Over the years, the Indianapolis 500 was a curious boiling pot of motorsports exotica. The 1967 STP Oil Treatment Special "Wooshmobile" comes to mind, but that turbine-powered machine failed to win three laps before the checkered flag dropped, after a transmission bearing worth $6 failed. But that unfortunate event spurred the development of the car we're talking about today - the outlandish 1968 Shelby Turbine Indy car.
Starting with the belly of the gold-and-blue beast, this one of only two turbine race cars ever made is propelled by a ginormous General Electric T-58 shaft-drive turbine engine worth $75,000 that churns out a Bugatti Veyron-shaming 1,325 horsepower. That ballistic level of firepower is sent to all four corners fitted with Goodyear rubber and Girling stopping power via a hi-tech hydrostatic four-wheel drive system.
The man that co-designed this technological wonder for Shelby Racing, Ken Wallis, is the same guy behind the almost-winning 1967 STP Turbine Indy car. Sadly for golden era Indy 500 enthusiasts, the turbine-powered Shelby experiment never saw racing action, but a young Bruce McLaren and CanAm star Denny Hulme tested it on a number of occasions at various race tracks from the West Coast. The final nail in the coffin was the USAC's change of rules that drastically reduced the air inlets of turbine-powered Indy racers in 1968.
Even though both Shelby Turbine Indy cars were withdrawn from competition before the 1968 edition of the Indy 500, their legacy lives on and the car we're talking about today is currently on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Turbine Indy Car Exhibit. If you want to own a piece of American motorsports history, then prepare to bid for Lot R201 at Mecum Auctions' Monterey 2014 event, set to take place between August 14th and 16th.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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