In 1968, Lear found himself rich and bored.
He'd sold off Lear Incorporated in 1962 and Lear Jet Corp. in 1967.
Before that, he'd worked on car radios and collaborated with Earl "Madman" Muntz to develop and market the eight-track stereo system. He needed something to do with his millions then, in August 1968, he met Ken Wallis.
Wallis convinced Andy Granatelli to let him help out on the STP turbine Indy car in 1967 and moved on to convince Carroll Shelby to try turbine cars for 1968, a bid that ended when Phil Remington discovered that Wallis had designed a cheat system that opened up the total inlet area beyond the permitted 15.999 square inches when the car was at speed.
According to Sports Illustrated, Wallis wandered into Lear's life looking for financing to buy a yacht. "Well, I liked him so much I bought him the yacht and made him my chief engineer as well," Lear told the magazine.
This book lays out a general foundation of Bill's early life, how he made (and lost) fortunes, and the political trouble he had with his inventions regardless of how technically superior they happened to be at the time.
https://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/bangshiftapex-videos/the-story-of-bill-lears-steam-powered-race-car/
Wallis convinced Lear he needed to enter a steamer in Indy as the best way to prove Lear's idea of how to replace the poison-dispensing internal combustion engine with a steam propulsion system And he needed to do so ASAP - before the 1969 Indy 500 ASAP.
This book lays out a general foundation of Bill's early life, how he made (and lost) fortunes, and the political trouble he had with his inventions regardless of how technically superior they happened to be at the time.
https://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/bangshiftapex-videos/the-story-of-bill-lears-steam-powered-race-car/
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1960s-lear-motors-corporation-1947395454
Thanks for the link to the Dorkomotive podcast. I hadn't heard of it, but now I'll have to listen to them. There are a lot of interesting topics - Art Arfons, Turbonique, this Lear steam-powered race car.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, and yeah, the alcoholic ice cream delivery wagon... that old Reading motor trike... you are spot on.
DeleteI still have to make time to look through Dorkmotive, I found it late last night, and didn't have ANY time to look around.
I wish every day was 36 or 48 hours, or that I needed less sleep. 7 hours is barely getting the job done.
But... there is still, SO much to look at online and enjoy!
Have a fun holiday and weekend!
I listened to the first episode, about Fireball Roberts racing at Lemans in 1962, and it was pretty good. Lohnes goes into the background of how Bill France wanted to expand NASCAR's influence and how France, Roberts and Luigi Chinetti came together to make it happen. On the topic of podcasts, Mike Rowe posted one last week saying that he will be posting chapters from his book on his podcast for a while, with some extra discussion about those stories. I haven't read or listened to the book, so that will be good for me.
ReplyDelete