31 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

 
You all know this car, right? A Harrison Indy, by Testor... but a friend here just asked which car this was based on, and I couldn't really tell him. Did a quick search, on the Net, and in my books, concentrating on the '65 and '66 Indy races (it was announced at the end of 1966), but couldn't find anything that corresponded. I seem to remember a Bryant Special, but couldn't find anything. 
 
Anybody have any ideas? I'm sure you guys are better at finding this than me! 
 
Thanks, 

Don

[Steve Deiters]

I've never seen this body before. I do remember the one RTR from Testor with the ducktail spoiler on the back.
 
The body shown is based on one of the original Jerry Eisert Indy car chassis that he built. The date is '64 or '65. If you Google his name that is lots of stuff on the internet about this most talented of fabricators who passed away in 2006. This car was driven in the era by a lot of yet to make it big young guns of the time like Al Unser, Johnny Rutherford, etc. I think at one point it was even modified and driven by Mario Andretti at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb when it was mostly dirt. Wild stuff.

[Jens Scale Racing]

Don,

 

This car ran in 1966 at Indy, last place with ten other cars, all crashed in the first lap, #96 gold car, silver bottom on both sides.

 

Nice pic in the wonderful book of Rick Popely (Indianapolis 500 Chronicle), see page 187 pic and page 191 results.

 

Driver: Ronnie Duman, entrant: J. Frank Harrison, with a Eisert chassis and a Ford motor.

 

Regards,

 

Dieter

[don.siegel]

Thanks, guys. 
 
Dieter, I did see the Harrison car listed in the '66 results, which was the only Harrison reference I could find, but looking for pictures with Duman as driver, it was only the ducktail type bodies that came up... 
 
I don't have that book unfortunately, but with these clues I should be able to find better pictures and answer Claude! 
 
Don
 
PS: Doesn't seem to be quite the same car, unless Testor took a lot of poetic license! 
 
Eisert 1965-1967 "Harrison Special"
 
Could it be the '64 model? 
 
1964 Eisert Indy Car

[TSR]

I already wrote something about these two cars in the past, but here it is again.

Both "Harrison" were in fact Eisert cars, built by Jerry Eisert in California. Both cars still exist and are seen here and there in vintage Indy cars events.
 
Jerry Eisert, the longtime owner of Eisert Racing Enterprises, died Feb. 23, 2006 at his San Marcos home. He was 74.

Eisert 1965-1967 "Harrison Special"
 
J. Frank Harrison was an early convert to the benefits of the little European "funny cars" and, with mechanic Jerry Eisert, had first shaken the USAC tree when Lloyd Ruby took pole at the April 1963 Trenton race in his 2.7-litre Lotus 18-Climax FPF. For the 1965 season, Harrison commissioned a brand new design from Eisert to be fitted with a stock-block Chevy V8.

Prior to the monocoque cars, Jerry Eisert built two open wheel spaceframe cars, the first of which did not appear on the USAC trail but did win a race at Riverside in 1964 driven by Rick Muther and won Pikes Peak in 1965, driven by Al Unser. The second spaceframe car was the first USAC car and is covered below.

1964 Eisert Indy 500 race car - Chassis #001
 
In 1964, J. Frank Harrison commissioned his chief mechanic Jerry Eisert to build a brand-new Indy car. Based on the very successful Formula One Lotus 18 and Lotus 24 designs, the 1964 Eisert was Jerry's very first car. It was called the "Harrison Special" and listed as the "Harrison-Chevy" in period Indy photos. It was raced in 1965 as #96 by Canadian Billy Foster. Skip Hudson failed his rookie test at the 1965 Indy 500 in the car. Al Unser then took over driving duties but was not fast enough to qualify the new car for Indy in 1965. Foster later finished 11th at the Phoenix 150 on March 28th, and 7th at the Trenton 100 on April 25 in this car. Johnny Rutherford also ran the car at the Milwaukee 100 on June 6, 1965, finishing 15th with the car reported to have been on fire! In 1966 the car made a second appearance at the Indy 500 as the #69 Arciero Brothers car with driver Ronnie Bucknum but failed to qualify. #001 returned to Indy with Otto Becker in 1968 as the #46 "Lotus Chevrolet Special"
 
An interesting footnote is that this was the first car to ever run at Indy with Koni shocks.
 
#001 was featured on the cover of the May 1965 issue of Sports Car Graphic magazine, with a six-page feature article inside that included a cutaway drawing.
 

 
Per author Dick Wallen, Al Unser also drove this car on the dirt track at the Hoosier Hundred.
 
Completely restored to 1966 Indy livery - "Arciero Brothers". Amazingly, it still retains its original 1964 Corvette small block race engine destroked to 302 cid with approximately 450 HP. Enderle Fuel Injection (set up for methanol or gas), Joe Hunt magneto, dry sump. Even the original Mickey Thompson valve covers fitted by Eisert with his hand-stamped valve lash and timing instructions are still there! The transmission is a Colotti Type 37 four-speed with reverse, the same type used by Jim Hall in the early Chaparral Can-Am Cars. Brakes: four wheel Girling aluminum BR racing calipers
with vented rotors.
 
