There were unique classes for Chrysler and Packard concept cars, and one for “beach cars” and a stunning collection of open wheel and sports racers driven by Mass, as the 25th anniversary of his win at the 24 Hours of LeMans was celebrated.
The weekend kicked off on Friday with a well-attended seminar of “The Great Offy Drivers” which featured Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser, Al Unser Sr., Sam Posey, David Hobbs and Louis Meyer Jr., who built the modern-day Offenhauser engine.
Never at a loss for words, Bobby Unser dominated the conversation with his tales of victory using the engine that he described as able “to shake so hard you couldn’t see,” and more powerful than anything he had driven, but his tales were countered by his own brother, Al, who explained to the crowd that brother Bobby was quite the “cheater.”
“Bobby had special turbochargers built for the engines, and USAC didn’t have restrictions, so while they weren’t really illegal, he was running 15 mph faster than the rest of us, so we all knew he was cheating,” four-time Indy 500 winner Unser Sr. said to the delight of the crowd.
No longer being manufactured, the Offenhauser engine, a four-cylinder, double overhead cam with 4 vales per cylinder, dominated open-wheel racing from 1934 until the 1970s. Offenhauser-powered cars won the Indianapolis 500 27 times, and in the early 1960s it was common that all 33 cars in the 500 field had an Offy under the hood. Amelia Island offers two Best of Show awards, one for classics, the other for racing cars, and as expected, the two winners this year were not only exceptional but also unique. A 1937 Horch 853 owned by Bob Lee of Sparks, Nev., took home the Concours d’Elegance Award. It is one of only two Horchs fitted with a body by Voll and Ruhrbeck. It also won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 2009.
The Concours de Sport Award went to the 1958 Scarab owned by Miles Collier of the Revs Institute for Automotive Research. Three of these cars were built for racer Lance Reventlow as an American car to compete against the Ferraris and Maseratis on road courses. Originally powered by an Offenhauser, they later had success when they dropped a small-block Chevrolet V8 under the hood.
To learn more about the Amelia Island Concours, go online to www.ameliaconcours.org.
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