"f86sabre" (f86sabre)
09/16/2014 at 09:21 • Filed to: Indy
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"f86sabre" (f86sabre)
09/16/2014 at 09:21 • Filed to: Indy | 4
| 6 |
Friends are a great thing. I was flying up to Indianapolis to attend a career fair at Purdue yesterday Nd had some free time. I dropped a friend who lived in town and, worked near the speedway, a note and asked if he wanted to spend some time at the IMS museum and grab dinner. He one upped me and asked if I wanted to take a tour of the basement of the museum where they store some of the cars that are not on display. Heck yeah I would!
Sadly, the picture above is not mine. I asked about pictures and was told that is not encouraged down there, but the image gives you an idea of what there was to see. Vintage race cars from all eras, a bunch of pace cars and a collection of absolutely stunning high end road cars from the pre-WWII era. All packed in as tight as you could imagine. There were maybe 3 Duesenburgs, a Chord, one giant prewar Merc, a pre-1900 Daimler, Hispano Suiza, and a bunch more as well as some post war stuff like a 300SL.
There were a bunch of great race cars down there as well including Mansell's 1993 500 car, a couple of STP specials, some classic Pennzoil cars and one that stopped me in my tracks for personal reasons. The first toy race car I remember getting as a kid was of AJ Foyt's 1977 Coyote that we got when we visited the museum in 1980. It was lovely to see in person.
There was also a great collection of 1/4 midget cars, including ones driven by Ed Carpenter, Sarah Fisher and a super trick one driven by Kyle Krisiloff.
Apparently, GM has an agreement for pace cars right now. During the 400 they asked to have a number of the past GM cars on display and paraded, so the basement was full of those. One that caught my eye was this beast. Dead sexy.
It was really a great experience and I wish I had more time and I really wish I could have taken some pictures. It was a rare privilege to be allowed in there and I wasn't about to abuse that.
quarterlifecrisis
> f86sabre
09/16/2014 at 09:31 |
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This honestly is one of the places I want to go before I die. The basement that is. I've had a number of glimpses through the open garage door on the west side of the museum, and some friendly yellow shirts have left the door open a little longer than they should have when pulling old Brickyard pace cars out.
One of my favorite museum moments (I've probably been there 10-12 times), was this year in May. There was a rainout for 500 practice, so I went over to the museum. Dario was walking around with Donald Davidson, taking in the cars. Kind of a great equalizer when you see someone who's won there 3 times looking at the same things you are, just as interested.
thedevilinside
> f86sabre
09/16/2014 at 09:38 |
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Very jealous. I go to the museum all the time, but dont know anyonr who can go down there. Maybe someday.
Finding any good job candidates at the Industrial Roundtable?
Bandit
> f86sabre
09/16/2014 at 11:49 |
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HNNNNNNNNNNG! That's an '80. The '81 Nascar editions had really rare recaro seats but they practically were the same car as the one pictured.
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f86sabre
> Bandit
09/16/2014 at 13:16 |
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It looked pretty. Had little stickers on the door handles proclaiming 4 wheel disk brakes. That is high tech right there.
Good seeing you at the job fair. Work hard and have fun.
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Bandit
> f86sabre
09/16/2014 at 13:42 |
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I need to buy those! Totally forgot my car came with those from the factory... Thanks for meeting with me! I'd love to see you/Delta in a year or two when I have some education under my belt and can actually be a potential co-op person. The way you portrayed the work made it seem really interesting.
Dan
> f86sabre
01/27/2016 at 19:57 |
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Late commenting I know, but I got to see The Basement on New Year’s Eve...2 hours of jaw dropping bliss. Pretty much everything you mentioned is still there, but my hero was definitely Jimmy Clark’s #92 Lotus. I think it is the same one that just made an appearance in Arizona last weekend. There are apparently two, because when I left I saw another one on the museum floor. Same thing goes for the turbine cars, but only the one upstairs has the engine in it.