offy 500G, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea,

For the 1958 Indy 500 Al Keller, perhaps best known as the first driver of a foreign car, Jaguar, to win a NASCAR sanctioned race, Linden, in 1954, took over the car seen in today’s photographs taken by Geoffrey Horton at the Concours on the Avenue in Carmel By The Sea a couple of years ago. Renumbered #52 Al qualified 21st completed all 200 laps and was classified 11th as had the cars previous driver Jack Turner in 1957.

Kurtis Offy 500G, Concours on the Avenue, Carmel by the Sea,

For 1959 Bardahl returned to the 500 with a conventional right hand drive Kurtis for Paul Russo who finished 9th. Through the 1960’s Bardahl entered Kurtis, Watson and Eagle cars with a best result of 3rd for Bobby Unser who drove a Bardahl entered Lola in the 1969 Indy 500 which appears to have concluded the teams participation in “The greatest spectacle in racing”.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing his photographs which I have used in all of this months Indy 500 blogs, and to E.B. at The Nostalgia Forum for confirming today’s featured car was driven by Al Keller in the 1958 Indy 500.

Finally congratulations to Tony Kanaan for winning the 2013 edition of the Indy 500.

Thanks for joining me on this “Bardahl” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

In the summer of 1980 I passed my college entrance exams, at my third attempt and before finally fleeing the family nest in Wembley to attend Trent Polytechnic, I got a summer job at a local Honda dealership to tide me over.

One of the dealership owners many cars, and even more motorcycles, was a black Jaguar E – Type Convertible like the one in these photographs one of the last fifty made, all available only in black, a fact that is noted on a brass plate mounted on the glove box cover.

In 1971 the Series 3 E-Types ushured Jaguars second ever completely new motor into production, an all aluminium 5.3 litre / 326 cui V12 with 2 valves per cylinder design that had it’s origins in a design intended for racing dating back to 1954. This motor would eventually be developed into a 7 litre / 427 quad cam that would be used to win at Le Mans twice, 1988 and 1990.

All Series 3 E-types were built around the longer 2+2 chassis pan, most with the V12 engine but a few Series 3 models were built with the older 4.2 litre / 256 cui 6 cylinder motor.

The brass plaque on the right of this photo gives the chassis number as IS 2857 which according to the only list of XKE chassis numbers I have seen suggests this car was originally supplied in Right Hand Drive form.

This particularly splendid example, seen here at the recent Silverstone Classic, has been restored and ‘sympathetically’ upgraded winning the Speis Hecker World Masterpiece competition for outstanding coachwork re-finishing.

My own 30 year old memories of the V12 E – Type were that it was certainly a buzz taking the car to the petrol pump down the road, it turned heads, the engine was silky smooth, the steering was light but it inspired little or no confidence, even on a roundabout at perfectly legal speeds, in it’s handling capabilities, it seemed to lean in the corners rather that hug the road as even my pedestrian FIAT 128 did, and parking a car with such a long nose was an absolute nightmare on a crowded parking lot.

Overall I was disappointed with how the car drove a bit like meeting a rock star whom one has held in high esteem only to find that he / she has all the usual human traits some of which are not so pleasant or different from our selves, or driving an air cooled Porsche for the first time to find that interior has the same smell of fumes as an air cooled VW Beetle, more boulevard cruiser than the track racer which I was expecting.

Thanks for joining me on this E-type edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

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Bardahl Special – Kurtis Offenhauser 500G

Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 #IS 2857