The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum: INSIDE The "Off Limits" Restoration Shop! (Indy 500 Winners)

We don't need to hear this here. Are we exempt? Yes, you are exempt. You know, as the car shifted its balance, they were still touching, and that was banned pretty quickly. So, these are your weight lifts. We just got into this truck that came out of the secret basement of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, and we're with Luke Edwards, and he's going to take us to the restoration shop. The former owners of the track, the Hulman family, were involved in the start of a racing team called Hal Racing. They have two small buildings there that were perfectly suited for car restoration. So, this will be the first former IndyCar racing garage we'll be visiting . I didn't even know. It's definitely not the first, but it's probably one of the last that's still intact and, you know, still has the main structure standing . The first one we've been to. We haven't done anything personal in IndyCar , and right now we have a very special IndyCar. Which of these buildings was the first workshop? Both. Both? Yes, they were built at the same time. In my early or mid-50s, I'm pretty sure. Oh. So don't yell at me in the comments if I'm wrong. I'll find out . This is the first IndyCar workshop we've been to, and it's the oldest one. We don't have to listen to this here. Are we exempt? You are exempt. Yes. Yes. What do you think? We have exclusive access to this place. Yes, look, you learn something every time you come here. To these places. We always pick up these little organizational tips and use them in our own garage. We do the same. So this is our big project underway right now . This is the Lotus 29 from 1960 or 1963, chassis number one. Dan Gurney drove this car. It was a great moment in the history of the Indianapolis 500 because roadsters, front-engined roadsters, and tubular-frame cars were dominating the market. They were a staple of American single-seater racing. Dan Gurney had already been racing and experimenting with a rear-engined car built by Mickey Thompson in the Indy 500. He had raced it in 1962. He met Colin Chapman and already had a connection with Ford, he established that relationship and brought Jim Clark and Colin Chapman from Lotus and they brought what in the United States they call a fun car, which is a monocoque made entirely of aluminum. So , you know, there's no tubular frame chassis here. Super lightweight. It weighs around 1100 pounds, compared to roadsters of the era that weighed around 1500 pounds. And they took a variation of their stock 260 V8 block pushrod engine with carburetor. Well, this is a 256 cubic inch Ford R engine with Weber carburetors. It looks like a standard small-block Ford , but it has extra cylinder head bolts down there. Yes. Is that where the R comes from? I'm not sure where the R came from. I only know that it's the designation. But I've been doing some research because the standard small-block Ford doesn't have these cylinder head bolts down here. It's only in this top row. It's interesting. Yes, I don't work much with standard engines. I'm only in contact with these modified ones, but this really brought Ford back into the game. You know, at that time they were also developing the GT40. And then they turned to the four- cam and four-cam engine, and in the four- cam and four-cam engine they changed the intakes and the exhaust. They had what we call the snake bag escape that came out. So, it simply had better airflow. So, in a way, they shortened everything and that engine dominated. It won in 1965 with Jim Clark for the first time and then was continuously developed into an engine that Ed Pink ended up working with. Is that the engine that A.J. Did Foyt end up watching? Yes. We saw one of those engines at the Speedway Motors Museum. Where you mention it's like a hot V design where the manifolds come out through... Yes. In here. Yes. I know exactly what we 're talking about. Yes. So it worked with natural aspiration for a few years. He won a couple of races like that, and then, in the late 60s, early 70s , they started turbocharging them. The Offy began to recover, and the old Offy design is the engine with the most wins in the 500, and it is a turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine . Well, then he started pushing Ford's four-cam engines , and then Ford said, " Well, it looks like turbocharging is the way to go." So they started turbocharging the four-cam Fords , and then Foyt basically bought all the machining, all the rights to that engine, all the blueprints. And then he put his name on the engine cover. So we can see one of those in the museum. We have a couple of them. It will be great to see them. But yes, this is one of the Foyt engines. This is just ... Does anyone remember Dan Gurney as the Gurney Bubble, the GT40, because he was a taller guy? How the hell do you get into this car? It's not even a car. It's only big enough to fit one person, an