Bobby Unser’s #9 Novi. Notice the mechanic behind the car with STP “pajamas”
(first posted 6/16/2012) Andy Granatelli, the CEO of STP (Scientifically Treated Petroleum) was a shameless huckster. But he was also a bona fide hot rodder with a long association as a car builder/owner at the Indy 500. Granatelli’s first love was the Ford flathead V8. His second were the Novi racecars.
Granatelli ruffled feathers at Indy with his showmanship. In 1965 he outfitted all Novi crewmembers with STP “pajamas”. He wore an STP logo-bedecked suit himself, complete with tie. He also painted whitewalls on the cars for easier identification.
The Novis first raced at Indy in 1941. Granatelli bought the rights to the Novi name and cars and competed at Indy from 1961 through 1965 with the Novis. The car’s greatest distinction was that it never won a Champ Car race.
Bobby Unser’s #9 Novi. Unser qualified 8th but finished 19th due to a broken oil line.
When Granatelli bought the Novi cars he discovered that despite their fearsome reputation for power (and evil nature – two Novi drivers, Chet Miller and Ralph Hepburn, died in practice in 1953), their superchargers were actually running too fast, entering into a stall situation. Granatelli, as the owner of Paxton superchargers, knew a thing or two about huffers. By 1965 it is estimated that the Novis were putting out 830+ hp.
Bobby Unser’s #9 Novi. To harness the horsepower and get it to the ground, Granatelli ran a Ferguson all-wheel drive chassis.
Bobby Unser’s #9 Novi ran a Ferguson AWD system in an attempt to harness all the horsepower. Granatelli later used the Ferguson technology on other Indy racecars. Naturally, Indy outlawed AWD when Granatelli’s cars began to threaten the status quo.
Jim Hurtubise’s #59 Novi on Carburation Day. Hurtubise’s Novi ran a Kurtis chassis with rear-wheel drive.
Jim Hurtubise’s Novi qualified 23rd but left the race after one lap with a busted transmission. He finished last. But it was a strikingly powerful graphic scheme that made the car memorable. Hot red/orange paint job with engine-turned gold leaf lettering.
And there was the sound of the Novis-a piercing scream that was even louder than the 4-cam Fords. The Offy’s muted roar may as well have been running mufflers.
The #54 driven by Bob Veith qualified 10th but finished 24th with a burned piston in his MG Liquid Suspension Special.
Innovation wasn’t confined to Jim Clark’s Lotus or Granatelli’s Novis. With Jack Brabham’s ninth-place finish with an F1 Cooper Climax in 1961, constructors began to see that chassis and engines didn’t have to be designed to compete on the Champ Car Trail (which included dirt tracks), but could be purpose-built for the Indy 500. Mickey Thompson showed up in 1962 with a rear-engine car powered by an aluminum 215 Buick V8 enlarged to 256 cu in. Thompson’s car was the only car that wasn’t powered by an Offy, and the only rear-engine car in the race. All other cars were Watson, Kurtis, Epperly, Lesovsky or similar front engine, rear-wheel drive Dinosaurs with Offy engines.
Team owner Kjell Qvale (a San Francisco importer of British cars) entered three cars built by Joe Huffaker (a race car builder in Sonoma, CA who still runs a race shop to this day) using Offys but sprung by hydrolastic suspensions lifted from MG sedans. These cars were beautiful and entered for Jerry Grant, who qualified 17th, and finished 27th, and Walt Hansgen, who qualified 21st and finished 14th in addition to Bob Veith. It was rumored that someone had doctored the fuel of these cars, which were running in the top ten, before they all fell out with fuel-related problems.
The #41 BRP Ford driven by Masten Gregory
The MG Liquid Suspension Specials weren’t the only exotics. British Racing Partnership (BRP) built two new rear engine cars for Masten Gregory and Johnny Boyd. BRP was formed in 1957 by Alfred Moss (Sterling Moss’s father) and Ken Gregory (no relation to Masten), to provide Masten with decent Formula 1 equipment.
The cars were sponsored (and presumably financed by), Masten Gregory’s stepfather, George Bryant.
Masten Gregory’s #14 BRP Ford
As far as I know, the BRPs were the only Indy cars made by this English partnership. They ran with mid-pack finishes on the USAC trail for the next two years, then disappeared.
But I see by the puzzled looks on your collective faces the question, “who the hell was Masten Gregory”?
Gregory’ Four Cam Ford with its distinctive “Bundle of Snakes” exhaust system
Masten Gregory, also known as the “Kansas City Flash”, began his racing career in 1952. His father, a very successful Kansas City, MO insurance mogul, died when Masten was only three. Masten did what normal 20-year old trust fund babies did, he bought a Mercury-powered Allard and began competing in the SCCA. Soon he was racing sports cars and Formula 1 machines in Europe where he earned a reputation for being fast. He was said to have been Jim Clark’s idol. Anyhow, to me, at the age of 16, he was exotic regardless of who idolized him. In 1965, Gregory qualified 31st and finished 23 (oil pressure), nothing to suggest that three weeks later he would win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with co-driver Jochen Rindt driving a N.A.R.T. Ferrari 275 LM. It was the first time in Le Mans history that an American driver, driving for an American team (N.A.R.T., i.e., North American Racing Team, was owned by Ferrari dealer Luigi Chinetti of Greenwich, CT).
Johnny Boyd’s #14 BRP Ford
Gregory’s teammate, Johnny Boyd, fared a little bit better than Masten, qualifying 29th but finishing 13th with a failed transmission. The Ford four-cammers were said to have cost $15,000 each in 1965. That translates into about $150,000 today, a relative bargain in the racing game.
The innovative years of any sport are always more interesting. Too bad those years tend to be short.
