104 replies to this topic

[Big Jim]

Did any of Dan Gurney's F1 Eagles survive. If so where are they now?
Jimmy

[Ray Bell]

One featured not long ago in Motor Sport, Weslake engine and all, and it was a track test article, with the writer doing a few laps somewhere.

Of course, I'm not in the slightest bit envious....

[Gil Bouffard]

The article in Motorsport, was a comparison test between the Eagle and a Lotus 49. Good read...Got it here someplace..

Gil

[Mike Argetsinger]

Speedvision had a program on just yesterday about Dan Gurney. I missed most of it but the part I did see had an interview with the current owner of one of the cars. He races it in vintage races and the car looked just great. I didn't catch his name. If they broadcast the program again I'll pay closer attention and post it here.

[Allen Brown]

Jimmy

Eagle T1F 101: Donington Museum, England
Eagle T1G 102: Collier Automotive Museum, Naples, Florida (as of 1997)
Eagle T1G 103: Jeffrey Keiner, Orlando, Florida (as of 1996)
Eagle T1G 104: Collier Automotive Museum, Naples, Florida (as of 1996)

My information is up to fve years out of date as I haven't been actively maintaining by database since about 1996. One of these is now in England racing in historics but I can't remember which. Dave McKinney will know.

Allen

[FLB]

The car featured on Classics was called a "1966 Eagle Weslake" by its owner. The show was taped in 1996, so it's possible the car has changed hands since. It was a car raced by Gurney, because the new owner, who went (or wanted to go) historic racing, had had to modify it as he couldn't fit. Gurney is quite tall (6'4'') and the car taylored to his needs, of course.

One funny thing, the owner said the car was difficult to drive because the pedals were too big and too far apart. Not everybody has size-13 feet!;)

[David McKinney]

Funny you should say that, Allen. The man's name is Ben Leibert, and he has 103.
The other difference between your list and mine is that I call them T1Gs....

[Ray Bell]

Just a shot in the dark, but was it F for FPF and G for Gurney-Weslake?

Knew I should have stayed out of this... didn't Richie Ginther drive one once? He was a tad smaller than old Dan...

[Allen Brown]

David

Sorry - that was my sloppy cutting and pasting. The latter three are indeed T1Gs.

Ben Leibert - that's the name. An idea when he bought 103? Was it direct from Keiner? My history on that car prior to Keiner is Dan Gurney - Chuck Jones mid-1970’s - Mark Leonard 1981 - Dick Barbour 1985 - Jeffrey Keiner 1985.

Allen

[Allen Brown]

Can I ask a related question? Another gorgeous Eagle was the Mk 5, the 1968/69 F5000 car. A lot of them got crashed but 14 were built so some must have survived.

Does anyone know where any of those are now?

Allen

[Eagle104]

Eagle T1F 101: Donington Museum, England

I think this ultimately became the only-ever "customer" F1 Eagle, and was raced by Canadian Alan Pease, in the '67 Canadian GP.

----------------------------
Of course, I would have noticed that this fact was a part of the site which the link took me to after I posted!

[Bernd]

Those Weslake engines would be a right bastard to maintain. They were fragile when brand new!

[Gil Bouffard]

Bernd,

According to the article in Motorsport, the Weslake engines were individually unique. Apparently none of the major parts were interchangeable.

Had to have been a real bitch at re-build time.

Gil

[David McKinney]

Allen:
All I know is that Leibert bought his car in the USA in late 1968
Can’t help with the 5000s. I read somewhere that 18 had been built by mid 1970 (two 1968, three or four more by April 1969). The latest firm note I have of any of them is 1973, when Gerard Raney and Skeeter McKitterick were both campaigning examples. But I do seem to recall about at least one competing in US “vintage” races in the past two or three years.

[Big Jim]

Thanks for the help everyone. I found a web site for Dan's AAR. Give it a look see.
www.allamericanracers.com

[Ray Bell]

Be nice if Justin dropped in on this thread...

[Barry Boor]

High spot of 2000. Seeing Ben Leibert's car at Coy's last July. Needless to say, it looked gorgeous; also needless to say, it gave trouble! He missed the start of the race, came out, did a few laps then, if memory serves, disappeared again before the end.

