Cameron Neveu
Cameron Neveu
We all like our cars to embody our own histories and personalities, but few cars connect with their owner’s story in more ways than this Lotus 56 turbine car. Bruce Linsmeyer grew up in northern Indiana wrenching on his dad’s USAC sprint car and, as a teenager, it was only natural he’d be at the Brickyard each May—most importantly, in 1967.
That year, Parnelli Jones coasted a turbine-powered car to a heartbreaking sixth-place finish after leading 171 laps and becoming the first turbine car to successfully enter the event. The technology fascinated Linsmeyer, who years later—after wrenching stints on sprint car and IndyCar teams—began to dissect any turbine he could get his hands on. Today, his curiosity has paid off in spade: He established Avon Aero, a turbine company that supplies the marine, industrial, and aviation industries as well as the military sector. The business has provided him with the time and resources to bring a childhood Indy hero back to life: this ’68 Lotus turbine car, which he bought at auction in 1998. At the time, the ex-Joe Leonard racer had a four-cam Ford … but not for long. Linsmeyer bent his considerable knowledge and fabrication skills to the task, and a couple years later, the Lotus emerged under turbine power once more, courtesy of a power unit plucked from a Bell helicopter. “The engine was the easy bit,” Linsmeyer says. “Hooking it up to the rest of the car was a challenge.” He even had to build a new transfer gearbox for the four-wheel-drive machine.
“It’s rated for 1000 or so hours in the flight application before it needs a major service like an oil change,” Linsmeyer says. He walked to the back of the doorstop-shaped beast and removes a square panel, reaching inside to twist the cap off … a metal beer bottle? “In airplane applications, some excess fuel dumps on the ground, but me”—he walks with the container toward the front of the car—”I pour it back in the fuel tank.”
1969 Surtees TS5
Cameron Neveu
Cameron Neveu