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1913 Delage Type R Indy 500 Race Car

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 500-mile automobile race held on May 30, 1914 was more than a disappointment to American auto builders and racing drivers—it was an outright embarrassment!

The annual 500-mile race at the already-famous Indiana autodrome was listed in the European racing press—though not in the European racing press—through not in the United States—as Le Grand Prix d’Amerique. In 1914, however, it could have been described as the Grand Prix of France—held in America, for French cars dominated the race. Not only did French-built Delâge racing cars take first and third first and third places in the 1914 running of the “500,” but French-built Peugeots finished second and fourth as well.

It remained for the indomitable American driver Barney Oldfield to salvage some of Uncle Sam’s automotive prestige by bringing his Stutz racer home in fifth place—more than 20 minutes after René Thomas had crossed the finish line in his winning Delâge. Another American car and driver—both of which would go on to achieve great fame in later years—fared even worse then Oldfied, Eddie Richenbacker and his Duesenberg finished the race in tenth place, a full hour behind Thomas.

In winning the 1914 Indianapolis 500, René Thomas and his riding mechanic, Robert Laly, averaged more than 82 miles per hour. They covered the 500 miles around the 2 ½ -mile track in 6 hours, 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

The car in which Thomas won at Indianapolis was one of two designed by Arthur Michelat for French auto-builder Louis Delâge in 1913 for Le Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France, held at Amiens on July 12 of that year. The two cars finished a respectable fourth and fifth in that race and went on to take first and second places in Le Grand Prix de France at Le Mans during the following month.

Designated as the Type Y Specials, the open two-seaters were entirely custom-built for racing. They were powered by four-cylinder engines developing 105 horsepower at a relatively slow 2,300 revolutions per minute. And Although the engines were fitted with ball-bearing crankshafts, their narrow bore of 105 millimeters (just over 4 inches) and long stroke of 180 millimeters (7 ¼ inches) marked them as somewhat old-fashioned, even by the standards of their day.

Today racing cars are either owned or subsidized by firms associated with the automobile industry, but when Grand Prix racing was in its infancy the expense of owning a racing car was often borne entirely by the driver. Thomas, for example, paid Louis Delâge 45,000 francs for his winning car. It was a most fortunate transaction, for it netted Thomas an important victory and brought Delâge prestige worth far more than the amount Thomas paid him.
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Viewed: Apr 28, 2024
Updated: Apr 19, 2024
Priced: Apr 19, 2024
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