Richie Ginther did, indeed, drive an Eagle in the 1967 Race of Champions. He was listed as second driver that year, but did he do any other races?

This thread links to my post on the 'Greatest Races You Have Seen' thread.

[Bernd]

Here is AAR's entrants in the 1967 Championship

1. Kyalami - 1 Eagle Climax for Gurney
2. Monaco - 2 Eagle Weslakes for Gurney & Ginther
3. Zandvoort - 2 Eagle Weslakes for Gurney & Ginther
4. Spa - 1 Eagle Weslake for Gurney
5. Bugatti - 2 Eagle Weslakes for Gurney & McLaren
6. Silverstone - 2 Eagle Weslakes for Gurney & McLaren
7. Nurburgring - 2 Eagle Weslakes for Gurney & McLaren
8. Mosport - 1 Eagle Weslake for Gurney, 1 Eagle Climax for Pease
9. Monza - 2 Eagle Weslakes for Gurney & Scarfiotti
10. Watkins Glen - 1 Eagle Weslake for Gurney
11. Mexico - 1 Eagle Weslake for Gurney

[Roger Clark]

Ritchie Ginther retired after failing to qualify at Monaco. According to Paul Sheldon and Autosport, Gurney entered AJ Foyt for the Belgian GP, but "the driver was elsewhere". It's a pity, because AJ was in Europe the week before. He had won a Indianapolis on May 30/31, and Le Mans on June 10/11;it would have been interesting to see how he went at Spa.

I should also mention tht the Motor Sport report of Spa says that AAR would have entered McLaren but were short on engines.

[Justin Gurney]

The Spa-winning Eagle Gurney-Weslake car has just arrived at AAR in Santa Ana where we will go through a small restoration to clean water lines etc. that have corroded through the years. It is great to have the car back here again after 11 years. I just sat in it yesterday and my Dad showed up and immediately started telling me stories about that season in '67. I still couldn't believe it had no seatbelts. He said with fuel and magnesium all around him he would have rather been thrown clear than strapped in the car. He couldn't stop talking about the part that broke while he was leading at the Ring with 2 laps to go. He said he always wanted to win that one!

[Barry Boor]

Many people would say that Dan's drive at Spa in 1964 was his best, while others quote Spa '67 but I have always felt that the Ring in 1967 was his finest hour. He pulverised them all that day. I have a brilliant video of that race and I still get a lump in my throat when the half shaft breaks so close to the end.

This would have been Dan's finest hour.

[David M. Kane]

One was at the Vintage parade at the Indy USGP this past September and it looked and sounded GREAT. I have been working
with the Historic Grand Prix group here in the States and they
are hoping to get invited back this year. If so they will be
FIA certified and thus hopefully will be able to race too.

[Bernd]

I'd agree with Barry. Dan Gurney was sublime that day at the Nurburgring....

The Ringmasters video tells the story of this race and shows some fine looking frauleins to boot

[Barry Boor]

That's the video I meant but, funny thing, I don't remember any frauleins! Perhaps I should look again.

[borsari]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
That's the video I meant but, funny thing, I don't remember any frauleins! Perhaps I should look again.

Barry,
Yes you should. Living in cold cold Wales is messing up your mind
Gee, I can say that I sat in an Eagle before Justin. Of course he wasn't born then, I don't think
Dan and the AAR had a meeting for the fan club and many menbers had the opportunity to sit in the car and get a picture taken. Since I was helping the Photog set up, I got a few extras! What great memories !!

all the best
Mark Valsi
AAR Eagle Club # 217

[944Tracer]

There are two Eagles in the Collier Automotive Museum in Naples, Florida, one of which is the Weslake V-12 chassis which won the 1967 Spa, and one which is, I believe, a replica. There is one in the Donnington Collection in England which, if memory serves, is a Climax powered chassis. All are beautiful, probably the best looking cars of the "cigar tube" era.

[Bernd]

Here is a image of this magnificent car in full flight during its finest hour... Spa Francorchamps 1967.




Words fail me what a stunning car

[jarama]

Bernd,

thank you for let us share this picture.

[karlcars]

Maybe Justin can tell us what happened to the very last F1 Eagle. In the autumn of 1968 a new car was being built, designed by Tony Southgate. It had a monocoque of magnesium and outboard mounting of the front coil/shock units. Interestingly the team was also considering building up a sister car to use the Ford DFV, in view of all its problems with the V-12.

