26 replies to this topic

[Martin Roessler]

Hi there...does anybody have an idea what car this is?
the car was taking part in the first training session on the 01.12.63, it had #211.
There is not an awful lot of information available on the internet about the speedweek 1963...the entry list is incomplete...pretty much just the big names listed...maybe it was a local driver with some sort of *special*...
thanks a lot
cheers marty




pictures from the book "corvette grand sport",motorbooks international

[Terry O'Neil]

Hi Martin,
The pictures show the Canadian built Dailu Bardahl Special (built/entered/driven by David Greenblatt)
The car was used in practise but caught fire. Consequently the car was not used in any of the races.
Terry

[Jerry Entin]

Terry is right. According to Dave Greenblatt this car started out as something called a Shrike. The body was built by some US body maker that he can't remember. Anyone interesting in reading about the Dailu cars and their history should go to www.Dailu.com it is a great site. Dailu means Dai in welsh is David and Lu is for Luigi Cassiani a former Alfa Romeo expert who helped Dave in the building of the car. Dave has told me when the Mk3 as they called the Coupe came in for a pit stop. John Cannon was driving not Dave. He switched the engine off. He accidently didn't turn the fuel pump off. When the car restarted it backfired and burnt the wire harness and the car couldn't run. The engine in it was a 425 cu in Buick putting out about 450 hp. Dave is now 68 years old and lives in the Toronto area of Canada and has driven the Dailu at various vintage meets.

[Martin Roessler]

thank you very much for the quick reply Terry and Jerry!!!
Will have a look at Dailu.com in a minute....
cheers marty

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Hmmm... Seems like we might at odds on some of the details here, chaps. Maybe it's me that's foggy or mis-informed. For sure, it's the rather ungainly Dailu coupe...recognized it straight away. I saw it in action(?)in its day at Mosport. But it's not the one that burned to the waterline at Nassau(unless it's a complete re-body job)that Terry mentioned. That was the spyder(my term)driven by John Cannon. iirc, the story went that on a re-fueling stop, the gas cap was not properly secured, fuel splashed out on the hot(inboard?)rear brakes once Boomer resumed and, well... Sad end to a great car.

The spyeder was blindingly fast and Cannon even led a few early laps of the 1962 Canadian GP at Mosport. Find a Road & Track mag covering this event and you'll see a nice pix of Cannon leading the hotshots.

A version of the Dailu spyder has shown in recent years at the VARAC vintage go at Mosport but I believe that this is a completely new car.

[Jerry Entin]

Manfred these are two different cars I believe. The Coupe had a Buick engine and the Roadster had a chevy. I think the Coupe had an elecritcal related fire and the roadster had a blown engine in practice for the 1963 race. Peter Lerch was driving the roadster called a Mk2 and John Cannon was to drive the Coupe or Mk3. the Mk 3 Coupe was later given a 1964 corvette roadster light weight body. About 150 lbs and the Buick engine taken out and a stock corvette engine put in. It was than called the Mk5 Dailu. Dave raced this car himself and did quite well with it.

[Frank S]

Cannon 'mixing it' with the 'hotshots' at Riverside
( 9 of 9 for the picture )

[Terry O'Neil]

Hi Jerry and Manfred,
Yes, these are two different cars. Cannon had his firery exist in 1962.
Terry

[Pedro 917]

David Greenblatt wrote :

The Dailu Mk II, was a fiberglas coupe body made for me in the US from the identical space frame chassis of the Mk I. I built the Mk II for Peter Lerch. We then modified the body into a roadster. Peter ran this car very successfully in 1963. (John ran the car in its maiden race at Mosport and won....... of course)
Peter flipped the car at the end of the season, rebuilding the body to what it looks like today. It resides in California and won the Monterey Classic in 2000.

The Buick car was the Dailu Mk III, a ladder frame chassis, our street prototype, built also in 1963.
Buick division gave me a new engine for the car, (not yet in production)..... 425ci/450+hp.......

Both the Mk II and III were entered at Nassau in 1963. The engine on the Mk II blew before we even hit the track and John C., in a early pit stop in the Mk III, turned off the engine in the pits, but to the acc. side of the switch which kept the fuel pumps active(OUR screw up... not his), a carb back fire started a minor fire burning wiring harnase and we had to retire........ SHAME !! :'(

some pics of Mk II and III attached

David

[Martin Roessler]

Dailu MkV



thanks Jerry
cheers marty

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

I recall seeing Peter Lerch take a narrow win in 1963 at Mosport in a Dailu. The car was painted yellow. He'd been having a hard dice with, iirc, Francis Bradley in the 'Miss Wizz' Hollingshead Lotus 19. I was in the pit stalls when Peter came round the final corner, inches ahead of Bradley and he threw up both his arms in victory as he acclerated to the flag. He knew that the big-inch Chevy wasn't going to be passed. I'm not sure what model Dailu that would have been.

