In May 1962, Colin Chapman was Dan Gurney’s guest at the Indianapolis 500. At the time, the tall Californian was contracted to Porsche in Formula 1 (F1) but when the German team left motor racing’s ultimate echelon at the end of that year, he joined the new Brabham team where he stayed for the next three years. Gurney was acutely aware of the hardware that had come to dominate the IndyCar grids and was no doubt expecting Chapman to be intrigued with what he would see.
Every Indy 500 since 1953 had been won by massive front-engined cars widely known as ‘roadsters’. Before long, all 33 starters would be roadsters, most often powered by the 4.2-litre Offenhauser four-cylinder. The sound of one ‘Offy’ was something to behold, but 30 or so were a treat that drew fans from far and wide.
Occasionally, an interloper would emerge like the Cummins diesel or the ultimate underdog, the V8 Novi, which always promised so much but always failed. Hopefuls who put the engine behind the driver appeared occasionally but were rarely taken seriously, and they failed to deliver.
Then, in 1961, the reigning world champion driver and team showed up. The four-cylinder Coventry Climax in the back of Jack Brabham’s Cooper had been stretched to 2.75 litres, as far as it could go. Despite its superior cornering speed and lighter weight that would mean longer runs between stops, the power deficiency was too big a gap to bridge — but it got some of the more fertile minds thinking, one of which was Gurney’s.
The Chapman star was well in