This '1969' car was carried quite far toward completion and I would have thought that enough of it had existed to make a running vehicle or at least a show car. What happened to it, I wonder??

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Justin Gurney
I still couldn't believe it had no seatbelts. He said with fuel and magnesium all around him he would have rather been thrown clear than strapped in the car. He couldn't stop talking about the part that broke while he was leading at the Ring with 2 laps to go. He said he always wanted to win that one!

Yes, Justin, look at the picture above.... those trees standing between the spectators... good soft landing spots to go with the magnesium and fuel.

Your dad was one of a very special breed, I'm glad to have seen some of them race at close quarters. Not him, unfortunately, his sojourn to Australia, which included one win, was a couple of years before I first saw a race.

[Barry Boor]

"those trees standing between the spectators... good soft landing spots to go with the magnesium and fuel."

You never spoke a truer sentence, Ray. I love old videos of racing in the fifties and sixties, and I don't mind admitting that it scares me even now just to watch what surroundings those guys raced through.

This begs the question that has always hovered around my mind when thinking of what it takes (or at least, took back then) to be a successful race driver; a distinct lack of imagination!

[FLB]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


Yes, Justin, look at the picture above.... those trees standing between the spectators... good soft landing spots to go with the magnesium and fuel.

And of course in 1968, Brian Redman found out that parked cars could bring an interesting element (not) to the mix...

[Ray Bell]

I usually get mixed up on this one... but at Pukekohe, either Graeme Lawrence or Bryan Faloon smashed into a passing (or stationary??) train on the adjoining railway line.... David McKinney will correct me on this, I know...

And that was in a much safer era!

[Allen Brown]

Ray

Paul Bolton put his Brabham BT11/22 F1-1-64 through a hanger door at Wigram in 1968 - is that what you're thinking of?

Allen

[Ray Bell]

Told you I got it mixed up!

Faloon moved over in the latter stages of the 1972 NZ GP to let McCormack through, not seeing Lawrence coming up on the other side. They touched, in the ensuing melee bits of the Lawrence car hit the train that was pulling into the siding to await the departing racegoers.

Faloon's Rorstan Porsche, which I think was powered by a flat 6 911 engine, buried itself in an earth bank and the driver was killed.

Bolton had his breathing exercises on the grid at Wigram and took in too much carbon monoxide, thus miscued on the first lap... another incident altogether.

At Leyburn in 1949, Cappy Wood took his Hudson-powered midget, fitted with big wheels for this race, for a run at night. The organisers had set a single strand wire fence across the main straight, explaining why the car was driven by Bowers in the race.

[Don Capps]

Here is a thread related to the recent letter received from Dan Gurney on the correct nomenclature for the Eagles...

[Ray Bell]

Bernd's picture disappeared from the original address...

I was tracking around looking for pics and found it on another site...



Way too good a pic to miss out on!

[Viss1]

Thanks for posting that pic, Ray - I've been looking for some inspiration for my next painting, and that one did the job.

[Ralliart]

It must've been the late 60's - I read in the paper that Gurney's F1 Eagle was going to be on display in Santa Ana (or Orange) the next day. I drove over and there was hardly a person there. But there was the car. I asked somebody if I could sit in it. They said "sure" and I got in. That somebody walked away and I could (and did) sit in it as long as I wanted. I still remember thinking "This is the car that won at Spa and I'm sitting in it and nobody is asking me to get out of it!" I sat in it and fantasized that I was on the grid, surrounded by Clark, Surtees, Rindt, etc. When I had fantasized myself out, I got out, thanked somebody and walked away and there was still no one around, save for the organizers. It was wierd. Here was this famous car, in the heart of Gurney country, and no one was there. Early bird gets the worm, I guess. I assume it was the Spa-winning car as I believe it was advertised that way. I seem to recall that the plexiglass surrounded the cockpit so it may or may not have been the Spa-winning car. One great experience in any case!

