It was always wonderful to have Bruce at our vintage events

Very nice to see this car looking so good and original.

New sub, boy those were the days.What a sound,we were always camping Memorial day so people would listen on the radio.I always inquired how Mario did first then how the turbine car did.

I saw this car qualify at I.M.S. in May, 1968 First Day of Time Trials. Impressive! Literally a quiet machine. Watching it perform in the '68 "500"....I thought, along with everyone at that race it would win and greatly change the direction of car racing and maybe, make a significant impact on the automotive industry. But...we know what happened. Of the many disappointed race drivers who came close to the grand victory as an Indy 500 winner...driver Joe Leonard had that look of making history. What a shame he several years later had a bad race accident that knocked him out of winning, eventually, " the Big One". As for that '68 Lotus turbine...had Driver Jimmy Clark not lost his life in Germany in April of 1968...he might have been the driver for that # 60 Lotus-Turbine.

@richardmorris7063

2 жыл бұрын

If memory serves me ,they had the field covered w/ that car..

@tsf5-productions

2 жыл бұрын

@@richardmorris7063 In the '68 Indy 500, there were three in that race. Two were on the front row with Joe Leonard on the pole position, and British F-1 star, Graham Hill. The other Lotus-Turbine was driven by Medford, Oregon driver, Art Pollard. Art was not much of a factor in the race. I think, he crashed in the backstretch before Leonard "flamed-out" as the media called it. Only other drivers that had a chance at winning was "Hard Luck" Lloyd Ruby of Texas and, eventual winner, Bobby Unser. Costa Mesa, California veteran driver, Dan Gurney came second to Unser in his Eagle stock block racing engine Ford. I think, Gurney is the only driver who finished very high (twice) in a stock block developed engine within, at least, the past 70 some odd years. I believe, next, Mike Mosley of Oklahoma was next highest for awhile: 3rd place in the '79 Indy race... taking into account around in the 1994 Indy race, Al Unser, Jr winning a unique Penske car powered by Mercedes. Well...that well beyond an answer to your "covered the field" comment on the historic Lotus-Turbine of 1968. Oh...that month of May in '68 did have unfortunately the death of British F-1 driver, Mike Spence in one of those Lotus-Turbine cars that British designer Colin Chapman brought to the I.M.S. track. Bad year for Colin with Jimmy Clark in April then, Spence.

At Indianapolis in 1968 there were 7 turbines entered including the Shelby turbines for Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme. After some practice both of these cars were withdrawn. The updated 'Silent Sam" car from 1967 was run extensively in practice but was damaged in an accident while being driven by Joe Leonard. It would have qualified but would not have been fast enough to contend. There were four Lotus cars all sponsored by STP but really in 2 teams. The 70 car was Lotus crewed and was originally set for Clark and then for Mike Spence after Clark's death in April. Then 60 was for Graham Hill. 20 and 30 the the Granatelli crewed cars and 30 was assigned to Greg Weld and 20 was not assigned as they were keeping options open and not sure about running the 40 (Silent Sam) car. Greg Weld was having trouble getting the 30 car to speed and Mike Spence offered to test the car and that ended with his fatal accident. That left the 70 car open and Joe Leonard got the car after he wrecked the 40. Weld was out and a last minute deal put Art Pollard in a car that had never shown much speed. An interesting fact is that the 20 and 30 cars were never fast and the 70 and 60 cars were the cars under Lotus control. In the race the 60 car went out early with a broken wheel hub. The 70 and 20 cars both had broken fuel pump drives. Years later Andy Granatelli said that when they got control of the 60 car they found that the fuel pump drive was different in it compared to the other cars. Interesting to see the #20 Penske driven to victory by Emerson Fittipaldi at Indianapolis in 1989 show up as he was the last driver to race a Lotus 56B Turbine. Lotus ran one in the Italian GP at Monza in 1971.

Typical Bruce Linsmeyer … too humble to mention he also owns the Jack Adams Airplane Special. The car is still unrestored, largely original as it came off the track in 1969. It is part of Bruce’s turbine Indy car collection

What is the color code for THAT paint...? It's Soo Bright ! ? ! Rocket Red over white primer ?