Saturday, July 30, 2011

The first Indy 500 race, 100 years ago


I found this video clip of the first 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1911. It's since grown into the annual Indianapolis 500 event.







I know that fliers during World War I used to have real problems with their bowels as a result of inhaling castor oil fumes from their engines (because castor oil is a laxative). Looking at the clouds of smoke produced by castor oil from those early racing cars, I wonder whether their drivers and crews had similar problems? It'd lend a new meaning to 'the need for speed', all right!



Peter
at

3 comments:

  1. Wayne ConradJuly 31, 2011 at 1:18 AM

    Fun film, Peter. What's with having a mechanic on board? I can't imagine what that was for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Old NFOJuly 31, 2011 at 7:34 PM

    Very nice, and the riding mechanics acted as rear view mirrors... There were NO mirrors on the early cars, so the mechanics had to tell the drivers what was going on around them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 31, 2011 at 7:34 PM

    Have tried to load adobe flash player over 10 times, from your site and others, no go.

    HELP

    ReplyDelete

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