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Feature Article
Installment one in a Series: Indy 500 Racers and Pacers - 1950-1959: The Deadly Decade
by Wayne Moyer (Photos and list of winners and pace cars follows text)
If there was one constant during the decade of the 1950's, it was change. In 1950, Memorial Day for this central Ohio farm boy meant listening to the Indy 500 on radio, imagining cars and drivers I'd never seen. By 1959 I could care less about Indy cars; sports cars and Formula One had captured my interest and I wouldn't be interested in American Championship Car racing again until the Ford-powered "funny cars" began to revise the face-- or the rear end-- of American oval-track racing in 1963.
The cars changed, too, at least a little. In 1950 teams could, and did, compete on both the dirt tracks and paved ovals, including the Brickyard, with the same car. Troy Ruttman's win in 1952 with an "upright" car would be the last time a car capable of running on dirt would win at Indy; by 1959 all 33 starters were "roadsters" of one kind or another. No less than 18 different chassis makes (counting the three Kurtis varieties separately) in the 1950 500, including two Maseratis, but only 13 different makes in the 1959 race, with no foreign cars; boy, would THAT change in the next decade! And only seven of the 33 drivers who drove the 1950 500 would be in the 1959 event; incredibly enough, both Rathman brothers, Jim and Dick, were there for both races. Faster speeds (Indy qualifying went from 134.343 to 145.9 mph) and minimal driver protection, coupled with concrete walls and bumpy high-speed dirt ovals at Langhorne had accounted for many of the 26 1950 entrants who weren't there for the 1959 races.
1950 - '59 was without doubt the Kurtis era of Champ car racing. Kurtis cars would make no less than 930 starts in Championship races during the decade, with Kuzma way back in second with only 376 starts. But that, too would change; there were 14 Kurtis cars on the 1950 grid; as many as 21 in '53 and '54, but only 11 would be on the 1959 grid.
At least the Pace Cars didn't change too much; they were all standard production convertibles with little more than a mild hop-up; the flagman would sit/stand in the rear seat holding a real flag during caution laps.
If Indy cars and/or Indy 500 Pace Cars interest you, then you've got to get into 1/43 scale as a collector and builder. Indy 500 winners in 1/43 scale go all the way back to the godfather of the 1/43 scale kit industry, John Day, who planned to produce a white-metal 1/43 scale kit of every Indy winner from 1911 through 1976. John didn't succeed, but he did make a lot of them. Don't let the relative scarcity of John Day kits bother you; first off, if you can find them, they're still cheap, and second, virtually all of John's kits have served as a basis for a M.A. Scale Models (MASM) kit. While the lineage of many MASM kits is obvious, they are cast in resin, which is easier to work, most have been improved, with separate suspension arms instead of being part of the body casting, and they have very good-- and accurate-- decals, something that could rarely be said about John's kits. MASM kits are somewhat unique in that they usually look much better built up than in the box; their resin castings often take a fair amount of clean-up work and the white-metal pieces usually need even more, but the finished models will look pretty good! One problem is that some Day kits weren't exactly 1/43 scale, though. MASM kits are available from a couple of sources, and very limited numbers of "factory-built" (actually, hand-built) MASM models are available for persevering collectors. At this point, MASM makes more models of Indy 500 winners than any other company.
Scale Model Technical Services (SMTS) is giving MASM a good run, though, with a series of Watson Roadsters, Lotus-Fords, Eagles, and (promised) Belond Specials. These are state-of-the-art white-metal kits that build up into excellent miniatures (with one or two reservations) with no major problems. SMTS produces excellent factory-built versions of their models, too, so, so non-building collectors can add these to their collection with ease. until we work our way back to the early days of Indy racing, those are the only manufacturers we'll encounter.
Pace Cars are another story; although there are many available in 1/43 scale, they've been made by many different companies and there are only a couple available in kit form. Brooklin Models were probably the most readily available, but after being harassed by Speedway "license hounds", Brooklin has canceled planned future Pace Car releases. If you want a Brooklin Pace Car, get it while you can as they are all officially "Out of Production". KD, TFC, and Western models typically have more "factory-finished" details than Brooklin, with a correspondingly higher price. They are usually readily available, though the afore-mentioned license problems mean that they aren't advertised highly. The limited-production hand-built models by Mini-Marque 43 and Highway Travelers are both beautifully finished and fully detailed. This means a lot of careful hand work, and an appropriate price. Numbers are usually limited to 250 - 300 copies, too. There have been a few diecast Pace Car models and those from Collector's Classics can still be found at model car swap meets for reasonable prices. They're well worth looking for and in a couple of cases are the only model available. At the time of their release they were bargains and usually still are. Enchantment Land models are another subject that we'll cover when it applies. Finally, a few "aftermarket" decal sheets have been made to create your own Pace Car from a diecast or white-metal model, but as far as I know, none of these are still in production.
Well, enough talk. Here, to the best of my knowledge, are the 1950 - 1959 Indy 500 winners and Pace Cars that are, were, or soon will be available in 1/43 scale. I've probably missed a few very limited-production or one-off hand-built models, and of course there are some models Indy cars other than 500 winners that I've intentionally left out. If you're interested, let Dirk know and we'll look at them another time. While I don't have all the models listed below, I've included photos of Indy 500 winners and Pace Car models from my collection. As you can see, every Indy 500 winner and corresponding Pace Car from the decade is available in 1/43 scale with the sole exception of the 1950 Wynn's friction Proofing Kurtis drivem by Johnny Parsons. That's a hint for SMTS and MASM!! Next time we'll look at Indy's most dramatic decade, the 1960's.
