Supposedly "Smokey" enjoyed giving the crushed race cars a good swift kick as he walked by them in his shop.
Yunick called me in 2001 as he was trying to trade some 1972 Eagle parts I had access to as he was trying to rebuild his own car that had been chopped in the late 1970's as so many were, with the remains of his 1969 "Spirit of Daytona" Eagle that was such a disappointing car. After the "500", Smokey had drilled every rivet of the monocoque chassis to make sure that it would never be used again. I KNEW that and had to politely decline since I did not see the idea of using 1/2" rivets to rebuild it as an attractive proposition...
Ferrari entered four cars at the 1952 Indy 500. Only one was fast enough to be competitive, but its Borrani wire wheels simply could not take the constant effort of the four long turns.
Two were sold to American entrants and one ran again in 1953 as the Grant Piston Ring Spl driven by Johnny Mauro but was not fast enough.
The JCB car is one of the four but no longer has the original engine as all those were re-fitted to 335 sports cars that later raced in the Mille Miglia. At least one of the cars was fitted with an Offy.
Restoring an old Watson roadster is actually a simple affair because they are very basic cars: a tube frame, a Goodyear fuel cell, a straight-panel aluminum body with two fiberglass ends, two rigid axles, no gearbox, a two-speed Halibrand read end, simple (and grossly inefficient) Airheart disc brakes, and four Halibrand wheels with 6.50-16 tires. Add a 270 Offy with the most basic Hilborn full-time injection and... voila. This explains why there are so many replicas.
Finding one with CONTINUOUS and PROVEN history is a whole different matter...
And Mick, my mistake, the #2 car is not Larry's car, sorry!