6 replies to this topic

[MG Brown]

I ran across a few photographs of an Eagle nearly fully restored by the UMW historic racing team.






UMW have chosen to restore the car in the Chip Mead Indianapolis 1981 livery which unfortunately did not make the race due to cooling (and subsequent transaxle) problems on their last qualifying lap.

If you see the beginnings of the DeltaWing design in the 8100 series Eagle, I would say that you have a sharp eye.

1981 All-American Racers Indy Eagle #8101 / Cosworth

As I learn more about this project, I will post the information here.

[Alchemist]

That's great to see it restored and hopefully stored in a museum for safekeeping!

Thanks for sharing, MG!

[Steve Deiters]

Very interesting stuff.

[MG Brown]

Here's the Chip Mead car at Indianapolis- I was not able to find many photos because of the car being a non-qualifier for the "500".



Things to note in this photo are how far forward the driver is seated, and the original design for the tail section penned by AAR's John Ward. Some subtle differences in the livery compare to the "restored" car are apparent- not sure if this is a day of qualifying attempt photo or practice day photo.

This photo is also somewhat interesting in that the crowd and officials are included rather than close cropping the photo to just the race car. This gives a bit of information about racetrack fashion in 1981 among other things.

Reading the UMW historic racing website reveals that this car was literally found in a Connecticut barn in July 2008 and has been in the restoration process since then.

[MG Brown]

I discovered also that UMW completed restoration a couple of years ago of the Sunoco-DX Penske/Donohue 1972 Eagle chassis 7225.

Supposedly this Team Penske Eagle was the only AAR "customer car" delivered unassembled. This was done at the explicit request of Roger Penske, and long-time Penske crew chief Karl Kainhofer drove out to Gurney’s shop and picked up all the bits of the new chassis for later assembly and use by Mark Donohue in the 1973 Indy "500".

Ironically 7225 would be the last Indy "500" ride for "Captain Nice", Donohue choosing to focus the remainder of his career on development and competition in Can-Am and Penske's nascent F1 team.

The twists and turns of who owned 7275 following the tragic 1973 Indy "500" and where it was raced after being sold by Penske is interesting in its own right. 7225 was piloted at various times by Bill Simpson, Steve Krisiloff, Teddy Pilette, and a virtual unknown named Rick Mears in his initial run in Indy racing- who as we know, caught the eye of... Roger Penske.

More details about this remarkable race car can be read here here: 1972 Penske Eagle Story

The photos of the restoration and UMW participation in recent historic events is here: 1972 Penske Eagle Photo Gallery

 

 

 

[MG Brown]

R&T has a nice article on this shops Indy restorations:

http://www.roadandtr...-history-alive/

[Mr. M]

This is when champ CART cars were really with the formula, wired wings, wide body, wide tires. None of that sissy stuff to slow them down.