Some old Indy cars at Heritage Museum (Mass.)

[Gary_Ash]

We went to the season opening event at Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich, Mass. this evening.  They will be displaying a bunch of older race cars from the Indianapolis Speedway Museum until Oct. 8 this year.  Russ Snowberger's "Hupp Comet" from 1932 was there, as well as other cars from the 'Teens through Eighties.  The Penske PC-9 car from 1980 is there to touch and sit in - I did!  I even got the victory wreath and bottle of milk.  

 

The museum also has its own great collection of old cars, including President Taft's 1909 White Model M steamer.  There are also 100 acres of beautiful gardens.  Well worth a visit if you are anywhere near Cape Cod.

https://heritagemuseumsandgardens.org/exhibits/cars-and-stars-of-the-indy-500/

 

[seando]

Thanks for posting! My dad worked for Gould and took me to see the Gould car back in the day. I didn't appreciate it as much as I would now. 

[Indy 500]

Hello,

Just joined here yesterday after doing searches re. the Indy 500 pace cars and finding  a few people here who own/discuss these cars.

When i clicked on the link you posted it mentioned in the details that the display had Indy cars and also some pace cars, do you remember which pace cars are on display?

 

I posted a message yesterday re. a past auction in Pennsylvania, 2016 where a doctors collection of over 100 interesting cars was auctioned off, including many NOS spares. He collected convertibles and had some Indy Pace Cars from different years, 50's,60's,70's and eighties. I thought somebody on here may have purchased from this sale, some of the cars included a 40 and 46 Lincoln Zephyr Continental V12 convertibles and 54? Ford Crestline convertible, the latter was an Indy Pace Car, amongst others.

 

There were two 68Torino GT Indy Pace Car convertibles and i bought one of them, to me the car has an excellent history/story.....It was one of 159 Indianapolis area district dealer promotional cars. The car was given to Wthi CBS TV director Paul Denehie. The  station was owned by the Hulman family, Tony Hulman was then the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, also. The car was used by Paul Denehie to run film crews back and forth to the Speedway in May of 68. It was also used to run several of the race car drivers between the Indianapolis Speedway and Speedway motel. Drivers in the car at some point or another included Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Bruce Walcup, Billy Vuckuvich Jr and Larry Dickson. I have a letter confirming the above from Paul Denehie who used the car, in an official CBS letter, dated June of 68. The car was used on the surface of the speedway for filming also.

The car was purchased after being at Indianapolis and kept by Doctor Mansell, the only owner it had until i bought it in 2016. Car was used for 6 years and then put away/stored in the doctors barn. It never ran or moved again until i purchased it (42 years later), car does now run and drive.

It is virtually totally original, still wears its original paint for the most part, Autolite/Motorcraft service parts and still has the protective plastic on the seats from new. Car will need localised body repairs and only minimal paint to preserve rather than restore it. It has taken several attempts at cleaning up after being in the raccoon infested barn so long, but is now looking like a car again and cleaning up very nicely.

I obtained a huge amount of history and documentation regarding this/these cars when i bought it, more than i have seen/had with any other car.

Doctor Mansell went to Indianapolis for over 40 years, i was told, but rarely saw the race as he was documenting the pace car vin numbers, he used to walk down the inturn logging the details. I know that the 69 Camaro and 70 Olds 442 pace car details he obtained are used as the official details by the respective clubs, as he was there at the time.

Thanks, Paul.

Edited April 14, 2018 by Indy 500 (see edit history)

[Gary_Ash]

I think the pace cars were a 1978 Corvette and a 2016 Camaro.  Not particularly exciting to me.