10/29/2025
***Historical Update - 1968 All American Racers Eagle Mk. IV***
The thing about restoring a car that only spent a few hours of life as a racing car is that it doesn't give up much in terms of data for the 'who, what, where, when, and whys.'
But, as you may have ascertained by now, I'm all about the W's. With them, you are able to draw up a picture as to what a car did in its life, who did it, etc etc...
But our 1968 All American Racers Eagle Mk. IV has always been a bit of a mystery. We knew it was wrecked at a Goodyear Tire test in December, 1968 with Bobby Unser driving. We knew the accident occurred at Riverside International Raceway, and that the Leader Cards outfit was trying a new engine package at the test: a 320 c.i Chevy Small Block, coupled to a Hewland LG500 transaxle.
But we didn't always know that.
Heck, previous owners of the car didn't know that either.
The car, for many years, had inner engine bay skins that were in place for a Drake-Offenhauser 159 c.i. unit, but we had always heard stories of the SBC arrangement. As you can guess, the V-8 Chevy arrangement didn't fit with those narrow Offy-spec inner skins in place.
Last winter, Ian Blackwell sent me some articles from Feb 1969 where Bobby Unser talked about running a 320 c.i. Chevy motor in that fateful test where they wrote off a 1968 1/2 Eagle. They then removed the Louis Unser-prepped Chevy and everything aft of the roll hoop, including the inner skins for the Chevy, and the rear bulkhead. Those would be added to another car for 1969.
But those key fragments let us know it had a Chevy. We then actually found a print to modify the engine bay of a 1968 Indy Eagle to accommodate a Chevy- our car was one of two in 1968 to have that done. Peachy- that gave us the playbook.
The ex*****on has been a lot of work, Paul Jay and John Haydyk have been busy making everything spacious for the RB Motorsports RB MotorSports Engineering engine that Wayne Brown is building to 1968 specs. Scott Young Enterprises built a LG500 that you could grind kryptonite with, so the drivetrain is going to be rather stout. An original 1968 Eagle radiator has been rebuilt and tested by none other than Jerry Weeks, so we truly have the best of the best of many disciples involved in this project.
But back the story of the car... earlier this year we got a lifeline.
In the 11 years we've been the caretakers of the car, we only knew of one photo of the Eagle from in-period. It was the infamous photo of the wrecked tub in a dumpster, with mechanic 'Lil Red' Herrmann saluting the camera with a signboard next to him reading 'Merry X-Mas.'
Only one photo.
Until Marshall Pruett and Ian Blackwell, nearly on the same day, presented photos from Terry Malone's collection of a bare metal Eagle being wheeled out of AAR, and the crash damage there after.
The photos matched our car perfectly- the damage matched the damage still present in the early 2010s, the blister in the chassis skin above the shift lever bubbled out for Unser's hand- it was the only '68 car to have that... they were the missing links to the car's 'before the wreck' identity.
So we called Terry yesterday. He said we could share the images to help showcase what the car was, and added that the car was only finished the late into the night before the test. That would have been December 12, 1968.
But he was there. Likely, he's the only one left alive who was there that day, a fact that saddens him greatly- but what a lovely man. We told him these images breathe life into a car that only ran one day- and will again soon. I think he loved that. He plans on being at the Eagle Reunion at RA this coming summer.
And so, here they are. Three images that show a never-painted 1968 All American Racers Eagle Mk. IV being wheeled around AAR- headers still missing from the engine. You'll notice an oil cooler added to the LF of the car- that was apparently a last minute request of Unser's, which lead to the long night before the day of the car's demise.
You'll also notice Mickey Thompson cross-ram injection and a fiberglass nose cone. The M/T injection is rare as hen's teeth, and while it was on the car, none of the other cross-ram injection units we found actually fit the car without hitting the back of the cockpit- thus, we'll be running Webers for the time being- they'll be user-friendly, so that's a win.
And that nose... while it was right for the day, we couldn't have a bare metal car running around with a fiberglass nose. So a proper alloy nose is currently being sculpted.
A face to the name, as it were. Pictures of what it was, rather than what it is.
