Bury Me in An Old MOWOG Parts Box - Embarrassing Update
By Jay Lockrow
Last spring I wrote an article about how it all began. I wrote about the first American sports car the Chevrolet Corvette and went on from there to discuss how the many sports car activities became popular and how the different cars available increased to the point that the American car companies wanted a chunk of the business as the imports held a good chunk of that particular automotive interest. Shortly thereafter the arrival of the muscle car commenced and a whole new area of automotive interest was founded. As I said all this happened because the MG TC showed early on that driving a spirited car can be fun. It took a few years but the American car companies came up with some pretty interesting and quick automobiles.
However, I mentioned that the Chevrolet Corvette that came out in 1953 was the first American Sports car. Later on reflecting on my comment I realized that I had made a crucial mistake and the column had already been printed. I thought no one will notice and I’ll just let it go. Well no one did notice and I thought for sure I would get a flurry of “You Dumkoff” hate mail but it didn’t happen. Possibly I got away with it but in the end I have to confess to my mistake and it was just a plain old “Oh I forgot that one!”
Remember the Cunningham? Of course you don’t or you would have given me some of that “Dumkoff” hate mail, but here I am confessing to my mistake and obviously you have never heard of the Cunningham? Briggs Swift Cunningham was one of the moneyed gentry that I speak of from time to time. He was born of wealthy parents and I doubt that he ever really had to work for a living. He went to school and studied automotive engineering but he never finished, instead he married his girlfriend and honeymooned all over Europe purchasing exciting sports cars most of which are in the Collier museum. He even shipped a sailboat to Europe to be used while he was there. You might remember him for winning the Americas Cup yacht race in the 12 meter sailboat Columbia back in the 60s.
One of Cunningham’s biggest dreams was winning the Le Mans 24 hour race with an American car for his countrymen. He entered a car in 1950 but it was rejected because it was a hybrid. A “Fordillac” was a 1950 Ford with a Cadillac V8 installed. Cars entering Le Mans have to be production cars. Instead he purchased two 1950 series 62 Cadillacs. These cars were equipped with standard transmissions (I don’t recall how he managed this) and the stock coupe was fitted with a double carburettor setup and was highly tuned. The other was stripped of its body and an aerodynamic body fitted built by Grumman. It was ugly and the French nicknamed it “Le Monster.” He did fairly well with these two cars the standard coupe finishing 10th and the special body car finishing 11th. I can recall seeing these cars at Watkins Glen in the fall of 1950. I even remarked to my mother at the time why was there a Cadillac with numbers on it? She muttered something but I never forgot what I saw. These two cars are in the Collier Museum in Florida. This was the beginning of a several year effort to build a car with his name on it and win the 24 hour race.
In 1951Cunningham entered a car that carried his name. This was the C-1 270 HP Chrysler mated to a Cadillac three speed gearbox. This car finished 18th at LeMans but ran as high as 2nd.. He ran again in 1952 and finished 4th co-driving with Bill Spear. The other Cunningham was a DNF. Running again in 1953 with the Cunningham’s was his best year. The Cunningham’s finished 3rd, John Fitch and Phil Walters, 7th, Briggs Cunningham and Bill Spear and 10th with Moran and Benett. The car that finished third was a coupe and won the Rudge Whitworth coupe award. What this is exactly I have not figured out yet. But if I get ambitious I will try to look it up. In 1954 Cunningham’s ran again but this year it was brakes that defeated them. The Jaguars had less displacement and were lighter and the, then new, disc brakes allowed the Jaguars to go deeper into the corners. The high speeds were always creeping up and aerodynamics were just beginning to be understood. Cunningham rightly thought aerodynamics would be the new answer but in 54 one of the cars was having high speed stability problems. The company continued on and even ran an Offenhauser in one of the cars as well as some innovative marine engines from Mercury. Remember also in order to me allowed to run at LeMans you had to have production cars or street cars. These were built in Palm Springs Florida with tubular chassis and bodies shipped from Vignale in Italy. These were equipped with the Chrysler V8 engines. I don’t know how many were built but I think around 50. I read just recently that all of these cars have been accounted for as one thought lost was recently discovered in a barn somewhere in complete but rough condition.
Keeping up with with a company like Jaguar would be expensive and even with his wealth Cunningham decided not to continue racing with the Cunningham car. The Cunningham factory was closed, and Cunningham continued racing for several more years but ran Jaguars, Maseratis and Oscas. It’s a good deal more complicated than that but that’s it in a nutshell.
There were a few other early American sports cars but never with enough production to qualify for a race like LeMans. The Bobsy for example comes to mind but I doubt that total production was more than a dozen. So I have admitted my mistake, was anyone out there quick enough to catch it?