In 1967, there was a Regional SCCA enduro at the old Marlboro track. Three
hours, four hours, something like that. Dick Bauer and I entered my
newly-painted, almost set up TR3 with Kastner-prepared engine. We managed to
over-time the TR3 and retired after an hour or so with large holes in the head
but that's not the point.
It was an open race so there was everything on the track from Bugeyes to ..
The Howmet Turbine car! Imagine a first year driver with only a Regional
license gingerly guiding a TR3 down the straight and being passed by the
Howmet. The turbine whine preceded it, the passing period was a blast of sound
and a wave of heat and then it was gone but the air in front of me shimmered
with the turbine exhaust. Every time I saw it in my mirror I was tempted to
pull off the track and cover my head! I'll swear it passed me every other
lap!
Bob T wasn't driving that day - I think it was Dick Thompson and somebody
Mike Cook
----- Original Message -----
From: Steven Benford Jr
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2004 7:12 PM
To: FOT
Subject: Steam Engines, Sports Racers, Turbines and Watkins Glen
Forgive me for indulging myself with this group, but once you hear the story
you will know why.
This past Saturday my son Andrew and I went to the Sycamore (Illinois)
Threshing Bee. This is a show with all sorts of steam powered tractors,
single cylinder popper motors, Maytag washing machine engines, Briggs &
Stratons powered everything and old gas, kerosene and diesel tractors. Even
one late '40s MF. The star of this show is a huge 250 hp horizontal compound
cylinder Corliss valved steam engine that once was used as a ammonia
compressor for refrigeration. A beautiful piece of engineering and some
amazing castings were used to build this engine.
I was listening to the head engineer give his routine speech about the Corliss
engine along with a gentlemen in an IRL shirt. I happened to be wearing an
old HSR polo shirt that has the Group 44 Jag on the chest. I nodded hello to
him and he did the same and smile once he got an eye of my shirt. A bit later
we came across this gentleman again looking at the antique cars. He asked me
if I was a Jaguar fan and of course I go into my sports car racer mode telling
him how I am building a TR4 for vintage racing, and that I plan to paint the
car in Group 44 colors just like my shirt. Which he relies, "Oh - Bob
Tullius, he drove for a race car for me". Which car I ask? "The Howmet
Turbine", he says. So here I am in the middle of a corn field with Bob McKee!
We had a great conversion about the steam show, Cam-Am and sports racers and
other old school stuff.
Bob is still has a shop in Lake Zurich Illinois doing is doing a bit of
restoration work on race cars and working on electric vehicles. He even
invited Andrew and I up to the shop.
Now the amazing item of this story is that I was at the 1968 Six Hour FIA race
at Watkins Glen and watched Mr. Tullius race one of the two Howmet Turbine
cars.
Looking forward to watching the FOT crew race at the September VSCDA Road
America event.
Thanks and Thumbs Up,
Steve Benford Jr.
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