Yeap, it looks so that Thorne likes German race and sport cars.
His Streamlined record car he built, was inspirated by the Auto Union
and Mercedes Recordcars from 1936 to 1939. By the way - everybody
means the first Gullwing prototype was from 1952 so as the Mercedes
history shows. Right is that the first Gullwing was build in 1938,
this one prototype is in small private museum in the Black Forest, but
the owner is not interest to sale them to Mercedes, so the history
will tell a little bit longer the story of the 1952 Gullwing There was
some picture published just before WW II, may be Thorne got this
picture in his hands (from Rudolf Caracciola), the Indy show car was
(so as the record car) inspirated from the Mercedes concept - this
time from the Ponton design which Mercedes used the first time in the
1938 Gullwing prototype. I got some slides from the 1938 car in my
collection. But not only that Thorne likes German cars, he also gave
the famous German race driver Rudolf Caracciola a drive in the Thorne
Indy racer 1946. Bad luck that Caracciola crash during the practice
for the Indy 500, after he set a good rookie run - some people meeans
that he was hit by a bird in to his face. Due to this that he weared a
crah helmet, the first time he ever done this in his racing career, he
survived the accident, but he needed a long recovering - with big
support by the owner of the Indy race way Hulman. As a thank you,
Caracciola gave all his trophys he won during his long and succesful
racing carrier to the Indianapolis Museum where it is still to day in
a big show case on the right side when you come in into the main hall
of the museum. 15 years ago there was a famous car standing in front
of the show case - Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America Sonic 1 from
1965 - first car over 600 mph. Today this car is in a sheet inside the
Indy race track, after he was very badly scratched when he stand in
the parking lot, in front of the entrance of the Peterson Museum in
LA.
By the way, Caracciola's Thorne was rebuild, this one and his sister
car was very successful in this year in Indy - the Thorne car won the
race with George Robson on the wheels. Caracciola, was before the WW
II in the states and showed interest to run at Indy, but the WW II
stopped this attempt - meet Thorne during this visit, so as he meet
the Indy owner. So there was a connection before the 1946 drive.
The Thorne Indy special from the website was not only a show racer,
this was a well proper design car by a very clever engineer, who got a
also a good eye for styling and for coming up designs of the future so
as the Mercedes first Gullwing (1938). Due to this that the 1938 car
is nearly unknown the Indy Special design surprised, because without
the 1938 car it looks so tha Mercedes copied the Thorne Special.
So much to the connection
See ya
Pork Pie
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