In the 1960s, the Indianapolis 500 was a hotbed of the new and unusual. This is the decade when the front-engine roadster gave way to the mid-engine racer. As time went along, the cars sprouted wings and engine choices ran from stock-block, overhead-valve V-8s to aircraft turbines. One of the strangest cars ever to contest the Indy 500 was the Hurst Floor Shifter Special, from the fertile, rule-challenging imagination of Smokey Yunick. Resembling a torpedo with a sidecar, Yunick's strange machine was among the first to pay serious attention to the car's frontal area and its aerodynamic effects. It was powered by the seminal Offenhauser DOHC inline-four, which rode in the center fuselage, while the driver was hung out in his own separate pod on the left side of the car. Safety obviously wasn't a big concern, and driver Bobby Johns ended up putting the car backwards on the last day of qualifying for the 1964 race. It was never seen at the Speedway again.
Coverage May 1967
Back in the day, they called them Specialty cars. Forty-two years ago, one of our big stories pitted the Ford Mustang against the Chevrolet Camaro SS and Plymouth Barracuda. Plymouth has since departed, but Chrysler Corporation is well represented today by the new Dodge Challenger. A second test compared the Cougar and Firebird, both of which also have left the building.