48 replies to this topic

[fines]

I did a search first, but there were close to 200 threads showing up!!!

I have to admit that the name doesn't ring a terribly big bell in my head, since I have no interest in sports cars or boats, but I have come about the man repeatedly in connection with my Big Car Racing research. Apparently, he built and/or owned a Fronty Sprint Car in the early thirties, and raced it himself, but even a couple of hours surfing the net doesn't yield any information about that. Also, I couldn't really find much about where he came from within the USA, my guess would be Northeast, probably New England!? Connecticut? Massachusetts? Who can tell me more about that, or about his beginnings in racing?

[ReWind]

He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later lived on Long Island, New York.

As for his racing history: Have you seen this?

[fuzzi]

According to 'Cunningham The Life and Cars of Briggs Swift Cunningham' by Dean Batchelor and Albert R Bochroch*:

He was born in Cincinnati 19 January 1907 son of Briggs Cunnihngham owner of Lippincott & cunningham the largest pork packers east of Chicago, his father was also president of the Citizens National Bank and a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad. His father died (aged 73) when he was only five years old and he left Briggs and his sister with substantial trust funds which were administered by their mother.

Briggs was educated at Groton, an exclusive boarding school followed by Yale where he shone at sports and enjoyed engineering. It was while he was at Yale that "I bought a dirt track car from a friend in Cincinnati [Red P
Campbell] who built the best dirt track cars at that time. We got a kid from Bridgeport to drive it on local tracks. When Ralph [DePalma] heard about it, hesaid he'd spend some time with it at the track. He did get it running pretty good, but it never lasted long enough to finish." A caption to a photgraph next to that piece shows Briggs at the wheel of a "dohc Frontenac-powered sprint car built by Red Campbell in Cincinnati."

Briggs had got to know DePalma when Mrs Cunningham paid to have the Yale dynamometer upgraded and DePalma brought his Miller Special to test at the college.

*The book is a good read and well presented with some mouth-watering photographs of one of the great car collections put together by a real gent.

[fines]

Thanks, Reinhard and Julian - that's a good start!

Originally posted by ReWind Have you seen this?

Yep, it's of no help, unfortunately.

Interesting to read about his personal background - who would've thought that only a few years ago a man lived whose father was born 170 years ago!

The Red Campbell lead is not a bad one, and considering he was still at Yale that must've been late twenties? "A kid from Bridgeport..." - hmm, apparently both Johnny Hannon and Bill Holland lived in Bridgeport for a time, but they hardly fit the bill. Hm. : Also, the car of which I have seen a picture is clearly younger than that, I'd say ~1933 - it's subsequent history is at least partly known, and it seems Briggs sold it (to Gil Pirrung) in 1934.

Originally posted by fuzzi A caption to a photgraph next to that piece shows Briggs at the wheel of a "dohc Frontenac-powered sprint car built by Red Campbell in Cincinnati."

I would love to see that picture!

[fbarrett]

Michael:

When the Cunningham Museum closed in Costa Mesa, California, in 1986 (I recall), all of the cars went to the Collier collection, and many remain there. I don't recall a sprint car being among them, but they do include the BuMerc (a straight-eight Buick-engined pre-war Mercedes-Benz lookalike) and the black 1920s Packard Speedster that Mr. C had built while he was in college. Cunningham was a true "sportsman" in the old sense of that word.

Frank

[Loren Lundberg]

Circa 1984/5, a group of us got together and drove to So Cal for the weekend - objective was to stay on the Queen Mary, visit the Cunningham collection in Costa Mesa on Saturday and hit the Pomona Swap Meet on Sunday.
At the Collection, Mike Pillsbury joined us - he was then the owner of the Corvette #2 that had raced at Le Mans. He had arranged to be there because Briggs was coming in, so we had a chance to meet and talk with Mr. Cunningham - who could not possibly have been nicer.
In the course of some questions and answers, he disclosed that all of the cars in the collection were taken out and driven on a specified course at least monthly.
At that time he owned not 1 but TWO Bugatti Royales. I asked if his insurance carrier sent over 20 or so employees to run interference for the Royales.
He stunned us all by stating that the Royales were NOT insured! A collective gasp issued and Briggs explained, with words to this effect: "I bought one in 1950 or 1951 in barter for a washing machine and a dryer. Given that purchase price, it was hard for me to swallow that the insurer wanted $10K per month for insurance.".

