Monday, January 14, 2008

The Dan Gurney F-1 Eagle






The Eagle had a short life span of only three racing seasons. With the help of the GoodYear tire company Dan hired Len Terry to design and help build an American Formula 1 car. Dan also contracted with Westlake to design and build a new V12 engine. The Westlake engine was a little slow in coming and for the first few races Dan used a four-cylinder Coventry Climax engine. The Climax engine was nowhere near having enough power but helped to sort out the car in the 1966 season.
The Eagle came home with a superb victory at Spa Belgium in 1967. This race win is the only Formula 1 victory for an American car owned and driven by an American. Very few Formula 1 racecars have the style and beauty of the Eagle. While this car had a short career in Formula 1 and only scored one major victory it is still a landmark car in American racing history. I was sort of disappointed that they only had the car out for a few hours at Miller, I am just thankful that I was there and was able to get these photos.

1 comment:

DaveKennedy said...

Nice photos. You know they're going to make a slot car of this car?

DaveK