Turbine Cars Likely To Displace “Mice”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31661, 23 April 1968, Page 17

Turbine Cars Likely To Displace “Mice”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

INDIANAPOLIS. Seven years ago J. Brabham began the revolution in which the rear-engined “mechanical mice” swept the traditional and antiquated “dinosaurs” from the famed Indianapolis 500 racenow the wheel has turned again.

The turbine car has come to the 2.5-mile “brickyard” this year in force.

Last year one turbine car, driven by P. Jones, came within 10 miles of winning the race. Nine of the 77 cars seeking the 33 grid positions for this year’s race are turbine powered. In 1962, Brabham, to the amazement of regulars at the oval track—once paved with bricks—finished ninth in what was basically a European grand prix car. The next year the late J. Clark, in a Lotus-Ford VB. based on a European grand prix car, came second to Jones, who drove a huge traditional car fitted with a 4.2 litre engine.

The year after, Clark, in another Lotus-Ford VB, won the race. And the scramble to get into the smaller, lighter, yet just as powerful, rearengined racers was on.

This year A. Granatelli, who entered Jones’s car—the only turbine—in last year’s race, is fielding a six-car team. Five will beturblnepowered. C. Chapman, head of the English Lotus racing organisation, has collaborated with Granatelli to build four of the cars.

The drivers for Granatelli will be Jones, G. Hill (Britain), the grand prix driver, J. Stewart (Scotland), and a United States newcomer, G. Weld. There are two reserve cars.

The international grand prix stars, B. McLaren and D. Hulme (both New Zealand) and R. Hurt (United States) may both compete, and drivers have not yet been nominated for the rest of the turbine pack. Clark, killed in a racing accident at Hockenheim, in Germany, two weeks ago, was to have raced for Granatelli. The defending champion, A. J. Foyt, hopes to become the first driver to win the

fabulously rich race four times. He will drive a conventional piston-engined car. Practice for the event will begin on May 1 and the time trials, on which grid positions are allocated, will start on May 18.