engine, and wheels. Oh, yes. It's crazy. Yes, we call them purebred cars. As you can see from the shape, they don't have anything else. And the funny thing is, you know, Dan's shoulders stuck out a little , but not too much in this car. And the car was developed for Jim Clark, who was much smaller. So Dan found a way to get into the cabins of these tiny cars as if it were origami. And he did quite well in this one too. He was originally supposed to drive chassis number two. He messed it up in training. So they put it at number one. They only had three in total, so they only had one spare. I believe he finished seventh in this car, and his teammate Jim Clark finished second. So this car here is one of the catalysts for the IndyCar we know today. Rear-mounted, low and lightweight engine. This is what alerted the front-engined roadsters and let everyone know that the European teams were here, that they were coming. They were married to American brands and power, and it ended up being a winning strategy. It has about 370 horsepower. Some of the figures I saw when they started developing it were around 325. And then they reached about 376 on a dynamometer. And I saw some figures that said that by the end of the '63 season, they had reached over 380 horsepower on a dynamometer with this. And you have to think about, you know, almost 400 horsepower in something that weighs 1100 pounds. It's a rocket . 1100 with the engine and ready to run, not just the chassis. 1100 with the engine. Yes. And yet I could still take the corner at about 142 mph on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was about 5 mph faster than the best roadster at mid-apex, fully loaded. And this qualified, you know what? In fact, I have to look for it. His average speed here, I think, was 149 in qualifying. I don't have the exact figure, but I think it was 149.0 in the classification. Well, your top speed was 170 at the end of the straight because they still had to let off the throttle and do weight transfer and all that back then. Where was this car found? How much of it was found in its original state or was it recreated? I mean, this intake manifold looks like it was probably original, and these manifolds will probably work too. Their technology was not the right one. It wasn't up to the standard we have today. So it's almost all original. We've reviewed it and , you know, when we do restorations, we replace pipes, but we try to keep everything as original as possible. In fact, it was preserved. Ford had it in their museum and then they donated it to us. So you'll see things like conduits to make the car work. We will replace the ducts. We could replace some accessories, some screws, but we try to preserve everything, such as the bodywork, the main components of the car, the suspension components. If we can refurbish something, if we can recoat something, that's usually how we do it. We try not to manufacture anything unless it is missing or cannot be repaired. We are now in the museum section. The fans chose this entire exhibition. We held a vote. We had a large number of cars. And we let all the fans vote. You could vote as many times as you wanted. So, if you're passionate about a car, you could vote for it every day. We have the results right here on this board. The 1964 Lotus took the crown. He won by a wide margin. Mario's car came in third, the '72 Smokey Yunick. And this is the first time we've done something like this , so it was a lot of fun. And that VPJ, that car of Mario's, actually has a great connection with Ed Pink because Parnelli Jones was the first team to approach Ed for help developing, I think it was a few connecting rods when they were converting their Formula 1 V8 Cosworth DFB into a turbocharged Indy Cosworth V8. And they were so impressed that, as far as I understand, they brought him over and six teams ended up hiring him to build complete engines, and we have one of those engines back here, so I like how everything is on the ground. Yes. I do n't like going to museums where everything is on a pedestal. You can't go more than 3 meters away from him. Like here , you can go and look at the car and see the details and not feel like it's real. And we want the guests to get close enough to really see what the cars are made of, what they look like. And of course, if you're like any other racing or car enthusiast, what's the first thing you do? You're trying to look inside the driver's seat , aren't you? You look at what the cabin is like. But yes, this is one of our Ed Pink engines right here. This is one of the six teams he worked with, Tim Richmond's team . And the chassis it's in is actually a Penske chassis that they bought . It's a year old, it was a 1979 PC-7. And he won the Rookie of the Year award with it. He finished ninth. He gave a great performance. In fact, he ran out of fuel on the lap trying to get back to the pits after the finish line, and got into Johnny Rutherford's car and went back to the pits. Because I was stranded at the