Do you enjoy open wheel racing history?

[herr_oberst]

If so, you might want to check out these items I recently found -

First is a re-release of a movie from 1971 called "Weekend of a Champion"

It stars Jackie Stewart as he goes about the business of trying to win the 1971 Monaco GP.
Wonderful film, tons of vintage racing cars, lots of in car footage, Jackie Stewart is in almost every scene, discussing how his weekend is going with the director (who just happens to be Roman Polanski - please, don't parf this up.)
Available on Netflix.

Second, a great book called "Beast", this tells the story of how Roger Penske, Mario Illien and Paul Morgan took advantage of a wrinkle in the rulebook to create a brand new racing engine from scratch in only 11 months for the 1994 Indy 500.
If you've not heard the story, you really should research it - it is amazing, and one of the reasons that CART used to be so damn great. If you do know the story, this book will astonish you on how much work was involved, most of it done in complete secrecy by a very few men in a very short amount of time.

[Noah930]

That Penske Ilmor (Mercedes) motor was the short pushrod one, right?

[herr_oberst]

Yep. It was allowed 10 extra pounds of boost, (55 instead of 45) and they decided that that carrot was just too tempting.

[Noah930]

Something like 950 HP?

Lil Al won the race, and then failed even to qualify the following year.

[David]

I also suggest the documentary "1" about F1 that's been showing on NBC Sports the last month or so.

[nota]

the Penske Ilmor (Mercedes) motor was allowed the extra boost under old INDY rules
not CART rules for stock block pushrod motors

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by nota

the Penske Ilmor (Mercedes) motor was allowed the extra boost under old INDY rules
not CART rules for stock block pushrod motors

This is an excellent point.

However, remember, the reason this door was open for Penske is that USAC took away the requirement that the engine be a stock block. Purpose-built 2 valve pushrod racing engines were allowed for the first time in 1994 and were treated to ten extra inches of boost.

[tchanson]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

This is an excellent point.

However, remember, the reason this door was open for Penske is that USAC took away the requirement that the engine be a stock block. Purpose-built 2 valve pushrod racing engines were allowed for the first time in 1994 and were treated to ten extra inches of boost.

And the yellow shirted geezers at USAC likely couldn't conceive that anyone would actually go ahead and build a new pushrod engine from scratch....

I was sure they didn't shed any tears when Penske failed to qualify at all the following year in '95.

[Kraftwerk]

"Weekend of a Champion"

Is now on Netflix. Grab it while you can: great racing discussion, sideburns and Monaco history
of the 29th season, 1971.