1972 Parnelli VPJ-1
Cameron NeveuMarveling at those wild winglets? Take your time, because this is the only Parnelli VPJ-1 in private hands (the other three are in museums). Now, prepare yourself for a shock: This VPJ-1 nearly ended up in the dumpster.
Chuck Jones, the car’s owner and a long-time member of the Indy Museum’s board of directors, explains: “Racers are not sentimental people. They just want to get to the next race and be fast and all of that.” New season, new tech, new car. This particular car suffered a right front suspension failure during a 1972 tire test that caused it to surf a track wall in Phoenix, Arizona. In the eyes of Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, the 1200-hp racer had fulfilled its contractual obligations.
“It’s amazing it didn’t end up in the landfill,” Jones says. Thankfully a mechanic, besieged by sentiment, rescued the chassis under cover of night and hid it somewhere in a corner. By the time Jones discovered it in 2012, the mangled VPJ-1 was a massive project—but today, it’s worth every minute of the hassle. “It’s a hoot,” Jones says, grinning. Until his senior year at Purdue, he was a pro racer—three-quarter, then full midgets, and sprint cars. “It’s like a light switch, either on or off … it’s just 1970s tech. You have to have it pointed in the right direction.”
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1979 Chaparral 2K
Cameron NeveuBetter known as the “Yellow Submarine,” the Chaparral 2K was indeed a slippery fish—where the air was concerned. John Barnard designed the underbelly of the car with contours to suck the car to the track—the first example of an Indy car with ground effects integrated into its body from the get-go, rather than bolted onto the chassis after the fact. First driven by Al Unser during 1979, the Yellow Submarine is identified most closely with Johnny Rutherford, who piloted the car to his third Brickyard victory in 1980. After he took the flag, J.R. famously gave rookie Tim Richmond—who was stranded in his car due to a lack of fuel—a ride back to the pits, with Richmond perched on the Submarine’s sidepod.
Cameron Neveu
1971 Lola T192
Cameron NeveuEgo and racing are inextricably linked—and they don’t honor the divides of racing series and regulatory bodies, either. Case in point: the Questor Grand Prix held at Ontario Speedway in California, a shoot-out of sorts between Formula 1 and Formula 5000 cars of the era. R.W. “Kas” Kastner—he of Team Nissan GTP fame—bought this Lola T192 from Chicago-area distributor Carl Hass, but before he managed to put an engine in the rolling chassis, Hass was back on the phone. Would Kastner loan Hass the car so that Al Unser could challenge the F5000 boys in California? On the condition that Hass supplied and installed the engine (and left it in the car when Unser was done with the race), Kastner said yes.