This historic Indy car ran at in the vintage Indy car event during the 2009 Indy 500, and raced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009.
 

(above photo from Road America- "The Hawk With Brian Redman" 2012) Photo by M.G. Brown


The 1965 car
 
The 1965 car was Eisert's first monocoque, to be driven by young Al Unser at Indy. While driving the Eisert, Al Unser became the first man to try a wing on an Indy car and also one of the first to try a rear-engined car on a dirt track (at the Hoosier 100). A '65 Eisert may also have raced at Pikes Peak.

A new car "sleeker" was built for 1966 and took over the #96 number for the 1966 Indy "500". It is reasonable to assume that the second car that appeared at Fuji in 1966, the #93 Jerry Grant car, was the 1965 car.
 
That one was the second Testor car with the ducktail.

[Steve Deiters]

Don,
 
The second photo, which appears to be from Goodwood, is the '64 car. It never qualified for the field at the Speedway.
 
Below is a picture of the "ducktail" car as it appeared at IRP. The Indy version, which was taken out in the first lap crash of '66:
 

 
The photo below shows the car with a Chevy engine configuration and the spoiler that appeared at Indy. They switched from Chevy to Ford four-cam after the first weekend of qualifications in '66. Not enough ponies. I think this chassis first appeared in '65, but didn't make the field. It had a Chevy engine which they cooked in practice from "tilting the can" (nitro) too much.
 

[TSR]

Jerry Eisert is the fellow in the center of the group. He later worked for Dan Gurney in the engine department, then retired.

 

The second Testor car is much rarer than the first, in fact I have personally only seen ONE example over the past 45 years with the original box:

 

 

 

The body was issued in clear form by Pactra in 1967, a sister company to Testor by then.

[Steve Deiters]

PdL,
 
I always wondered why the Harrison cars were the subject of a RTR by Testors when in the scope of things they were not particularly outstanding real cars of the day, with all due respect to Jerry Eisert's legendary workmanship and the awards he received for it. 

Can you shed any light on it from that angle? Just curious.
 
Steve D.

[TSR]

Steve,

When one looks at the listing of cars modeled by slot car manufacturers in the day, some come by the bucketful. So many Lotus 30, Chaparral 2, Cheetah, McLaren-Elva, Corvette, Cobra models... and so few of OTHER models.

I think that Testor was simply looking for something different, or somehow someone in charge at Testor did just like I did at Heller: chose the models I liked and I needed no one else approval, even that of the company president! That's how things happened in the day, there were really no "committees" of generally mechanically ignorant to decide on what to make...

We are the better for the earlier, as the Eisert cars, while not brilliant, allow some variety in the mix of vintage slot cars.

[ravajack]

Another "Harrison Special" here:

 

 

From the book "Vintage American Road Racing Cars, 1950-1970" by Harold W. Pace & Mark R. Brinker.

 

[TSR]

Lloyd Ruby is quoted as saying that this was the scariest car he had ever driven. The lack of down force made the nose AND the tail lift, making driving a very hazardous business. Ruby had Texan cojones, so that did not stop him from winning that relatively minor event, basically by occupying most of the track at all times... 

[Tex]

 basically by occupying most of the track at all times... 

 

LOL   Kinda like modern day F-1.... "Oh, yes, I made one move to block. What? No, that next move was to get back on the racing line; it's not my fault he chose the same racing line I did".

[TSR]

Yes, with the only difference that Ruby was not choosing his racing lines, merely accepting them... 

Nowadays those overpaid monkeys can put their technowonders wherever they want to the inch.

[Patrick Vaughn]

Here’s the Harrison ducktail 1966 Indy "500" Pactra body that a customer sent me to paint up like the Testors RTR. I would prefer to do more of a scale model approach … but he wants have the slot car of his youth. Can’t blame him really.

 

 

 

 

[bshawn]

Eisert 1966 Batcar

I am writing about the strange case of Jerry Eisert’s USAC 1966 Batcar, shown below. It’s shown here at Phoenix Raceway where it raced in the Spring of 1966. This was the only race it ever ran and this may be the only picture of it. While Jerry built two cars both identified as No. 96 in 1966, the one below is the only one that had the “Batcar” nickname.

Here’s the back story. I was a young aerospace engineer working at Ford Aerospace in Newport Beach, CA. I had recently graduated from Purdue university with a Masters degree in aerodynamics. A mutual acquaintance introduced me to Jerry Eisert. Soon I was hanging out in his racecar fabrication shop near the Orange County (now John Wayne) Airport.

Jerry’s car was not cornering well. It was fast in the straightaway but then lost ground in the corners. The driver said it tended to lose rear traction in the turns. I was the aerodynamics expert and I suggested he mount a wing over the rear wheels to give them more traction.

“No, it would look goofy,” he said.