If the rumored EXTRA Royale exists out there somewhere, I can have the washer and dryer packaged and delivered in 24 hours............

[Robin Fairservice]

I visited the Cunningham museum in 1981, and here are a few pictures from that visit.

http://picasaweb.goo...um?locked=true#

[David M. Woodhouse]

Loren,

I do not believe that the Cunningham/Bugatti Royale connection is the way you remember hearing it. Mr. Cunningham did obtain two Royales from the Bugatti family in 1950 - Chassis 41141 (the Kellner coach), and Chassis 41150 (the Berline deVoyage). He wanted also to purchase Chassis 41100, which Ettore had used as a personal car, but the family retained that car. The purchase price of the two cars did involved American refrigerators, which were not available in France at the time, plus a small amount of money variously reported as $2500-$3000. He did not actually want 41150, but obtained it for Chicago collector D. Cameron Peck, and that car was never part of the Cunningham Collection. The Berline deVoyage passed thrugh several hands before winding up in the Harrah Collection. After the closing of that collecton, 41150 was bought at auction by Jerry G. Moore, then went to Tom Monaghan, and was in the Blackhawk Museum the last I saw it.

The Cunningham Royale, chassis 41141, was a feature in the Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum until it closed. They excercised all of the cars on a regular basis, and I and other Museum members were often given rides in the Royale during the annual picnics. When the Museum closed at the end of 1986, that car was sold at auction and most of the cars including the Cunninghams went as a single entity to Miles Collier who built a beautiful museum in Naples, Florida to house them along with his primarily Porsche collection. Mr. Collier did not want the Royale, and I believe that it wound up in Japan or Korea. Sorry, there is no missing Royale - all are accounted for. By the time of your visit to Costa Mesa, Mr. Cunningham's memory was already slipping, and he would apologize for not recalling details of events in a life filled with adventure.

Woody

[Loren Lundberg]

So sorry, but the story IS how I remembered it. Mr. Cunningham may have been inaccurate, but the story is not.

[Bauble]

Arer we talking about the Briggs Cunningham who entered his Cunnunghams in the le Man 24 Hour Race in the fifties?
If so I am amazed that you have never heard of his efforts, as he had a lot of successes' there finishing many times in the top ten, with a best of 3rd. (that is without checking). He also raced at Silverstone in the '50's (I have his autograph on a programme from the 1953 Grand Prix)

Very famous man in the 50's

[David M. Woodhouse]

Bauble,

It is the same Briggs Cunningham. He was one of my first heroes in motorsports. As an American, I followed his exploits at Le Mans and personally witnessed the efforts of his team in SCCA racing during the late 1950s and early '60s. After moving to Southern California, I was a member and regular visitor to the Museum in Costa Mesa. Mr. Cunningham and museum director John Burgess were extremely helpful in increasing my knowledge of racing history, and the museum gift shop carried the best selection of books in our field of interest then available. It was a gathering place for all car people and a major loss to the history community when the museum closed at the end of 1986. He and Mrs. Cunningham lived in Rancho Santa Fe for some years after that, and Mrs. C. gave him a surprise party there for his 85th birthday in January of 1992. It was a wonderful gathering of friends including John Fitch, Augie Pabst, and Dan Gurney. I was lucky enough to attend and will never forget that evening.

Loren,

I did not mean to impugn your memory, only to point out that Mr. Cunningham was in error in that he did not own two T41 Bugattis in the 1980s.

Woody

[red stick]

As I appreciate it, the Collier Museum is not open to the public. Are there any plans to get these vehicles occasionally displayed where fans can see them?

