We’re always looking for ways to celebrate racing history and those keeping it alive and well. As such we were looking for something cool and found it in the form of this video that features a classic early 1970s Indy racer with a turbocharged Offenhauser engine spending time on the chassis dyno. It looks to us that this is not so much a power tuning session as much as it is a session for getting the car to act right and drive right during part throttle and accelerative sections of wherever it was going to be run.
We get to see some of the Offy’s amazing power when the driver dips his toe into the throttle a time or two but we never get that rip roaring, full-throttle pull that would be fun to watch. It is really fun to listen to the engine wake up as the revs climb and the turbocharger spools. This thing is likely capable of making more than 1,000hp when it full race emergency power trim.
The other thing that we love is the look of the early 1970s race cars. Everything that open wheel racing is today can be traced back into these cars. In racing, it is all and evolution and while these cars may be the knuckle dragging ancestors of today’s cars, they look cooler, sound better, and actually make the same horsepower and more in many cases.
A cool video here for those of you who love racing history like we do.
