irritated that so many cars in the ARCA (Auto Racing Club of Amercia) were not American, Briggs Cunningham assembled a 1939 Buick chassis under a SSK Mercedes body, with the help of a Indy 500 Buick racer.
IT was ready in time for the last race at the New York World's Fair, in October of 1940, but due to brake fade, ran into a lamp post. Then racing was cancelled until after WW2, and when in 1948 racing resumed at Watkins Glen, with the SCCA, the car was improved to mods suggested by Buick's VP of engineering. It placed 2nd behind an Alfa... and seems to have triggered Cunningham to make his own sports cars.
Photos and info found on http://revsinstitute.org/the-collection/1939-bu-merc/ the Rev's Institute which seems to be the car collection of the Collier brothers ( Miles and Sam) who were drivers for and friends of Briggs in his Le Mans and SCCA racing. They are also the sons of the founder of Collier County Florida.
The Revs Institute is once again open to the public. Barron Collier with over a million plus acres of land helped to finish the Tampa to Miami route. Interesting story in the beginning how a few men tried to drive through this wilderness and almost died, Collier asked for Lee county to be changed to his name if he agreed to finish the trail.
ReplyDeleteMiles purchased all of Cunningham's California museum. They were all fiends however many have been old off over the years.
great bunch of info! Thanks! So that's what happened to the Cunningham Museum and collection! The way I heard it, the snobs who ran the San Diego museum were so insulted that Briggs had such a better and amazing collection, they were glad his museum closed, and avoided being associated with purchasing any of his cars. That might be rumor, or completely true.
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