[RStock]

Originally posted by red stick
As I appreciate it, the Collier Museum is not open to the public. Are there any plans to get these vehicles occasionally displayed where fans can see them?

Here's a youtube video of the Briggs Cunningham museum done in the 70's .

[red stick]

Originally posted by REDARMYSOJA
Here's a youtube video of the Briggs Cunningham museum done in the 70's .

Thanks. Useful, but as you can understand, not quite the same!

[Doug Nye]

Private and group visits to the Collier Collection can be arranged by application. Miles Collier is a deeply committed enthusiast and he has the majority of the cars maintained in running order and several actively demonstrated each year at major events.

DCN

[T54]

Woody is totally correct, as of course Briggs never had two Royales in the museum. I believe that he may have said to Loren that he at ONE TIME owned two of the Type 41 cars, but this would have been very briefly.

I was myself very privileged to be a friend of Briggs and John Burgess, and was at the museum on Baker Street quite often. ISince 1948, I attended the yearly races at le Mans every year as my dad was an auto-racing fanatic. He used to own a Bugatti Type 43 boat tail that he drove there with my two brothers, that he later sold to Fritz Schlumpf. The car is still in the museum in Mulhouse today. In 1950, at age 7, while I was gawking at the Cunningham-entered Cadillac coupe during the tech inspection Place des Jacobins, Briggs picked me up and sat me in the car, and was I a happy boy! My dad had to pry me out of there because I was not about getting out by myself. Briggs remembered the incident well when I reminded him of it in 1971 and he immediately invited me to sit in the car again, a mere 21 years later. He sat next to me and told me everything he could remember about that race with the two cars. he must have talked over an hour, with every possible detail. I wished that I could have recorded his memories. One thing I remembered is that he said he got a big fright when a diesel powered car in the race suddenly veered into his car in the Hunaudieres and nearly ran him off the road!

The Cunningham cars were 3 times in a position to win the race, but each time there was a bit of bad luck involved. They were in any case always competitive and an important part of the history of the famous race.

I was also very privileged to have been able to DRIVE that T41 Royale among other cars during one of its outings in Costa Mesa with John Burgess telling me which and what to depress. A wonderful memory for me and I was amazed of how light the steering was once moving.
When the museum closed, Briggs gave me as a gift the contents of an entire file cabinet of archives that I preciously conserved over the years, as well as a painting representing him judging a Concours d'Elegance in Connecticut in 1951. When John became blind, I was given his last painting, that of two sprint cars having a go at it, one car unfinished as John could no longer see enough. This painting is displayed in my house and is one of my cherished possessions.
I was a guest at Briggs 85th and 90th birthday parties and there both John Fitch and Briggs signed my little Dinky Toys model of the C4, which I still have.

The museum was a wonderful meeting place containing truly fabulous cars, like the Peugeot and Ballot Indy cars, the Maserati T61 long-windshield and the two GM Cerv experimental cars. I remember Jim Toensing attending to many of the cars while building his 4-cam hot rod GT40. Also for years, the parking lot of the museum was the place for ROAR to run their radio-control car races with Briggs' blessing. I remember helping Briggs to find the special barrel shaped roller bearings to rebuild the Delage engine, and he gave me one of the original parts made into a limited number of pins. Still have it of course.

I am sad to report that 2 years ago, the building, that had housed some kind of Jewish youth organization since Briggs vacated it, was demolished and replaced by new office contraptions for lease that remain mostly empty at this time. I drive by there every day to go to my shop. there went another landmark.

I would only make a small correction to Woody's naming of the car: it is not "Berline deVoyage" but simply "berline de voyage", meaning "travel car". No capitalization, and separate the "de" ("of") from "voyage" (travel).
Frog is a difficult language...
Regards,

T54

[Gregor Marshall]

Rich Harman - your thread has arrived!!

[red stick]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Private and group visits to the Collier Collection can be arranged by application. Miles Collier is a deeply committed enthusiast and he has the majority of the cars maintained in running order and several actively demonstrated each year at major events.