One evening soon before the upcoming Phoenix race, Jerry phoned. “About that wing…“ he started. We discussed the size of the wing. It should have a 24” chord and be within the body planform, mounted as high as possible out of the turbulent air around the cockpit and engine.

“What should be the wing’s profile?” he asked. Hmmm? At 200 mph, it should be a low speed airfoil and it should be easy to make. I checked my aero textbook and found the “Clark-Y” airfoil fit the bill. It was flat on the bottom and had a center of pressure near the quarter chord. Of course it would be mounted upside-down so its lift improved rear wheel traction.

I set my sliderule (this was years before calculators) at 24 and read off to Jerry the thickness at various stations along the wing. Yes, the Batcar was designed over the phone.

He fabricated the wing and took it to Phoenix mounted on No. 96.

“How did it do,” I asked him on his return.

“Great,” he said. “We cut a full second off our 31 second laptime.” When races are won by tenths of a second, a full second improvement was a big deal.

And it did look goofy. Batman was popular at the time. There was a new Batman movie and a Batman TV series. Phoenix papers called it the Batcar: the car with the wing.

Alas, not for long. Soon was the Indy 500, a car builder’s dream race. I assumed Jerry was taking the Batcar to Indy. He said, “No, we’ve partnered with Chevy on the engine. Chevy engineers have a better idea to give the rear wheels traction.”

“Cool. Can I see it?” I said. Jerry responded, “Shawn, you work at Ford. Chevy doesn’t want you to see it.” Bummer.

The new No. 96 had a large duckbill at the tail. It managed to qualify 33^rd in the pack of 33 cars – the very last car to qualify. The 1966 Indy 500 was marred by a huge crash in the first lap. Almost every car behind the crash, including the Eisert car, were DNF (Did Not Finish).

There was only one Batcar and it raced only once at Phoenix. I heard later from Jerry that it was actually faster than the ducktail version that raced a quarter lap at Indy. I went on to develop “ground effects” for Lotus’ Formula One cars as my doctoral thesis at U.C. Berkeley. https://en.wikipedia...d_effect_(cars)

 

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[Martin]

Let me be the first to welcome you to Slotblog Shawn, thanks so much for the back story. What could have been, what should have been.

 

We should build a slot model to honor this mile stone car. Saving this great pic (if you do not mind?) for a future build.

 

All the best to you.

[don.siegel]

Great info Shawn, thanks. 

 

And would definitely like to see a model of the Batcar! 

 

Don 

[Martin]

Starting digging around and found these, a roller and a NOS Pactra body.

I hope Shawn joins back in, would love to hear some stories from back then.

 

I went in search of more pics and found these. Studying the pics closer, I do see different details. Maybe it is not the Pactra body.

Notice NO gills in front of the rear wheels, the nose looks higher with an oval opening and no scoops on the engine cover ?

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[bshawn]

Way cool. More Batcar pictures. And I thought there was only that one. And I never knew it had a bat painted on the wing.

[Martin]

.....and with a bit more research,some already posted here. I an just rebooting the interest.

I now believe the bat car is this car, or one of these? Not the Pactra body. Please correct me on what you know.

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[MattD]

The 10 car has the chin spoilers, I guess to help hold the front end down and add traction to steering.    Compared to what we see today (60 years later),  the front nose design looks like an airplane you are trying to get airborne.   I assume the spoilers were an attempt to overcome this flaw in design?    Is this right or am I totally  missing what's going on  with the nose design.     

[Martin]

I was trying to figure out which car was used for the Bat Car. So I found all those pics to compare.

This is my guess.

The Bat car has a Monocoque chassis and the only pic I can find other than the one with wings is this one.

Same wheels, same number same Monocoque chassis. It has a different motor in this pic.

Clearly NOT the Pactra body and I am not sure if this slot body was ever made?

In this pic it has a modified tail and engine cover and has sprouted a small spoiler.

 

I do realize some of this info and pics arerehashed but now we have Shawn onboard it always good to get a fresh eye on the subject IMO.

 

Is there a body that would be a good start for the a slot version of the Indy Bat car?

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[Martin]

This is the car about to meet its fate before the start of the 1966 Indy 500 with now with Chevy's duck-tail as Shawn mentions.

 

By 1969 most cars at Indy had sprouted wings. Why did it take so long I wonder? Remember most F1 cars had fully adopted wings in 1968.

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[Martin]

Some great footage here.https://www.youtube....h?v=x7N_nXQmYoc

 

Good pics of the 96 car on the outside of the last row and then after the crash during clean up. 9min.35 seconds in.

 

Cant help speculating if the car had had the wing designed by Shawn it may have been ahead of this crash. Of course I realize it may have been in the middle of it also.

[Martin]

Finally found pics of the 1964 car that Pactra made a body of.  It is the only pics I can find with the intake boxes covering the stacks.

All (Pactra) features in, louvers, gills etc. on these #96 pics. Even the body (tank) straps are there.

 

Man they had young boys as tech inspectors back then or maybe he is collecting autographs? (see middle of middle pic)

 

Oh, and found another painted Pactra body in my search. I think factory painted no less.

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