I was an instructor at a CASC racing school in 1977 and Peter was back to get his licence to do some vintage stuff I suppose. Regretably, he was not my student that day. Darn!

[zoff2005]

Which was the Dailu that Don Horner drove in 1967/68? From memory it looked more like the MkII.
Also which was the one that Olivier Gendebien practised in at Mosport in 1961? He said he refused to drive it after it started taking off going up a hill on full throttle, but that the regular driver then drove it in the race and did very well. Presumably that would have been John Cannon?

[jgf]

Hi everyone, I originally posted the query about this car on another website and Martin directed me here; now I've registered here also (you should be more careful who you let in the door).
Thanks for the info; it vindicated my original assumption that the car was a "homebuilt".

[Pedro 917]

Dave Greenblatt wrote:

Thanks for all the great memories of motorsports early days in America. Those were the best times when it was really a sport. Good times, parties and oh yes some racing......

Thanks for sharing the picture of my Dailu Mk I which lives in Montreal.
The Mk I was rebuilt in 1977-78 and I drove it in a few vintage events in Canada in '78.
Here's a photo of John Cannon in the Dailu in 1962 in the Nassau Sprint race, beating Masten Gregory in the Le Mans 4.5 (I believe) Ferrari and the mighty Chapparal :



Finally, a pic from 2004 of the Dailu Mk I at Mosport, driven by me as the guest pace car, some 42 years after it had last raced at Mosport in 1962. The hood scoop was restored to original, before we inherited Traco's first small block Chevy, 377ci/437hp - 6 stromberg 97 carbs, hence the large hood scoop, built for the Chapparal of Roger Ward (Roger crashed during practice at Riverside in '62 trashing the new car and breaking his back.



All the best,

Dave Greenblatt

[John M Cannon]

I too reckon that's likely Peter Lerch. I don't recall ever seeing any pictures of my dad driving a coupe version of the Dailu(s).
You can always contact David through his Dailu.Com website; I'm sure he'd be able to clear up the "mystery driver" question pretty quickly.

[Jerry Entin]

John according to Dave Greenblatt your father was driving the Coupe at Nassau in 1963. Peter Lerch was to have driven the Roadster or Mk2 but the engine blew in practice.

[Pedro 917]

Jerry wrote:

Here's a picture of Dave Greenblatt in a lotus 19 the Dailu group had. They put a small block Corvette motor in it and a Hewland gearbox. At Mosport with one lap to go while running second the steering failed causing Dave to go off course. They called that Lotus 19 the Dailu 4.

[Dave Greenblatt]

Hey Zoff,

Don Horner drove the Dailu Mk II, (roadster) body rebuilt after Peter Lerch its first owner flipped the car at St. Eugene, Ontario.......... After the accident the body of the mk II was somewhat changed from the original when it was raced by Lerch and is still active at its home in California,
where it has been active in vintage races.........

Like winning Monterey in 2000, by its owner Mike Leicester, so I've been told.

cheers,

Dave Greenblatt

[Dave Greenblatt]

Hey Frank S...........

Thanks for posting all my memories...................

regards

Dave Greenblatt

[Dave Greenblatt]

Hey Manfred..........

Peter was driving the roadster version of the Dailu Mk II, which originally was built as a Coupe, (with US built Shrike body)...............

If you were an instructor at Shannonville in 1977 /78.......... It was I, Dave Greenblatt, who returned to renew my license to be able to enter vintage events.................. I attended the school in a Porsche 911S....... and raced the rebuilt Dailu Mk I in 1978......... winning an event at Shannonvile

regards Dave Greenblatt

[Frank S]

Always my pleasure.

[Dave Greenblatt]

Hey Zoff..............

Sorry...did not answer the balance........Gendebien practiced in the Dailu Mk I, (Dailu Bardahl Special) in June 1962, (not '61).... The engine was leaking oil from a valve cover gasket on to the floor by the pedals........ Oliver wanted to drive his Porsche instead...... so the car was sidelined. I ran the car the following weekend at St. Eugene, winning and setting a new lap record.........

Upon meeting Oliver a few years later he admitted it was not the oil leak....... but the terrifying acceleration up the back strait was unlike any F1 car he had ever driven.... and the not so nimble handling of his Porsche..... he opted out.........

regards,

Dave Greenblatt

[Jerry Entin]

A warm welcome to the forum Dave. Hope you enjoy looking at the various post.

[Dave Greenblatt]

Thanks Jerry........... week one............. a great start......... thanks for your frienship

Dave "greenie" Greenblatt

[Pedro 917]

Another picture of the Dailu sent by Jerry :

[Jerry Entin]

Luigi Cassiani as he looks today.

A very good friend of mine lives about 2 blocks from Luigi and she kindly went over and took a very nice picture of him, so the forum members could see what he looks like now.
photo Lorrie Moore

[HistoricMustang]

Thanks Jerry!

Certainly hope I look that well in just a few short years!

Henry