Miller Time

Frankie Flood at Handverker posted a bunch of photos from the Millers at Milwaukee event. He did the same last year and I had forgotten about it or I would have made the trip up there myself this year. I really dig those old cars, especially the roadsters from the late 50's until the rear engined cars came in. I remember listening to the Indy 500 for the first time in 1956 when I was six years old. I lived in Covington, Indiana at that time and the race was on Memorial Day. The actual Memorial Day before they changed the holiday celebration to Monday and the race day to Sunday. So Memorial Day was a day to remember the war dead early in the day and then the focus shifted to racing. Like the World Series in those days, the race was a big event and all radios were tuned to the Indy 500 coverage. I don't remember much about the race but I've been a fan of Indy Car Racing ever since. 

One of the things that has always impressed me about Indy cars was the craftsmanship and the really talented fabricators who turned out those beautiful cars in those years. In 1956 the field at Indy included cars built by Kurtis, Kuzma, Watson, and Lesovsky. That's pretty much the Who's Who of open wheel race car builders right there.  And with the notable exception of the V-8 Novi, all were Offenhauser/Miller powered. If you click on the Novi link, you can hear the sound of that car - easy to figure how a six year old kid could get hooked on race cars after listening to that.

So I guess the point of this post, if there is one, is that old race cars are cool. If you get a chance to see and hear them run, do it. These were cars driven by some of the greatest drivers, tuned by the greatest mechanics, and built by the greatest of the fabricators.