I used to obsess on the Novis as a kid; they were like mythical creatures or such. Amazing engines, and absolutely cursed. I guess I wasn’t the only one. Thanks for bringing back the memories, and the great photos. They look so crude now!
Me too, crude but fantastic. I wonder how they justified banning 4WD. “Nobody would ever put 4WD in a street car.”
Never knew about Mickey Thompson’s rear engine in ’62, always thought Jimmy Clark’s Lotus was first.
These personal snapshots are super. Great series, can’t wait for the next one about the turbine cars I hope?
Mike,
Sorry, the STP turbine cars didn’t arrive until 1967 and I didn’t return to Indy until 1977. More on that at a later date.
In spite of being a massive blowhard and self-promoter, one of the best books that I have read on Indy has been Andy Granatelli’s “They Call Me Mr. 500”. Long out of print but probably available used on Amazon. The reason for AWD being banned is discussed in the book, but I don’t have access to it at the moment.
Well thanks for these articles Kevin, they’re unique.
Mike,
You get bonus points for not saying “very unique”.
I just checked Amazon. There is a used paperback available for $4.30. BUY IT!
I read ‘turbine cars’ and my mind automatically went to these guys. What awesome times in F1.
I always enjoyed studying the chassis and engine combinations of the 60s and 70s. Far more interesting than the kit cars of today.
Visit my Facebook blog “Looking Back Racing” and find some chassis and engine combos that existed, and some that should have. Or advise me of ones I have overlooked.
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the Indy articles, and the vintage photos. Never gets old, so to speak.
Ditto
Kevin: These articles are well done and they are appreciated. I think they are very very unique.
You sir, get no bonus points. In fact, a massive amount of points have been subtracted from your score and you are now on Double Secret Probation!
How about extremely unique?
You too, Double Secret Probation!
I’m a bit offended that you don’t think I know who Masten Gregory was. As a kid my uncle gave me a copy of Putnam’s 1953 “The book of sports cars” and there is a nice write up on Gregory who was very young with a reputation for bailing out of crashing cars. So in 1977 my racing heroes were Masten Gregory, Denise McCluggage, Williams, etc.
Also he’s mentioned in the “Last Open Road” series which EVERY CC regular reader should also have read by now.
Anybody got a drawing of what the NOVI engine looked like inside? Certainly the cars were very purposeful / sledgehammer-y looking.
No offense meant. You have to be an old fart like me to be conversant with the likes of Masten Gregory.
There are quite a few images of the Novi V8 on Google. Search for “novi indy engines” under Images and you can get an idea what the engines looked like on the out side. The innards probably look very much like the Offy as the Novi engine was designed by Leo Goosen.
No offense taken actually. I’m (only?) 45 but a lot of my tastes and cultural references are backdated, being the child of immigrants and by getting my hands on my Uncles’ car books.
During the ’80s when everyone was into pro street rods and the whole billet coddington thing I was reading Rod and Custom magazines from around 1970 and telling my friends “no, this is a hot rod..”
Agreed…… I still don’t understand the ‘love-affair’ with Coddington’s designs—especially the dreck featured on his most recent tv program.
blech.
I’m in my mid 40s – so it’s all a bit before I was cognizant of these things, but can’t you equate Masten Gregory w/ Peter Revson?
Both playboy type, children of privilege that actually exhibited racing talent and finally received the respect of their peers, albeit begrudgingly)?
Sports Cars Illustrated did a Clarence LaTourette cutaway of the Novi engine but my archives was removed from my control before that one got scanned. However I tidied up a similar one of the Stude Goossen DOHC to show you what we are missing. On the Novi the cam drive was at the flywheel end like so many prewar engines, and a jackshaft ran to the other end for the supercharger drive, where its length acted like a torsional damper. The large diameter impeller was fed by a square throat horizontal aircraft carb and emptied into a really poor hunk of untuned plumbing, visible after the original horizontal air to air intercooler was scrapped. The bottom end was pure Offy, with three cheeses bolted around the three mains and then dropped endwise into the barrel crankcase like a camshaft. The cylinder blocks were integral with the combustion chambers and the cam boxes were machined from billets. The starter drive was at right angles. The sump was dry. Some later Paxton magnesium castings lightened the really heavy engine, and twin ignition was introduced, with fuel injection.
Visited the Unser Museum in Albuquerque a few years ago, where the Novi was on display. Incredibly impressive!
The “Bundle of Snakes” exhaust came about when C. Chapman learned about it from Coventry Climax. He got the tech paper from CC and sent it to Ford. Ford was developing the ’63 pushrod Fairlane Engine for Clark to drive. The engine had short exhaust stacks, just the change to the BoS by itself picked up 63 HP!
Friend from England pointed out the 99.99% best engineers and scientists in England only have motorsport for employment. Unlike the US, where they work in aero space or defense. So the US motorsports efforts have always had a talented amateur aspect to them…. Like the NOVI and similar.
Know who Masten Gregory was, black nerd glasses wearer…
These were golden years for the US with some incredible designs, thinking outside the square.
Goosen’s Offenhauser V-8 was a gem, design stolen by ford, then copied very closely. Offy bits fit!
As tightly as racing specs are controlled these days, it amazes me that you could run things like AWD or Hydrolast suspension, or how the 830 HP supercharged V8 Novi could run against 4-cylinder pushrod Offenhausers of some vintage or DOHC Ford powerplants. (How much power were they making at the time?)
Sounds like a fascinating time to be a racing fan, especially with the front-engine to rear-engine change going on!
That looks like Colin Chapman in the red jacket giving the BRP quite a bit of thought.
I rember listing on the radio Sid Collins,the NOVI always screamed.
Spec. racing now,no innovation.