« BackNews: When Natural Gas Tanks Were Fitted To Race Cars

When Natural Gas Tanks Were Fitted To High-Speed Race Cars

There are very few instances in modern motorsport where a natural gas tank fitted with a vacuum relief valve would be fitted to a car that would have any hope of passing a technical inspection.

 

The 1960s were a very different story, however, as the increasingly high-stakes and high-speed world of motorsport was reaching a point where manufacturers were casting a very wide net to gain a competitive advantage.

 

These were not small-scale manufacturers, either; Chrysler was the first car maker to test and manufacture a limited run of cars powered by a gas turbine engine more commonly used to power electrical generators and armoured tanks.

 

This led to interest in various motorsport disciplines in the new technology. Gas turbine engines were exceptionally long-lasting and exceptionally compact in an age before turbochargers were the norm in racing cars.

 

This led to surreal entries such as the Jack Adams Aircraft Special, which had a turbine developed by General Electric that could allegedly supply over 1300 brake-horsepower and provide monstrous acceleration once the turbine had warmed up.

 

The problem was the car was otherwise undrivable due to not being designed with the turbine’s unique motoring characteristics in mind. However, two attempts were made to fix this.

 

The first was the STP-Paxton Turbocar, which was designed for the ovals of the Indianapolis 500. Whilst race officials had drafted restrictive regulations to try and slow the car down to 550bhp, it still led most of the 1967 racer and only did not win due to a transmission issue.

 

The Lotus 56 has much worse fortunes. Both it and the Turbocar had major problems with power lag, where it would take up to three seconds for the car to speed up or slow down in response to the driver.

 

This strange property caused driver Mike Spence to run wide and suffer a crash that would take his life. After three failed races in Formula One, the concept was largely retired and banned from motorsport.