1973 USAC Indy mod WIP

Okay, so in this thread, I will post updates on the mod that I am kicking off: A 1973 USAC Indy mod. Principally, this will be intended to recreate the '73 Indy 500, but it could also be used for the Milwaukee Mile, Michigan Int'l, Texas World Speedway, etc.

As many of you found out, schematics from this era are hard to come by. No matter; I will use scale models as reference.
I have a #2 Bill Vukovich Eagle coming in the mail (from the land of Steve and Carl) 1:18 scale The only car sponsored by prunes!

I'll take measurements from this and start work on a math model of the Eagle chassis... updates to follow...

PS Thank you again Ben for the flickr gallery link. That should prove quite helpful...

I don't want to know how much you paid for this scale model.

Guillaume Siebert wrote:

I don't want to know how much you paid for this scale model.

Actually, I got it at a pretty decent price. Mod or no mod, I wanted it in my collection anyway

Good reference here for the various entries throughout the year...

http://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1973/

I wish you the best of luck with your project Jason!

I'll upload all the relevant information I can on the ftp . The most useful item so far is the official 1973 Indy 500 Trackside Report .

Another picture gallery here

The suspensions should be quite similar to the F5000s that Guillaume knows so well, he will sure be able to tell many things about how to setup the cars

What car types do you think will be in the mod?

David Sabre wrote:

What car types do you think will be in the mod?

Short list would be the following:

Eagle 73/72-Offenhauser (these would make up the bulk of the cars; some would have unique wings like the Granatelli STP cars)

Eagle 72-Foyt (Dick Simon, Mel Kenyon)

McLaren M16A/B/C-Offenhauser (Penske entries would have unique mirrors and slightly different bodywork)

Coyote Mk4-Foyt (A.J. Foyt, George Snider, several independents)

Parnelli VPJ2-Offenhauser (Can't find any drawings of this one so far)

Lola T152-Offenhauser (I believe a version of this may be in the F5000 mod)

Kingfish 73-Offenhauser (Similar to an Eagle, I think)

The 1973 Coyote was the Mk4

I'm going to start with the Eagle once the 1:18 scale model arrives. The challenge will be to show as much detail as possible in as lightweight a model as possible. I think I'm up to said challenge

Jason White wrote:

Lola T152-Offenhauser (I believe a version of this may be in the F5000 mod)

The Lola's in the F5000 mods are T190, T192, T300 and T330.

David Sabre wrote:

Jason White wrote:

Lola T152-Offenhauser (I believe a version of this may be in the F5000 mod)

The Lola's in the F5000 mods are T190, T192, T300 and T330.

Ah.

The T152 was an old 1969 model and only made the field in the Pocono 500 with Herc Hurtubise. The 1973 Lola was the T270 which was a failure and barely raced. A mod without any of those cars would still have 99% of the entries.

I like the Parnelli VPJ2-Offenhauser. It was a good car?

Ben Paulet wrote:

I like the Parnelli VPJ2-Offenhauser. It was a good car?

Two wins for the Parnelli VPJ2 in 1973:

Al Unser in the Texas 200

Mario Andretti in the Trenton 300 (Heat 2)

Hummm.. I was never a fan of indy series, but I'm your fan Jason!
So I'm looking forward for this.

Found these videos of an Eagle-Offy with the engine running. Great reference here for sound, engine and cockpit detail.

Keep going with this 73' Indy Car mod Jason, this would be unique for rFactor, there has never been a classic Indy car mod for it, I know many folks looking forward to racing them at Indy

Awesome initiative. Best of luck with it.

Timo

Happy to report that I have fitted engines to the four cars built thus far.  I could still do a few minor tweaks here and there, but I think they are almost there. Here they are, front views and rear views.

















Current status of all builds: (as of June 13, 2013)

Eagle ‘70  -->  0% complete
Eagle ‘72/73  -->  95% complete


Coyote Mk4 --> 99% complete


Vollstedt ‘73 --> 95% complete

Parnelli VPJ2 --> 0% complete

McLaren M16A --> 10% complete
McLaren M16B --> 10% complete
McLaren M16C --> 10% complete

Mongoose ‘70 --> 0% complete

Kingfish '72 --> 0% complete
Kingfish '73 --> 0% complete

Finley ‘73 (???) --> 0% complete

Lola (year uncertain) --> 0% complete

Atlanta --> 0% complete

Cadillac Pace Car --> 0% complete


Engines to build:

Drake Offenhauser I4 --> 100% complete
Ford-Foyt V8 (for Coyote)  -->  100% complete
Ford-Foyt V8 (for Eagle)  -->  99% complete
Chevrolet stock block  --> 0% complete


Wheels to build:

Six spoke Eagle wheel --> 100% complete
Six spoke Coyote wheel --> 99% complete
Alternate Eagle wheel with three-pronged bolt --> 0% complete
Four spoke Parnelli wheel --> 0% complete
Six spoke McLaren wheel --> 0% complete

Nice models you have there Jason! I'm happy so see this progress.
Seems you got a long way to go yet, though. wish i could help you, but unfortunately i'm useless at modeling.

McLaren M16A/B/C underway!