Page 86 - Yanks reviews

Porsche Road & Race, June 22, 2020 / page 5
“Le Monstre” – America’s First
Le Mans Sports Racing Prototype
central carburetor for all but full-throttle, when four more carburetors opened.
At 3,705 pounds, the streamliner was lighter than the standard coupe by only 195 pounds, but the difference
in top speed proved the effectiveness of the roadster’s unconventional shape – to a point. But as with many early attempts at streamlining, the higher speeds brought new problems. Without downforce, often these early designs became unstable at best, or at worst, airborne.
Ironically, most of the top speed advantage Cunningham’s streamliner had over the coupe on the Mulsanne was lost by trouble with the Cadillac’s hydraulic lifters at high rpm and the lower rev limit adopted as a result. Valuable experience was gained with the streamliner, but despite its other innovations, two-way radios and advanced lighting and instrumentation, “Le Monstre” would never be raced again.
TOP: Note the special instrument cluster and the impeccable workmanship in the final configuration. THE REVS INSTITUTE
RIGHT: Roughing out the dash and where the Link radio is deployed. The stock Cadillac wheel is still on. THE REVS INSTITUTE
BELOW: Construction of “Le Monstre” at the new Cunningham facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. A sign taped to the side says “THREE WEEKS.” THE REVS INSTITUTE
The Yanks at Le Mans E 1950 151
It was an experiment, really, built within rigid strictures to probe the efficacy of certain ideas and gain experience
for Cunningham’s more serious future efforts at la Sarthe. Grumman Aircraft designer Howard Weinman was responsible for the shape of the streamliner, the purpose of which was to reduce weight and air resistance. ACO required the basic chassis and driveline to remain unchanged, but Weinman and some Grumman engineers laid out a complex chrome-moly steel tube frame to support aluminum body panels attached with aircraft quick-detaching fasteners. Phil Walters supervised the actual building at Frick-Tappet, which had been recently purchased by Briggs Cunningham.
The 1950 Series 61 Cadillac rode on a 122-inch wheelbase, with independent A-arm and coil spring front suspension and a live rear hypoid axle with semi-elliptic springs. As part of the envelope body, an extra driving light was mounted up front within the grill opening, as were redundant sets of tail lights at the rear. These could be switched on by the driver in case of a burned-out bulb.
Ducting took air from the front of the car and from scoops behind the cockpit to the front and rear brakes, which were standard Cadillac drums, but with aluminum fins affixed by the Alfin process. Thermo-couples on each of the brakes,
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the transmission and differential allowed those temperatures to be monitored on the dash and an on-board radio supplied by pioneer Fred Link’s company, allowed two-way communication with the pits, a first at Le Mans.
The streamliner’s 5.4-liter Cadillac engine benefited from a special intake manifold supplied by Ed Cole that utilized one
GM Engineer Ed Cole, co-developer with Harry Barr of the Cadillac V8, sent this trick five-carburetor manifold for Cunningham to
use in “Le Monstre.” THE REVS INSTITUTE, SMITH HEMPTON OLIVER COLLECTION
1950 E Twice Around the Clock
The first chink in Ferrari’s armor came before 11:00 p.m., when Behra had to stop twice because of a headlight failure, moving the Salvadori/Shelby Aston Martin into the lead. Then the Bueb/Halford Lister’s Jaguar engine failed at about the same time as Gurney brought the Ferrari back in, this time with the gear lever sheared off. A quick-thinking mechanic rammed a tube over the stump, but sometime between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., Behra brought the Testa Rossa in for good. The reason given was gearbox.
“It wasn’t gearbox trouble,” Gurney said later, “It was the rear end, the ring and pinion. You know, you can abuse a car if you try hard enough, but you tell me what you do to make the ring and pinion break. It was just one of those things.”
Bill Kimberly and E.D. Martin did have a terminal gearbox problem in their Testa Rossa at about the same time, ending their effort.
At 4:00 a.m., the halfway point, Salvadori made an unexpected stop in the Aston pit.
“The moment he cut the engine,” Shelby recalled, “he hopped out and shouted, ‘The whole car’s vibrating! The bloody thing feels as though it’s shaking itself to pieces.’”
Salvadori was sent out again, then came back in when the car could be refueled. The vibration problem turned out to be a tire with a large chunk of rubber missing.
Hill and Gendebien now led the Salvadori/Shelby Aston by two laps, and in spite of much more orderly pitstops by the Brits, it seemed unlikely that the Aston could catch the Ferrari, which now also had a chance for even greater glory. And money, Hill remembered.
“Oh, yeah, the prize money. We were ahead on distance and the Index of Performance. That meant double prize money. Yeah, I’d be going down the straight saying, ‘Ten thousand francs and ten thousand francs is twenty thousand.’”
By early morning, now laps ahead of the Shelby/Salvadori Aston Martin, Phil Hill was counting the prize money, literally. Mistake. THE REVS INSTITUTE, KARL LUDVIGSEN COLLECTION
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But in the early morning, something odd happened that Hill didn’t take too much notice of at the time.
“I remember, one time I came in... We did two stints then, you know, because we wanted to give the other guy a chance to sleep a bit, so we’d do a one hour and fifty-minute stint or whatever it was, and then another one. The driver didn’t get out of the car. At any rate, I remember (chief mechanic) Marchetti putting in some potion, some sort of powders or something into the cooling system.”
Only later did he find out why.
“What it was, it was starting to leak into the combustion... it was pushing combustion products into the water jacket, and pushing the water out. It wasn’t a fluid, it was some kind of powder, but the fact that they were having to put any in at all was significant. Having to put in a can of something, aluminum powder or whatever that stuff is, that was worrisome. But we were miles ahead and only had something like four or five hours to go, so I went off and went to sleep.”
Just past 11:00 a.m., Gendebien unexpectedly called at the pits, overheating. Some adjustments were made and he was sent out. And Phil Hill was awakened.
“You know, Shell had a nice quiet area for the drivers if you were on Shell, and we were. And the guy came to get me. And on the way back, all of a sudden, I hear, ‘The lead car is in the pits unexpectedly.’ I just broke into a run. In the next ten minutes I was supposed to take over the car, and there’s the car in the pits, and it’s critical. Gendebien suddenly looks down and the temperature gauge is pegged.”
With victory seemingly in sight, the Hill/Gendebien Ferrari was withdrawn after 263 laps.
When Gendebien brought the Ferrari in the first time, the Hugus/Erickson RSK was the last Porsche running and up to fourth. Hugus later remembered team manager John Baus breathlessly giving him the news in the pits.
“He said, ‘If the race ended right now, you’d have every prize won except overall – the Shell Trophy, the Index of Performance, everything.’ He said, ‘And you’re gaining on the leaders. So keep going and you’re liable to win the damn thing.’”
It was the kiss of death. Within four laps, the crankshaft broke. And with it, Ed Hugus’ heart.
“I went back and got in an old Cadillac I kept over there for years, a ‘52 Cadillac limousine, and I kept a bottle of ‘medicine’ in there, just in case. I drank about half that thing and cried like a baby.”
Like Hugus, Phil Hill was devastated. He and Gendebien had come so close to winning two straight.
Ernie Erickson getting in his and Ed Hugus’ Porsche RSK. Ferrari’s loss their gain. Up to fourth overall and even gaining on third place, they looked set for a great finish – until the crank broke. THE REVS INSTITUTE, GEORGE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
The Yanks at Le Mans E 1959 355
1959 E Twice Around the Clock