24 replies to this topic

[Bob Riebe]

At the racing comments site there is a thread on most beautiful Indy Cars.

I put a picture of Art Malloy in the Lotus 56 Super Wedge.

What ever happened to that car?

Sam Posey got a 3rd with it at Pacific Raceway with a Plymouth engine.

What happened to it when the Mopar boys pulled out of Indy car racing.

Was that the last Lotus Indy car?

[2F-001]

I think the last Lotus Indy car would have been the never-raced 96; does that count? I think it's now at Classic Team Lotus.

[Gary C]

The last Lotus Indycar was the 1969 type 64 I think. Bob Dance always tells me that the type 56 was the best engineered Lotus race car he ever worked on.

[Collombin]

Bob, the Super Wedge that you speak of was not a Lotus.

[B Squared]

Bob - Art Malloy is actually driver Art Pollard; there was a Jim Malloy who raced at, and was unfortunately killed at the Speedway.

[2F-001]

This isn't my province at all really - but is the 'Super Wedge' the STP-backed car with the sort-of-bat-shaped nose and Plymouth power? (Presumably a stock block?). I've seen the chassis described a a Gebhardt - is that correct?

My reading is that Pollard drove one of the retained Lotus 56s at Indianapolis, but without either the turbine or 4WD. So that would have raced in '69 when the type 64 didn't. (Was it still called a Lotus by then?)

But I still reckon the 96 is last.

[Henri Greuter]

Bob - Art Malloy is actually driver Art Pollard; there was a Jim Malloy who raced at, and was unfortunately killed at the Speedway.

 

 

Even more bizarre: Both Art Pollard and Jim Malloy were killed in fatal accidents at the speedway, in successive years!

 

Henri

[B Squared]

This isn't my province at all really - but is the 'Super Wedge' the STP-backed car with the sort-of-bat-shaped nose and Plymouth power? (Presumably a stock block?). I've seen the chassis described a a Gebhardt - is that correct?

My reading is that Pollard drove one of the retained Lotus 56s at Indianapolis, but without either the turbine or 4WD. So that would have raced in '69 when the type 64 didn't. (Was it still called a Lotus by then?)

But I still reckon the 96 is last.

Gerhardt, not Gebhardt. Art Pollard won Milwaukee and Dover in the Gerhardt in 1969. Offy-powered at Milwaukee and with the Plymouth stock-block at the crash-filled Dover event.

You've picked up a rather inconclusive subject. You see some sources calling the car that Pollard DID run in the 1969 500 a Gerhardt, some Lotus, and others as an STP-built chassis. I've attached this old Lotus 56 thread in which Lotus expert Michael Oliver and I (plus others - primarily on page two) weigh in on this period and the Lotus/STP cars and the recorded inconsistencies. All of my posted photos are now gone (thanks photobucket) but the sources and verbiage are there for you to look through if you have the interest:

http://forums.autosp...-hill/?hl=lotus 56

[StanBarrett2]

This isn't my province at all really - but is the 'Super Wedge' the STP-backed car with the sort-of-bat-shaped nose and Plymouth power? (Presumably a stock block?). I've seen the chassis described a a Gebhardt - is that correct?
 

A piece out of MotorSport May 1969,

 

The way it is written, there were STP SuperWedges and  cars built by Gerhardt.

 

Then there is this.

 

http://justacarguy.b...uper-wedge.html

 

macoran

[2F-001]

Ah… thank you.
It's notable that the most conventional machine from that large and varied stable was the one that did well.

[Wirra]

.... All of my posted photos are now gone (thanks photobucket) ...

http://forums.autosp...-hill/?hl=lotus 56

 

No they are not.

Edited by Wirra, 12 January 2018 - 06:53.

[2F-001]

Thank you, Brian.

<< Gerhardt, not Gebhardt >>

Ah - yes, I was 'confusing myself' with the sometime Group C2 constructor; I had the names mixed up, though I realised they were not one-and-the-same.

I'm comforted by knowing that it's not just me unclear on this - but I should have perhaps dug a little deeper first…
I attended Michael's talk on the Lotus 56 a while back

[2F-001]

I've attached this old Lotus 56 thread in which Lotus expert Michael Oliver and I (plus others - primarily on page two) weigh in on this period and the Lotus/STP cars and the recorded inconsistencies. All of my posted photos are now gone (thanks photobucket) but the sources and verbiage are there for you to look through if you have the interest:

http://forums.autosp...-hill/?hl=lotus 56

That's an interesting thread to re-read (I'd forgotten it), but the one certain thing it shows is that this subject is a right old can of worms...

[B Squared]

Thanks Wirra! 

[Michael Oliver]

A piece out of MotorSport May 1969,

 

The way it is written, there were STP SuperWedges and  cars built by Gerhardt.

 

Then there is this.

 

http://justacarguy.b...uper-wedge.html

 

macoran

 

Interesting that it is lifted word for word from a TNF post by somebody who worked on the project who is now no longer with us, if I recall correctly.

 

And one of the cars used at the Speedway was, in my opinion based on extensive photo analysis, a Lotus 56 chassis. Albeit one which had been picked apart and significantly reinforced. So the opposite of the Chapman philosophy - a kind of 'complicate and add weight' approach...

[Bob Riebe]

Bob - Art Malloy is actually driver Art Pollard; there was a Jim Malloy who raced at, and was unfortunately killed at the Speedway.

ACH, sorry for my stupid mistake.

Brain fade that comes with old age.

[B Squared]

It happens to us all!

[E1pix]

OT, but Happy Birthday to Mr. Squared!!!

[JacnGille]

OT, but Happy Birthday to Mr. Squared!!!

[B Squared]

It's truly a miracle that I've reached the big 6-0! Thanks guys. Joe Leonard's Lotus 56 number, that fits nicely.

Edited by B Squared, 11 January 2018 - 21:54.

[Henri Greuter]

It's truly a miracle that I've reached the big 6-0! Thanks guys. Joe Leonard's Lotus 56 number, that fits nicely.

 

 

Bless the miracles BB!!

We'll enjoy them as long as possible.....

 

 

Henri

[Michael Ferner]

Congrats to B²! Enjoy the next sixty...

[Allan Lupton]

It's truly a miracle that I've reached the big 6-0!

Oh to be only 60 again, as we pre-war folk say!

[B Squared]

What are the old sayings? If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Or - You spend the first 40 years trying to kill yourself and the next 40 trying to stay alive. Thank you all.

[E1pix]

What are the old sayings? If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Or - You spend the first 40 years trying to kill yourself and the next 40 trying to stay alive. Thank you all.

First forty sounds more fun. :-)