DCN

Doubtlessly true, but I'm not a member of a group, outside of this one, likely to visit, and I've never managed to intersect one of the events at which the cars are displayed. My fault, for sure, but it would be nice to just be able to pop in, like at Indy, or the Henry Ford, or Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, or the like. Thanks.

[Gregor Marshall]

I have to share a little bit before a certain person joins in:-

Images Deleted as Off Topic - Sorry!!

I'll let Rich deal with now he's seen the thread.

[fines]

Well, I'm sure this is all very fascinating, but as I've said there are almost two hundred Briggs Cunningham threads on TNF! Can't we for once stick to the topic? Namely, his Sprint Car career - and please, no more sporty cars on this thread...

[Pils1989]

Thanks, Gregor

[Jerry Entin]

Michael: I know you only want Sprint car info, Willem Oosthoek wanted to correct something that T-54 reported: The Maserati wasn't a long windshield model it was a Long Tail model. And another correction: not a Tipo 61 Maserati but a 2-liter Tipo 60, chassis #2468.

all research Willem Oosthoek

[T54]

So much for my remaining brain cells... Thanks Jerry!

[Jerry Entin]

T-54: I am far worse than you on memory.

Willem was just elaborating on the cars.

A pretty good story about memory was: I went up to Rudi Fejer this summer at Mosport. I told him you probably don't remember me. I was on the refueling team when you ran George Eaton in his Indy car at Ontario in the early 70's. He said are you Jerry? George's friend who lived in Palm Springs. I said I can't believe you would remember that. He said : "Ask me what I had for breakfast."

[T54]

[Cris]

Michael,
Briggs actually ran both Frontenac and HAL DO-powered cars in the early 30s.
I feel like I've read somewhere that his mother banned him from racing at one point but I'm not sure where I read that. In any case his seat time in sprinters was concurrent with his membership in the ARCA, a club in which he was involved in varying degrees from 1933-34 right up until its suspension in 1940.
He MAY have started racing sprint cars before his college years so if you need a time period I might begin around 1927. Among the states he lived in, look to Connecticut, New York (Long Island) Pennsylvania, the aforementioned Ohio, and Florida (later) and California (much, much later.)

Cris

[fines]

Thanks, Cris!

Do you know more about the cars?

[D-Type]

Originally posted by fines
Well, I'm sure this is all very fascinating, but as I've said there are almost two hundred Briggs Cunningham threads on TNF! Can't we for once stick to the topic? Namely, his Sprint Car career - and please, no more sporty cars on this thread...

Michael,
Why didn't you name this thread something like "Briggs Cunningham in sprint cars"? Although it would probably have attracted the same divergences at least people would be able to find the sprintcar-specific information.

[Cris]

Something just occurred to me about the lack of information on his circle track time...could he have raced under a pseudonym at some point? This may have been touched on in the Batchelor book but I don't have my copy here to clarify.

Cris

[drivers71]

Originally posted by Gregor Marshall
Rich Harman - your thread has arrived!!

Thanks Gregor.
Quite a shock to return to the forum after a week away and see this!
I've actually been working on something, so it's quite opportune to have this upsurge in interest.
Watch this space.
Rich

[fines]

Originally posted by D-Type
Michael,
Why didn't you name this thread something like "Briggs Cunningham in sprint cars"? Although it would probably have attracted the same divergences at least people would be able to find the sprintcar-specific information.

Well, Duncan, I hoped to attract the Cunningham "crowd" and didn't want them to have their eyes glaze over with the mention of the roundy-round bit! It certainly appears that "tactic" didn't work though, ho hum...;) Maybe Twinny can come to the rescue, and change the thread title?

There is some sort of antagonism at work here, and I'm the first one to admit to being guilty as it works both ways: there's no way of ignoring that I have no interest in the Briggs Cunningham story of, say, 1935 and later, i.e. his "sports car years", and in the same vein it appears that those on the "other side of the fence" have little to no interest in his early years. Perhaps my remark was a little harsh, but then I was frustrated: it was the second or third time that I logged in and found half a dozen replies to "my" thread, only to find out after much reading that it was all irrelevant (to me).

