SMOKEY YUNICK and the INDY REVERSE TORQUE SPECIAL 1959.
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SMOKEY YUNICK and the INDY REVERSE TORQUE SPECIAL 1959.
If it's not in the rule book, it's not cheating.
Rare Car Storys
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54,638 views Oct 21, 2025 ✪
Discover The SHOCKING Truth Behind Smokey Yunick’s Reverse Torque Special 1959, in a must watch video! Learn about the history and controversy surrounding this legendary engineering marvel. The Reverse Torque Special, unleashed in 1959, was a radical and game-changing idea that shook up the Indianapolis 500 and American racing-but its story is filled with technical drama, innovation, and unintended consequences. modified 1959 Kurtis-Kraft 500H Indy car powered by an Offenhauser 4-cylinder engine designed to rotate in the opposite direction from normal. Y
Yunick had the engine built to rotate clockwise, instead of the usual counterclockwise, which was a radical approach at the time. Why the Reverse Rotation? The key idea was to change the engine's rotational direction to influence the car's balance and handling, especially on oval tracks where the front right wheel takes most cornering stress. With a standard engine rotation, more torque reaction transferred weight to the front right wheel, which Yunick believed was detrimental. By reversing the rotation, he aimed to shift weight distribution and mechanical forces to improve
performance and handling. However, reversing the engine's rotation posed huge challenges because the drivetrain components (ring gear, pinion, quick-change axles) were designed for standard rotation. Yunick had to rebuild or source mirror-image drivetrain parts (such as Halibrand’s “Front QC” quick-change axles designed for front-drive and four-wheel-drive racers) to accommodate the reversed rotation. Performance and Outcome Despite the complexity, the Reverse Torque Special qualified 12th and finished 7th in the 1959 Indianapolis 500, a respectable showing for an
experimental design. It demonstrated Yunick’s fearless creativity and technical mastery, even if it didn’t revolutionize racing. His work preserved the tradition of pushing engineering boundaries within the constraints of the time.
Last edited by senor honda; Oct 22, 2025 at 11:47 PM.