40's/50's Indy Car for Hillclimbing/Sprints.

[C R Box]

Has anyone here in the UK actively campaigned, or observed an American single seater Indy car from the 1940's -1950's period, competing on a historic,hillclimb
sprint or race.
The only one I know about is the 60's Turtle drilling Special.
I'd relish the opportunity to build/restore one of these cars for speed Hillclimbing. I hope it might make an interesting change in the padddock and wonder, after a bit of development how effective, cars like these might be around tight hairpins that predominate at Prescott, Harewood, Loton etc.
A serious enquiry, so any help or leads for available cars gratefully acknowledged.

[David McKinney]

The Norm Olsen Special, which IIRC dates from around 1948, has also, on an off, been a familiar competitor in UK historic races over the past few years
Not my idea of the ideal hillclimb car, but something like that would certainly add interest!

[Woolley]

WE've had a couple of old Indycars at Shelsley - not my speciality, so I couldn't tell you which - but they were gorgeous and I'd love to see more.

[C R Box]

Thanks guys
Went to Goodwood on Saturday. A couple of Indy cars in the Cathederal Paddock, which we didn't even discover until we were on the way out at 7.00pm. Unfortunately the cars were covered but one was an offy special, I think.

[Dick Willis]

Dean Butler has been here in Australia with the Jim Robbins Special which was on pole at Indy in 1955. The huge Offy engine is apparently from Mauri Rose's Blue Crown Special which won in 1948.

The car went like a rocket and handled quite well on the tight Winton circuit in May with its best lap time being only a couple of seconds slower than that of the winning car, certainly a circuit with longer straights would have enabled it to take advantage of its massive power ( in excess of 400bhp I believe ), yes, it does have potential.
Apparently prices of this era Indy car have risen dramatically over the past few years, and for good reason.

[eclectic]

John Guyatt has one, excellent thing, here is a reference to it.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ga..._spring_start/