It's alive and still racing: 1932 Indy car #46 [Now with video link!!!]

[garyash]

[BobPalma]

Excellent news and report, Gary; thanks. ('Hate it when things fall off the face of the earth....) BP

[SN-60]

Sure like to see it sold back to someone over here though. Wonder if Bob Valpey has room for another car??

[Chris_Dresbach]

Glad to see that the car still exists. Looks to be in good condition, but it looks like part of the 46 may have gotten rubbed off. If the car ends up for sale again, there ya go Gary...

[57pack]

Great news Gary!
How's your Indy race car coming along?
Would be a nice comparison with pictures of #46 and your car!

[SN-60]

Didn't realize the Indy Museum's restoration facility restored the black #46 car. I believe that they also restored (and the Museum still owns) the red #22 car.

[garyash]

https://plus.google.com/117496407846105440935#117496407846105440935/posts

[SN-60]

Great videos Gary!....Thanks. Do You think that the brakes on #46 have been updated? I think they look different from what I remember seeing on #37.

[garyash]

Ed, the Indy cars originally used the 12" cable-operated brakes from the 1929-31 Dictators with stamped-steel drums. That provide enough stopping power to get the cars off the trailers, but during Indy racing they were only used for pit stops. Since the Studebaker cars now get run at Laguna Seca, Mt. Washington hill climb, Lime Rock, Milwaukee Mile, etc., they needed better brakes because the steel drums change shape when hot, so #18, #37, and #34 now use cast iron Buick drums from 1960's cars like Rivieras. While Valpey's #37 car still has the cable-operated mechanisms, the others have hydraulic brakes. I don't know about #22 in the Indy Museum. Because of the narrower shoes which are used in these cars to fit the backing plates, the Buick drums have been turned down to remove the outer edges. It looks like #46 also got this drum treatment, and probably hydraulic brakes, as well. There are both 45-fin and 90-fin versions of the iron drums around.

I'm using '63 Riviera backing plates in front and '60 LeSabre backing plates in the rear plus newly designed hubs to allow the use of full-width, 90-fin, Buick aluminum drums with the knock-off, wire-spoke 18" wheels.

Here are the brakes on #37 and my aluminum drums (on the rear axle).

[SN-60]

That's very interesting Gary! So in the brake department, Valpey's #37 is probably the most original of all the factory team cars?

[Skybolt]

Interesting. I saw a video a few months ago about a Studebaker Indy race car in Germany that was a replica and they said it cost about $1M. I'm not sure if it was this car and they were saying that it would cost that much to replicate or that it was a replica. I have been trying to find the video again but so far no luck. It was two guys out the back of a workshop and they took it for a test drive. At the time I had just come back from the Studebaker museum and was looking for as much info on the Indy cars. Len.

[MarioD]

Interesting. I saw a video a few months ago about a Studebaker Indy race car in Germany that was a replica and they said it cost about $1M. I'm not sure if it was this car and they were saying that it would cost that much to replicate or that it was a replica. I have been trying to find the video again but so far no luck. It was two guys out the back of a workshop and they took it for a test drive. At the time I had just come back from the Studebaker museum and was looking for as much info on the Indy cars. Len.

[SN-60]

Gary,.....Sounds like the race to completion is on!

[t walgamuth]

Very cool!

[MarioD]

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