Indianapolis 500 Winners and Pace Cars in 1/43 Scale
1950 - 1959
Year Vehicle & Model Manufacturer Status (see legend codes below)
1950 Winner: Wynn's Friction Spl.
Kurtis
No
Model
1950 Pace Car: Mercury
Brooklin Models
OP,
WM, FB,
1950 Pace Car: Mercury Zaugg
OP,
WM, HB
1951 Winner: Belanger Spl. Kurtis
M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,K
or HB
1951 Pace Car: Chrysler New Yorker Western Models
CA,
WM, FB
1952 Winner: Agajanian Spl. Kuzma
MCS
OP,
Wood, HB
1952 Winner: Agajanian Spl. Kuzma M.A.
Scale Models
CA,R,K or HB
1952 Pace Car: Studebaker Commander Brooklin Models
OP,
WM, FB
1953 Winner: Fuel Injection Spl.
Kurtis John Day
OP,
WM, K
1953 Winner: Fuel Injection Spl. Kurtis
M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,K or HB
1953 Pace Car: Ford Sunliner
Pete Foss
OP,
R, HB
1953 Pace Car: Ford Sunliner
Collector's Classics
OP,
DC
1954 Winner: Fuel Injection Spl.
Kurtis John Day
OP,
WM, K
1954 Winner: Fuel Injection Spl. Kurtis
M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,K or HB
1954 Pace Car: Dodge Royal 500
Brooklin Models
OP,
WM, FB
1955 Winner: John Zink Spl.
Kurtis M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,K
or HB
1955 Pace Car: Chevrolet Bel Air Collector's
Classics
OP,
DC
1955 Pace Car: Chevrolet Bel Air Motor
City USA
OP(?),
WM, HB
1955 Pace Car: Chevrolet Bel Air
Mini-Marque 43
**,
WM, HB
1956 Winner: John Zink Spl.
Watson M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,
K or HB
1956 Pace Car: DeSoto Fireflyte Pacesetter
Collector's Classics
OP, DC
1957 Winner: Belond Exhaust Spl.
Salih John Day
OP,
WM, K
1957 Winner: Belond Exhaust Spl. Salih
M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,K or HB
1957 Winner: Belond Exhaust Spl. Salih
SMTS
**,
WM, K or FB
1957 Pace Car: Mercury Turnpike Cruiser
Mini-Marque 43
CA,
WM, FB
1958 Winner: Belond Exhaust Spl.
Salih John Day
OP,
WM, K
1958 Winner: Belond Exhaust Spl. Salih
M.A. Scale Models
CA,R,
K or HB
1958 Winner: Belond Exhaust Spl. Salih
SMTS
**,
WM, K or FB
1958 Pace Car: Pontiac Bonneville
Brooklin Models
OP,
WM, FB
1959 Winner: Leader Card 500 Spl. Watson M.A. Scale Models CA,R, K or HB
1959 Winner: Leader Card 500 Spl.
Watson SMTS
CA,
WM, K or FB
1959 Pace Car: Buick Electra 225
Western Models
CA,
WM, FB
LEGEND:
CA = Currently available
OP = Out of Production
CON = Conversion
DC = Diecast
FB = Factory Built
HB = Hand Built
K = Kit
WM = White-Metal
R = Resin
**= Announced but not yet available
Photo 1 A decade of Pace Cars! Front, left to right: Brooklin
1950 Mercury, Western 1951 Chrysler, Brooklin 1952 Studebaker, Collector's Classics 1953
Ford, and Brooklin 1954 Dodge. Rear: Motor City 1955 Chevrolet, Collector's Classics 1956
DeSoto, Mini-Marque 43 1957 Mercury, Brooklin 1958 Pontiac, and Western 1959 Buick.
Photo 2. Indy 500 Winners! Front left, MASM 1951 Belanger Special; right, MASM 1952
Agajanian Special. Rear, left to right: MASM 1953 Fuel Injection Special, John Day 1954
Fuel Injection Special, MASM 1955 John Zink Special, and MASM 1956 John Zink Special. I'm
waiting for the SMTS kits of the Belond Exhaust cars!
Photo 3. The 1950 Mercury is the only Pace Car of the decade that doesn't have a
500-winning partner.
Photo 4. Western's 1951 Chrysler makes the MASM model of the Belanger Special Kurtis
"dirt car" look small. Both are accurate.
Photo 5. MASM's model of the 1952 Kuzma Agajanian Special and the very rare MCS hand-made
wooden model with Brooklin's '52 Studebaker Pace Car.
Photo 6. Here's MASM's model of Vukovitch's famous Kurtis "Fuel Injection
Special" with the Collector's Classics model of the '53 Ford Sunliner Vukie drove
home.
Photo 7. John Day's kit of the 1954 Fuel Injection Special was the first Indy Car model I
built. Brooklin makes the '54 Dodge Pace Car.
Photo 8. Motor City's handbuilt model (left) and the Collector's Classics '55 Chevrolet
flank MASM's very good-looking model of the 1955 John Zink Special Kurtis.
Photo 9. MASM also kitted the 1956 John Zink Watson while Collector's Classics made the
good-looking DeSoto Pace Car as a diecast.
Photo 10. I'm waiting for the SMTS Belond Exhaust models to put with Mini-Marque 43's 1957
Mercury and Brooklin's 1958 Pontiac Pace Cars. Notice all the additional detail on the
hand-built Mercury.
Photo 11. The only SMTS Watson not in my collection is the Leader Card Special that should
sit beside this fine Western Models 1959 Buick.
Photo 12. Many MASM models (left) show a very strong resemblance to older John Day kits
(right) but have better detail, separate suspension components, and MUCH better decals.
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