[Pedro 917]

The first weekend of May 2002, Dan Gurney was re-united with his '67 Belgian GP winning Eagle-Weslake at Spa to celebrate the 35th anniversary of his victory there. There's a beautiful article in the last issue of Road & Track (November) with wonderful pictures. I also happened to be there and I'll never forget that day. Never met such a charming man, very open and so down to earth, telling the fans all kind of anecdotes from the "good old days". The weather during the weekend was typical for Spa : it rained all the time and it was cold so Dan couldn't go flat but nevertheless, hearing the engine scream going down to the Eau Rouge corner and up the hill gave everybody there the shivers. I took a lot of pictures, scanned them and if someone's interessed, send me a mail ( luc.ghys@pi.be ) and I'll be glad to forward them. I don't know how to put a picture on the forum so I have to do it this way. I'd sent the pics to Dan Gurney too who rewarded me with a beautiful dedicated poster !! Wonderful souvenir from a wonderful person, thanks again Dan for these unforgettable moments and God speed !!!

[Ray Bell]

I'd be happy to put them on the forum for you, Pedro...

Please e.mail them to raybell@eisa.net.au and I'll put them straight on.

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Barry Boor
High spot of 2000. Seeing Ben Leibert's car at Coy's last July. Needless to say, it looked gorgeous; also needless to say, it gave trouble! He missed the start of the race, came out, did a few laps then, if memory serves, disappeared again before the end.

Richie Ginther did, indeed, drive an Eagle in the 1967 Race of Champions. He was listed as second driver that year, but did he do any other races?

This thread links to my post on the 'Greatest Races You Have Seen' thread.

Some (large, scanned) pics I took at Coys 2000 of what I assume is the Leibert car:

here...

pete

[Don Capps]

Originally posted by Allen Brown
Jimmy

Eagle T1F 101: Donington Museum, England
Eagle T1G 102: Collier Automotive Museum, Naples, Florida (as of 1997)
Eagle T1G 103: Jeffrey Keiner, Orlando, Florida (as of 1996)
Eagle T1G 104: Collier Automotive Museum, Naples, Florida (as of 1996)

My information is up to fve years out of date as I haven't been actively maintaining by database since about 1996. One of these is now in England racing in historics but I can't remember which. Dave McKinney will know.

Allen

Allen,

Perhaps we need to drop the "T1F/T1G" designations since that apparently wasn't how Gurney himself looked at them. I tend to think that "Marks" were used, the Eagle F1's being the "Mark 1" cars and the initial Indy cars being the "Mark 2" -- I think that these latter cars had chassis numbers beginning with the number '2,' but now I can't find my chassis logbook to substaniate that. Old topic, but I think it is clear that Gurney gets a tad riled by the common use of the Len Terry project numbers....

[Barry Boor]

Don, the 4 cylinder car is certainly still at Donington. Roger and I saw it last Friday with our very own eyes!

[2F-001]

At that Goodwood Revival, I think Ben Liebert won the award for the 'best dressed driver' or some such - I guess that's no compensation, though, for not getting a decent run... but the detail, finish and general quality of workmanship on that car is really impressive.

[paulb]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I'd be happy to put them on the forum for you, Pedro...

Please e.mail them to raybell@eisa.net.au and I'll put them straight on.

The Liebert car was recently sold at an auction.

Ray,

I'v got some pics of the Spa Eagle at a shakedown at WSIR in Sep 01, with Dan driving. May I take advantage of your offer?

Thank-you.

Paul

[Ray Bell]

Yes, of course...

Though I don't know how many pics the thread will stand... but to look at the Eagle, it should be worth it.

[Ray Bell]

Well... Pedro send so many photos that I think it better if I just post a link to most of them...

Most are in the pit building at Spa, with some nice shots of Dan and the likes of Paul Frere...

Here's one I like, the Eagle of old for sure...



The rest can be found at:

http://members.iimet.../~raybell/eagle

Enjoy them, folks...

Oh, the hell with it... here's another!






Edit: My apologies... these pictures were lost when my provider's server went a couple of years ago. As I hadn't come back to look, I didn't know and I have now lost the hard drive with the pics on the e.mails. Gone!

[paulb]

Great pics, Pedro

Thank-you Ray. It will take a few days to document the images. I want to ID folks and parts and that sort ofthing.

[Christian Schegtel]

Eagle Gurney-Weslake V12 F1 104 at Eau Rouge:



/Chris