Unusual Racing Cars

     
Golden Submarine
An expensive custom-made race car built in 1917 by Harry Miller that would help change the shape of things to come in American auto racing. The Golden Submarine carried an unimaginable ticket price of $15,000 at its completion. Its gold color was the result of a combination of lacquer and bronze dust. The Golden Submarine never won the Indy 500, though it ran in 1919, pulling out with engine trouble; but its designs foreshadowed the future of American racing. Miller's design would dominate Indy for over 30 years

---

Pat Clancy Special
This car was raced at the Indianapolis 500 in 1948, sporting no less than six wheels. The four wheels at the back were driven by two axles connected by a universal joint, making the Pat Clancy Special a four-wheel drive car. Powered by a Meyer-Drake engine and driven by Billy DeVore the car was still running at the end and was classified 12th. It remains the only six-wheeled car to complete the Indianapolis 500.  The car was converted to a conventional four-wheeler and won races in 1949 and 1950 with Jimmy Davies driving.

---

The Spirit of America was the first of the modern record breaking jet-propelled cars built with a narrow stream-lined fuselage. Like most of the other competing vehicles the engine was ex-military, the first Spirit had a General Electric J47 engine from an F-86 Sabre and was tested at Bonneville Salt Flats in 1962.

Driven by Craig Breedlove, he set his first record on September 5, 1963 at Bonneville, the first man to set an average speed of over 400 mph during a land speed record.

Breedlove returned to Bonneville with Spirit and pushed the record over 500 mph (800 km/h), setting it at 526.277 mph on October 15, a record that stood for almost two weeks. In setting the new record, at the end of his second run, the Spirit lost its parachute brakes, skidded for five miles, through a row of telephone poles and crashed into a brine pond at around 200 mph. Drenched but uninjured. This feat earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest skid marks. Spirit was recovered and taken by the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago as an exhibit.
There have been two more Spirit of America vehicles setting records driven by Craig Breedlove. He is hoping to set an 800 mph record in 2013 with his current Spirit of America.

---

The "Green Monster"
A land-speed racer built using a military surplus J79 jet aircraft engine with an afterburner. On October 5, 1964 the Green Monster jet powered to 434.022--a new land-speed record. In 1965, a revamped Green Monster returned and shattered the record again at 576.553mph across the one-mile course. (driven by Art Arfons).