Sumar Streamliner

[lance]

Someone posted this to facebook the other day, thought it needed sharing.

[Deleted]

Pretty Wild!!

[jamesharvey]

This was an interesting car and caused a great deal of interest and controversy when it appeared at Indy in 1955. There were two "streamliners" at Indy that year, the #48 Sumar was owned by Chapman Root and driven by Jimmy Daywalt. He eventually qualified it with the streamliner bodywork removed because he said he needed to see the tires. Another part of the "open wheel" thinking. Marshall Teague lost his life in this car at Daytona attempting to set a closed course speed record. The other car was the #33 Belond Miracle Power Special driven by Jim Rathmann. It was constructed by Quinn Epperly and raced with the panels intact. There was a third car in the works for Bill Vukovich but was not ready by May and never raced at Indy. Walt can tell more of the story of these cars. This experiment was not confined to Indy; note Mercedes Grand Prix cars in 1955. They raced both ways: open wheel and closed bodies.
Jim

[spyder]

Two notes: the Sumar Streamliner is restored and displayed at the Chapman Root Family supported Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach.  It is displayed along with the Kurtis 500G roadster and the John Blough built Championship dirt car and other artifacts from the era in which they raced.


The third Streamliner planned for the 1955 500 is the Howard Keck car.  To me, it was/is the most beautiful of the three.  A very ambitious project, it was planned to be powered by a Novi engine which Lew Welch would not make available.  As a fall back Keck, along with his wiz kids mechanics/engineers, Travers and Coons (yes, those guys of Traco fame), went to Leo Goosen to provide an engine. And this is where the project stalled out forcing Vuki to look for a ride elsewhere.  When Vuki died the project died - until 1985 when the car was completed with a 270 Offy.  It is occasionally seen at vintage events here on the East Coast. One last note, the sharply tapered and broad tail had a cockpit adjustable "elevon". This is possibly the first driver controlled aero devise.

I could be wrong,but I believe Mercedes used the streamlined bodies on their GP cars in 1954 and all three Indy streamliners were a response by those who had their fingers on the pulse of racing on the Continent.  spyder

[alterrenner]

Vintage Motorsport Magazine ran a feature article on the Sumar Streamliner a few months back. I'll have to dig through a few stacks of unorganized, "already read" stacks of magazines in the den to figure out which months it was.

[racerbrown]

i'm glad the idea never really caught on.
can you imagine a full field of fendered cars at indy.
duane

[Calvin]

Dec 23, 2014 7:02:03 GMT -5 racerbrown said:

i
can you imagine a full field of fendered cars at indy.

Well Duane, there was once a time that the speedway did run fendered cars....they called it the brickyard 400....then back in 2019 they stop holding that race as no one showed up.

[racerbrown]

i meant race cars not taxi cabs...
duane

[clm1545]

You could call the DW12 a half fendered car

[Patrick]

Dec 23, 2014 15:48:59 GMT -5 clm1545 said:

You could call the DW12 a half fendered car

My sentiments exactly.
Patrick

[hurtubise56]

An oddity during the creative years is one thing, but a whole field of "half-fendered" spec cars is too much!

Brian

[mjjracer]

Dec 23, 2014 18:58:03 GMT -5 Patrick said:

Dec 23, 2014 15:48:59 GMT -5 clm1545 said:

You could call the DW12 a half fendered car

My sentiments exactly.
Patrick

I personally like to refer the the DW12 as the Kim Kardashian Racer. A bit too much booty on both.
MJ

[trevor83]

Dec 22, 2014 8:53:18 GMT -5 spyder said:

The third Streamliner planned for the 1955 500 is the Howard Keck car.  To me, it was/is the most beautiful of the three.  A very ambitious project, it was planned to be powered by a Novi engine which Lew Welch would not make available.  As a fall back Keck, along with his wiz kids mechanics/engineers, Travers and Coons (yes, those guys of Traco fame), went to Leo Goosen to provide an engine. And this is where the project stalled out forcing Vuki to look for a ride elsewhere.  When Vuki died the project died - until 1985 when the car was completed with a 270 Offy.  It is occasionally seen at vintage events here on the East Coast. One last note, the sharply tapered and broad tail had a cockpit adjustable "elevon". This is possibly the first driver controlled aero devise.

This car was recently on ebay with asking price of $750,000. I wish I had downloaded the pictures, its a beautiful car.

[alterrenner]

When I first saw the DW12 on it's debut at St. Pete', my first thought was that I was getting two-races-in-one: Indy cars coming, and LMP cars going. Not a beautiful car, but still a race car, built for a purpose. Frank

[INDY22IAM]

The DW-12 is a nice looking race car. It does grow on you. I really like the Speedway looking bumpers, especially on the die cast and model cars. You cannot argue the results it has giving as far as racing and safety. Dario may not have been with us today in his crash if he was in the older car. If you get a chance go and visit the Dallara factory it is worth the price to see and a lot of their technology is safety first than racing. I do not think anyone out there can argue the last 3 Indy 500 have been great racing. Like last years who could have ever predicted that we would not see a yellow come out till way over the halfway point of the race.

[Chris]

The Keck Streamliner was indeed a beautiful race car, I saw this car at the NHRA Museum a few years back but assumed it was just another Bonneville car, I have some detail pics somewhere.. Chris
Ps. the flipper on the rear was really a neat touch...