Thread: Great racing cars from the past

Milwaukee Mile, 2011. Kurtis Kraft KK500H, 1958, Bugatti Type 37, and a couple of unidentified Indy roadsters.

The KK500H is owned by a good friend, Bob Sirna. It has a lot of history. Raced as shown in 1958 as the DA Lubricant Special with a unique independent front suspension.

In 1959 Smoky Yunick converted it to a four bar car with beam axle front and ran it as the Reverse Rotation Special with the 270 Offy turning opposite to normal to hold the left front wheel down when power on accelerating out of the turns. With only a few laps to go, running second and able to catch the leader, Duane Carter stalled the engine at the last pit stop. Bye bye victory. I would love to hear a recording of Smoky's comments, the least of which would have been m-f-s-o-b. It ran at Indy a few more times without success and Bob bought it from a guy in Denver where it had sunk to the depths of being used as a dirt track modified.

Much money later Bob had restored it to original specs. No drawings existed of the original suspension. It was recreated from photos and memories.

Looks like "Babs" without the bonnet


Technical

1918 V12 27 litre Liberty Aero engine (standard 350 bhp, modified up to 600bhp now at around 400 at a guess) fitted in a chassis based on a chain drive Mercedes; 1908 Mercedes chain drive gear box driving rear wheels; 23" wheels with 5" tyres; No front wheel brakes; Weight 35cwts; Max speed approx. 180mph.

History

The car was originally built in 1923 by Count Louis Zborowski as the fourth of his Aero engined Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. Being the last and the largest he named it the Higham Special. Following the Counts death in 1924 the car was bought from his estate by John Godfrey Parry Thomas for £125. Parry Thomas was at the time one of the better designer-drivers in this country who had had some racing success and held several national records in cars of his own design.

Thomas raced 'Babs' at Brooklands in 1925 and made a failed attempt at the World Land Speed Record in the car that year. He modified the car (together with designing and building his own 8 cylinder 1500cc race car) during the winter and attempted the WLSR on Pendine Sands, South Wales at the end of April. On the 28 April 1926, Thomas and 'Babs' broke the record at 171.09mph. During the rest of the year Thomas continued to race his cars and at the end of the year lapped Brooklands in 'Babs' at over 125mph. In the meantime Campbell had taken the record to 174mph.

During the winter Thomas modified the now fast becoming outdated old car to make a final attempt on the record to generate enough publicity (and associated money - times haven't changed!!) to build a new car. While making an attempt on the record on the 3rd March 1927 the car went out of control at about 120mph and crashed end over end and slid upside down along the beach for 1/4 mile. Thomas was killed instantly, and following the crash the car was buried in the sand dunes.

In March 1969, 42 years after the car was buried, the car was dug up by Owen Wyn Owen, a Technical College lecturer for North Wales. Having restored other cars he thought it would be nice to get some pieces of the car to display in a museum as a tribute to Thomas. The car was, however, more complete than he imagined, but was badly damaged as a result of the accident and 42 years of salt water had corroded all the aluminium. Nevertheless the car was restored and was running within 2 years and since then has been fully rebuilt