So, pretty please, can we keep this thread on topic? I know and accept that you sports car aficionados "own" Briggs because he spent most of his time on your side of the fence, but it is VERY TIRING and almost impossible to read through all of the material that exists, with VERY little hope for success, looking for nuggets of his Sprint Car past. Some of you may have picked up a thing or two along the way, so please: SPILL THE BEANS!

[David M. Woodhouse]

Michael,

The Cunningham book has a photo showing the left side of the sprint car with Briggs sitting in the car. The caption says "Briggs Cunningham's one foray into oval track racing was this dohc Frontenac powered sprint car built by Red Campbell in Cincinnati.
Briggs didn't drive it, and Ralph DePalma helped set it up for his driver. It was an unsuccessful attempt, and Briggs sold the sprinter after one season." The photo is credited to the Frank Gudaitis Collection.

In Joel Finn's "American Road Racing - The 1930s" There is a photo of the same car showing the right side, again with Briggs in the car wearing identical clothing. I would guess the photos were taken at the same time. Photo caption says "Briggs Cunningham in the D.O.Hal sprint car, circa 1934." There is nothing in the text about the sprint car.

The Finn book photo shows more detail and I believe that the engine is a HAL, but it is definitely the same engine and car as the one in the Cunningham book. John Burgess, who was the Cunningham Museum's director, drove sprint cars in the 1920s and 1930s. John was a close friend and is responsible for my interest in the oval track scene of that time. He also helped maintain many of the ARCA drivers' cars in the Boston area. While John spoke often of those days, and delighted in pointing out the features of the DO Fronty, Stagger Valve Fronty, Duesenberg, and Miller engines there at the Museum, he never mentioned Mr. Cunningham driving a sprinter. If the photo in the Finn book is dated correctly, Briggs would have been involved with the ARCA guys at that time. The Finn book quotes Sam Collier as saying "Briggs was always interested in what we were doing with ARCA and even helped us out with a loan in the early days, but his wife and mother were adamant he not race, so he bowed to their wishes."

Woody - with no apologies for being a lifelong fan of Briggs Cunningham

[Bauble]

Fines,
Your initial post failed to indicate that you had such a narrow interest in Briggs, indeed you appeared to virtually nothing about him atall, other than a name (or am I missing something) so as I seem to have introduced the European connection I apologise for causing such anguish and indeed massive eye strain.
I will now bow out of this subject.

Kind regards,

Bauble.

[David M. Woodhouse]

One more bit of information for Michael. In Jack Fox's book "The Illustrated History of Sprint Car Racing", a photo of what may be an update on the same car appears on page 273. It shows a left side view of a sprinter carrying race #5 (the same as the Cunningham car). Peters Special appears on the cowl. The engine is not visible as the hood and side covers are in place. Bob Sall is sitting in the car. The caption reads " Bob Sall in Fred Peters Offy. The chassis originally belonged to Briggs Cunningham. The new body made it one of the best looking Sprint cars in racing. In the background is the famous Gasoline alley in Paterson, N.J."

Woody

[fines]

Thanks, Woody. Yes, the Peters car is the initiator of my interest in Briggs Cunningham. The car was very famous and successful, and I can trace it over a long period of time (one Harold Rotbauer from Bethel in Pennsylvania owned it in the fifties) - I would really love to trace it to its origin!

P.S. I've sent you an email.

[fuzzi]

A thought has occurred while out delivering the village magazine (we call it doing a Dibnah - Fred Dibnah said if you need to think about something go and do something necessary but mindless).
As I understand things in the USA there used to be a great divide between the professional track and speedway racers and the sporty car amateur drivers. The gulf being so wide that it was unusual, if not frowned upon to cross from one side to the other - particularly from track to sports cars. As Briggs Cunningham was naturally from the moneyed amateur side of the divide he may have wanted to keep his youthful dirt track racing quiet hence the remark quoted above where he says "We got a kid from Bridgeport to drive it on local tracks" which was not a million miles from where he was then living at Southport, Connecticut. I believe Cunningham Team driver Phil Walters raced track cars under the name 'Ted Tappett'.

