Just a foot note. The first English rear engined green car at
Indianapolis was a Cooper Climax driven by Jack Brabhama in 1960. It
was not at the race until 1961. Cooper had a new car for Jack but
they were half way around the world from each other and a deal was
made to meet at Indianapolis to test the car, with the official
timers for Indianapolis. The timers were amazed that Jack was doing
lap times faster than what was needed to qualify for Indianapolis in
a new untried car. Also that he was changing his lap times by a few
seconds in a fixed pattern. As a result of these test Jack and the
car came back and qualified for the 1961 race where he finished ninth
- - - - but he was running on Dunlop tries for grand prix racing not
special Indy tires (contract with Dunlop would not let him run on any
other tire) and his car was centered between the wheels rather than
being off set to the inside of the track like the other Indy cars.
Oh and his engine was smaller. Not taking away from Jimmy Clarks
achievements but Jack's performance always seemed amazing to me.
Bob Kitterer
1960 Austin Healey Sprite (Mk IV in disguise)
1966 Austin Healey Sprite Mk III (Trevor) - still in boxes
2000 Miata Special Edition
On Jun 25, 2008, at 11:47 PM, B- Evans wrote:
> At least as many! However, I don't believe Americans became
> attached to
> BRG until long after they had discovered OEW. I have always
> thought it was
> related to the Indianapolis superstition about cars being painted
> green
> being bad luck. I wonder how many remember the hue and cry in
> 1965, when
> Jimmy Clark came to Indianapolis with his green Lotus-Ford? Some
> drivers
> threatened to boycott the race, and many snickered at Clark and Colin
> Chapman for having the engine mounted in the REAR of the car, of
> all places.
>
>
>
> The Flying Scot, of course, showed them all, not only with the BRG
> paint,
> but also becoming the first driver with a rear-engine car to win it
> all.
> BRG was suddenly the "in" color for sports cars.
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