In 1961, after witnessing Jack Brabham's 9th-place finish in the Indy 500 in a mid-engined Cooper, Dan Gurney hooked up Colin Chapman and the Ford Motor Company to build a car for the '63 Indy 500 that would truly change the face of American open-wheel motorsports. But it was hardly a cakewalk. While Gurney felt it was a good car, it was apparently very noisy to drive, so Chapman came up with an air scoop to divert wind over the driver's head.

The mag wheels were cracking during testing. Gurney and Jim Clark had to share a set of wheels during qualifying. Gurney started the race on 7 cylinders. Clark lost due to what's today still a controversial decision not to black flag an oil-leaking Parnelli Jones. Two years later, however, Clark would win, sealing the fate of the front-engined Offy-powered roadster.

Making History at Indy [All-American Racers]

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More Dan Gurney [Internal]

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