[David McKinney]

At the time BSC was dabbling in roundy-roundy cars there was no sportscar racing in the US, so no divide to cross
And Ted Tappett was an established speedway star before he joined the sportscar set under his real name (whether you intended it or not, you seemed to be saying PW adopted a false name so no-one would know he was from the sportscar world)

[fuzzi]

David, No I didn't mean that Walters was trying to hide his identity merely that racing names were common in speedway. Being English I don't know if there is such a thing as a class system in the States, but I've always imagined that the moneyed people looked down on the professionals in roundy racing.

[fines]

Originally posted by fuzzi
Being English I don't know if there is such a thing as a class system in the States.

Of course. Not.

[Gerr]

There is a Sam Posey interview with Cunningham in R&T, June 1977...

Cunningham: "...The first racing I did was in 1948."

Posey: "You didn't drive at Alexandria Bay before World War II?"

Cunningham: "No, My mother was against all that and so I just raced boats."

[fines]

I think we can narrow things down a bit, by now: Briggs obviously didn't race himself, as I can see no reason why he should lie about that when speaking to Posey. Which makes things more difficult, unfortunately! Unless someone can come up with a name of his driver(s), it will be virtually impossible to track his ownership in period material. Another thing I think we can take pretty much for fact by now is that he raced the car only for one year, before selling it on. Which year? I still believe we should be looking at the 1933/34 time frame, certainly not much earlier.

Gil Pirrung could be a lead, he bought the car directly from Briggs, afaik. I've seen him also described as a Yale graduate (in Automotive Engineering), and he appears to have entered oval track racing in 1934, and "sold everything" to Joe Thorne in 1936. At his peak, he had several cars, perhaps as many as five, so that's not going to be easy, either!

Another lead is Sherman "Red" Campbell, who is supposed to have built the car - what do the sources tell us about it, was it a new car, built by Campbell, or one previously raced by him? I have seen several pics of "Red" in several different cars, but none looked like this one. Another thing, after looking at the picture in the Finn book (thanks, Woody ) and doing some research, I'm now convinced the engine was a DO Fronty, probably on a T block. Those engines were famously fast, but unreliable!

[Cris]

In 1935 Briggs raced in ARCA races in NY and he owned the car that Miles Collier raced at the ARCA World's Fair race in 1940 (the last ARCA race held pre-war.)

Cris

[drivers71]

In 1935 Briggs drove his (wifes) MG-J2 at the delightfully named Sleepy Hollow Ring.
In 1940, at Flushing Meadows, Miles Collier drove Cunninghams famous Bu-Merc hybrid - Which resumed winning, immediately post-war, with Cunningham himself, George Roberts and Alec Ulmann doing the driving.
Another two candidates for the 'Lost Circuits' thread?

[Ron B.]

Originally posted by fines



, I'm now convinced the engine was a DO Fronty, probably on a T block. Those engines were famously fast, but unreliable!

The Frontenac conversion was made for the model T Ford block. There were two blocks especially made for HAL or Frontenac heads which were going to use T ford cranks and similar size pistons but don't feature any cam bores etc. One( of the two) is being prepared as I write this In Europe for fitting to a Miller . They were as reliable as you wanted them to be,most racers knew how to keep one running long enough for a race meeting but we are talking about an engine design almost 90 years old. ..back to the topic.

[WGD706]

Originally posted by Cris
In 1935 Briggs raced in ARCA races in NY and he owned the car that Miles Collier raced at the ARCA World's Fair race in 1940 (the last ARCA race held pre-war.)

