1964 Webster Special

During the 1950s, Marvin Webster was actively involved in racing midgets and quarter midgets. In 1958, his son was crowned the quarter-midget National Champion, a very impressive accomplishment for both father and son. After conquering the quarter midget category, a new racing class was needed to keep his son's interest peaked. Webster turned to Sports Car racing.

In the early 1960s, Webster began work on creating a 2-liter sports car. The car was nearly identical in size to the Lotus 23, a good starting point for which to mimic. The chassis was created from 1.25-inch steel tubing with an additional brace surrounding the cockpit region. Mounted mid-ship was the two-liter Coventry/Climax FPF engine which was mated to a Porsche five-speed gearbox. The space-frame chassis was clothed in an aluminum body that had been specially formed by an aerodynamic expert, Bob Herda. The chassis was independent in both the front and rear, comprised of unequal-length A-arms and coil-over Armstrong shocks in the front. The rear had radius bars. Girling calipers and Webster built drilled brake rotors that kept the car in the driver's control and sat inches away from the 13-inch wheels and Goodyear tires.

Keeping in mind weight distribution, the twenty-seven-gallon aluminum fuel tank was mounted opposite the driver. The driver sat on the right.

Tony Settember of Formula 1 fame, was given the opportunity to test drive the car and offer suggestions on improvements. Settember offered little advice, as the car was near perfect. Jerry Titus drove the car during a 1964 SCCA ARRC race running the D-Modified class, and emerged the victor. The car even outclassed the larger and more powerful C-Modified Class.

The success of the 1964 race was not repeated at the 1965 USRRC race. Titus drove the car well, but was unable to achieve the prior year's results.

During the 1964 season, Webster had begun work on a new Sports Car, this time using an aluminum Oldsmobile V8 engine. Webster enlisted the services of two individuals to aid with its development. Jerry Eisert was responsible for the space frame chassis while Jack Hagemann created the very attractive, and aerodynamic aluminum body. The mid-mounted Oldsmobile engine featured four Weber 48mm carburetors which produced around 300 horsepower. A ZF five-speed manual gearbox was mated to the engine with disc brakes at all four corners. The entire package weighed around 1250 pounds.

The car made its racing debut mid-way through the 1964 season. It was driven by Ed Leslie and Tony Settember with mixed results. It was entered in CanAm competition the following year, but it was underpowered and had trouble keeping pace. Titus was able to manage a very impressive sixth-place finish at Las Vegas in the series.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jun 2007