1973 Edmunds Sprint Car

In 1955, Los Angeles Indy-car builder Eddie Kuzma hired Don Edmunds as a panel beater after admiring the custom nose Edmunds had designed and fabricated for his own Kurtis sprint car. One of Edmunds' first assignments for Kuzma was to repair the dents that a frustrated Jimmy Bryan had kicked in his car when a fuel pump failure put him out of the Indianapolis 500 after 90 laps. Edmunds himself challenged the 500 in 1957, scoring Rookie of the Year honors with a 19th-place finish. Bryan won the following year, but Edmunds crashed during practice and gave up Indy cars for Super Modifieds.

In 1963, Edmunds opened his own shop, Don Edmunds Autoresearch, in Anaheim, California, where he would build close to 600 oval-track and road-race cars during the following 18 years. Of his 85 sprint cars, several won national championships.

By 1970, sprint cars were sprouting wings - inverted airfoils, actually, which pressed down on the car, increasing traction and cornering grip while reducing the chances of getting airborne. Massive sideboards increased the efficiency of the relatively narrow (compared to aircraft) wings by keeping the air stream from spilling off the ends. Additionally, and significantly, the wings helped absorb the energy of a violent rollover. In 1978, promoter Ted Johnson founded the World of Outlaws, a new sanctioning body and tour for top-level winged sprints.

This 1973 Edmunds winged sprint car, powered by a 350 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8, was originally owned by Ruth, Sam, and Don Kimberling of Tyrone, Pennsylvania. Don raced it at Lincoln Speedway in New Oxford, Pennsylvania, Williams Grove in Mechanicsburg, Port Royal, and Clearfield. Its final race was the National Open at Williams Grove in 1975. It was then parked in Kimberling's garage until 1994, when it was purchased and restored by Bud Garvey of the Garvey Race Car Museum in Osceola Mills, Pennsylvania.

Edmunds himself became a collector and restorer of antique race cars.

Source - AACA Museum