Cris

October 1940 saw ARCA's last race, the World’s Fair Grand Prix, at Flushing Meadows, New York. The race was run on a tight course around various nations’ pavilions. Miles took his Riley Brooklands out of storage for the event and started installing a Mercury Flathead V-8 engine but ran out of time and ended up driving Briggs Cunningham’s Bu-Merc Special, a special Buick chassis and modified Buick straight-8 engine, under a modified lightweight Mercedes SSK body. Miles was up against some very fast machinery, but he worked his way up to second behind Frank Griswald in an Alfa Romeo grand prix car. Three laps from the finish Miles left the course and hit a lamppost. Sam Collier in a new MG finished 5th overall and 1st in class.
Shortly after the race ARCA was disbanded

[Jerry Entin]

Briggs Cunningham in the Red Campbell built Sprint car.
This car was DOHC Frontenac powered.

Michael: I know you don't care about Sailing or Sportscars, but Briggs Cunningham was a true gentlemen.
His head mechanic Alfred Momo was also a very talented organizer. As has been said it was just bad luck they didn't win way more races.



photo - Frank Gudaitis collection

[fines]

Michael: I know you don't care about Sailing or Sportscars, but Briggs Cunningham was a true gentlemen.

I never really doubted that! Sorry, if my earlier remarks came over a bit harsh...

Meanwhile, I may have found out a little bit myself: in 1931, a #8 "Cunningham Special", or "Cunningham Fronty", appeared in several AAA events in the Northeast, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. Drivers listed were Lew Smith (Philadelphia, also Mays Landing in NJ), Johnny Moretti (Pleasantville or Atlantic City in NJ, also Philadelphia and New York) and Bill Neopolitan (Philadelphia). The car apparently never made it any further than the consolation heat, although info about that is very sketchy! All three drivers appear to have been AAA "rookies", but sadly none of them has any Bridgeport connection. Also, the name Cunningham is not exactly rare, so it doesn't really prove anything.

I have also an unidentified #8 "Fronty Special" entered in another 1931 event in New Hampshire, to be driven by a Darrien Vartanian from Methuen in Massachusetts, but this is already clutching at straws, and anyway I have no idea how to tie that in with the car in the photo clearly showing #5, and Briggs apparently running it for only one season. :well:

[fines]

I get the feeling that the #8 "Cunningham Special" mentioned in the post above was, in fact, owned by a gent from Philadelphia, name of Mark Cunningham - back to square one!?

[fines]

Sometimes, all you need is a little luck...

I was given the opportunity to read the March 1933 issue of "SPEEDWAY MAGAZINE", and on page twenty-two I found a rather inconspicuous article titled "Daytonian finishes new car - Technical dope on the car in above photo would interest the readers of the Magazine, the editor requested its builder to prepare the following description. - By R. T. Jackson", followed by a detailed account of the specifications of the car in question, but not a word on the craftsman! So, we have to assume it's this Mr. Jackson, and apparently from Dayton (OH)!?? Also, the article has no info whatsoever about who or where the car was going to be raced, except that the author was "assuming that it would be operated in the eastern section", and praising the "job" as "a very neat little race car, one which no owner need feel apologetic about when he sets that big new '220' or '255' in." Obviously, he was hoping to attract a buyer with a Miller engine here!

All very nice'n'interesting, but then I looked at the accompanying photograph, and promptly did a double take! If this isn't the Briggs Cunningham Sprinter, then it's a very, very, VERY close twin!!! In fact, the more I look at it, the more I am convinced it is the same - and it fits the time frame nicely: built in 1933, so one season with Briggs, and then from 1934 with Gil Pirrung, who I have appearing as a car owner for the first time in exactly that year! Judge for yourself:



The image quality is not very good, but it's enough to see some important details, like radius rod mounts, steering gear, hand brake location and length, seat upholstery, oil and fuel tank fillers, also the bonnet straps are in the same position even before the engine is installed, but most of all: look at the rivets on the side of the frame/bodywork, and especially the bright spots which I assume are bolts on the flange surface, they are EXACTLY the same number and in the same position!

How lucky can one be?

Edited by fines, 15 June 2009 - 07:51.