north end of the track and Johnny had just won. I was feeling it. So he saw Tim standing there . He says, "Did you run out of gas?" He says, "Yes." He says, "Get in." And Tim had a famous quote . He says, "Well, if you can't win, then get on with the winner. It's the best option." Well, in case you didn't know, Tim Richmond had a career in IndyCar before coming to NASCAR, which I think he's better known for . Of course. The story I always heard is that his mother saw the accident he was in and told him, "No, you won't be racing in Indy Car anymore ." I don't know if it's an old story, but it makes sense because I'm pretty sure his family supported him for a long time. Yes. I don't blame her. Can I walk over to see the cabin? Look at the seat. It's very small. A very small steering wheel . It looks like an airplane gauge. Yes, it's crazy. You said you had this here because when we were at Ed's house a couple of weeks ago, one of the pictures on his wall was of him standing with Tim. Oh really? Probably for this car. Yes, and I think by now, I'm sure Ed talked more about this , as he was actually doing the complete engine builds for Tim's team, and I believe for Tom Evas as well. Look at that enormous relief valve. Turbo system technology has advanced a lot. And in these cars, they obviously have their own wastegate right on the turbo, but they ordered that what they call the wastegate be placed on top of the manifold . And this was a sanctioning body at that time, it was called CART, championship teams for automobile racing. So they all had a regulated flush valve . So if I overcame a certain pressure, I would jump. Of course, teams tried to manipulate them, especially in qualifying, but the key was that you wanted to get as close as possible because if that thing came loose, you lost all the boost pressure. And then you had to wind it up again. So the teams were trying to do this dance of getting as close as possible without triggering the alarm . Once it fired, did it come back down or did it get stuck and you were screwed? He went back down. It works with springs, so it's actually mechanical. Then it closed again, but when I released it, I'm sure it lost a little more pressure than the maximum . I think Tim's family, I think his father invented a machine to make tunnels under roads to lay pipes and things like that. I believe that's where Tim Richmond's career was funded . Well, they say that to make a small fortune in racing, you have to start with a big one. So. Yes. Do any of these cars race? In this exhibition, I mean, almost everyone can run. Lately we have focused on winning cars. The Lotus can race. I think the VPJ can work. But these will be further down our list. Our top priority was to get as many Indy 500-winning cars racing as possible. You can pause and read this. If they have any liquid, you'll see it on the floor. That's how things are. But we pickle all engines, especially, you know, the ones that run on alcohol. So we have to wash all that off because it can cause a lot of corrosion if it's on the block. And we used the Sneva car this year. Ah, yes, here's one of the Foyt engines. You can see that it says Foyt on the cam cover. Oh. I just saw the FO. I imagined he was saying Ford. I hadn't even realized I had n't seen it before. Mhm. Good point. It's the same as Ford's. You see the FO and you accept it. Yes. I mean, look at it. Well, no, it's exactly the same. Yes. But notice that these transaxles have a small drive shaft that protrudes from the back. Did they start the car with them or something? What's the purpose of that? Yes, they were external starter motors, and that's how Indy cars still start today. Really? That's interesting. Cover. You should be able to see the teeth. Yes. Almost a dead end there. That's great. I don't know if I'm trying to ruin it. Look, I'm glad you told me to do it because that's why I asked you to overlook this because I knew what you were going to say. But in other videos where it says "Do not touch" and I start touching things even though we're allowed to, the comments are like: "It says not to touch. Touch. Why are you touching things?" As if you didn't believe they were saying, "Go open it, you know, open the cupboards." I'll call the ones in yellow shirts, you know, to come running and yell at us. In fact, our guides are very involved in this. A racing car. Well, there's a lot to see here. We can watch whatever you want, sure. I'm sorry. Well, yes, that's one of the... It's the first Cosworth DFX to win the race . I like how they use inches of mercury instead of pounds per square inch for manifold pressure. It has... In this row, one of the Johnny Lightning engines works, and I'm talking about the last 5 years, we use... One of the Johnny Lightning engines is good, so we change it depending on which one we want to use that year. The 1978 one is a Lola. This one works too. I think we used it last year or the year before. This is the winner from 1980. We used it this year. We disassembled it in a similar way to the Lotus, down to the last detail. We removed each nut and bolt. Well, we restored almost everything that was metallic and had a finish. Well, I wouldn't call it a complete restoration, but it comes pretty close . The beautiful petrol yellow. It is? Yes. Wow. I didn't know Penske's pearly petrol yellow went back so far . You said yes. Is this from 1980? Yes. Well, this is the car Tim Richmond traveled in. Yes. And it was developed to reach the rear of the car with enormous diffusers. Well, this is from 1978 and this is the ground effect. If you look at the difference between the two cars, if you zoom in here, you can see the huge tunnels that use Bernoulli's principle to create that air that moves faster underneath the car compared to the air passing over it, turning the whole car into a wing. Now, when this car won, were there still cars on the grid that looked like it? Was this one of those cars that, when they arrived, made people say, "Damn, what have they done? We're screwed"? Oh, right. Yes, it came out in 1979 and Al Unser was driving one, and they had some mechanical problems. I think their fuel pump broke down or something. But yes, this was another moment of surprise, similar to the Lotus moment, where we thought: "Well, now we all have to adapt. Now we all have to change the rules of the game." And then you get to 1982 and you see that they've developed the car's floor and, of course, the technical regulations are starting to try to catch up and slow them down, but from this point on, you know, ground effects became part of the car development game . See how much they can move the aileron on this one too, compared to others. It had the small nuts on the side. That gave it a lot of adjustability. And this was inspired by the Lotus that won the F1 championship. Well, if you look at Mario Andretti's Lotus, the F1 champion, and look at its profile, it's like, well, I see where they're going. In '78, when Mario won them? In '78 or '79. Interesting. And this is another driving force behind Ed Pink. Of course, the bodywork covers it up a bit more. We believe you. It's there. And I have some GoPro footage in action and some external stuff I can send you so you can hear it, and that would be great. Is it a Cosworth? Yes. Yes, a Cosworth V8 DFX. I would love to have it. All 161 cubic inches, about 2.6 L. A big single turbocharger. And this is a March 83C chassis. You can see that they're still using an aluminum monocoque at the bottom, but they've started using carbon fiber up here and around the dashboard. When did they switch to all carbon and get rid of the aluminum? One of the first ones is right here, from 1986. This is another March chassis. And this is one of the last ones, as if we had to take it completely apart. There is still a little bit of aluminum left at the bottom. You can see it right there. Ah, yes. How much of the main frame rail do you think is carbon fiber ? I believe that in 1988 Penske chassis were made entirely of carbon fiber. And the closest thing we have to bridging that gap is what we call the hottest, the 1990 Domino's winner with Arie Luyendyk, who also raced with Ed Pink engines shortly before winning the 500. Who were the other prominent engine manufacturers of that era? Who was winning races back then? Well, there was the Ilmor factory, which developed the Chevy engines, and that was a movement led by Penske. I think it was in 1986, he brought a special Penske chassis. He also had some March chassis and brought a car that raced with a Chevy and the development was so promising that they kept going and going with it and then they had what they called the Chevy Indy V8 engine and that's what 's here too. That's what led Rick Mears to victory in 1988 and 1991. So Ilmor is still involved in the game. They continue to build the Chevy engines that are currently in IndyCars. They built the Beast, which was an engine with the Mercedes badge, and to ask if you had one of those here. I think we're looking after one that's in the basement because Roger just made some kind of deal, but we don't own the car. Roger owns that car and won the 1994 Indy 500. But yes, the same design firm, the same engineering firm built it. But you can see that it was in 1990 that they first switched to digital dashboards. That's what we call a Pi board. And you'll see that that same board was used until the early 2000s. And that was cutting-edge technology back then. At this point, the gear changes are sequential. You read my mind. That's what this little knob down here is for. Yes, at this point, you know, they don't use the clutch when they're going at high speed . They only use it in the pits and it's sequential , only up and down. You no longer do the H pattern. What are those two little levers down there ? Well, these are the weight lifts . You have it in front and behind. And essentially what it does is allow you to have a torsion bar with this shape between the springs. And when it's in an upright position, it has more…