1966 AAR Eagle MK2 Monoposto

Dan Gurney is the first of just three drivers to have won significant races in sports cars, NASCAR, and Indy Car. He won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans and was the first driver to spray champagne around the podium. Another first was the Gurney flap which is an accepted aerodynamic aid to a rear spoiler. He was also the first driver to wear a full-face helmet, in the 1968 German Grand Prix.

In 1962, Gurney won his first Grand Prix victory for Porsche at Reims. He was the first driver hired by Jack Brabham to drive his namesake car and scored Brabham's first Grand Prix win at Rouen in 1964. In 1965, Gurney left Brabham to start All American Racers and built his own Eagle-Weslake cars. He won the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix, and was the only driver in history to have scored maiden Grand Prix wins for three manufacturers: Porsche, Brabham, and his own company.

Gurney's first race in NASCAR was in 1962. He was unbeatable at the Riverside, California, road course, winning for the Wood brothers in 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1968.

Gurney's primary focus with AAR was Indianapolis, where Gurney completed in the Indy 500 every year from 1962 to 1970. The first Eagle Indy car had the same Len Terry design as the 1966 Eagle Formula 1 car. Terry's rear-engine Lotus 38 had won the Indy 500 with Jim Clark in 1965. Gurney hired Terry to develop the car to race in both F1 and the Indy 500.

Both the F1 and the Indy cars were given a new suspension setup and large-diameter lightweight tubing with a double-walled skin. The inner skin provided support to the outer one. The gap between the two walls was used for the fuel cells and coolant pipes from the front radiator. Four internal bulkheads provided support for the shell, with the engine acting as a stressed member. The engine was a Ford 255 cubic-inch 4-cam V8.

Though the two cars had many similarities, they also had their differences. The F1 car was constructed from 18-gauge alloy while the Indy was heavier and comprised of heavier 16-gauge, as required.

Six Indy cars were built for the 1966 race. Two were customer cars for Lindsey Hopkins and Sidney Weinberger, and four were for AAR. The first of the six built was chassis number 201.

This particular example is chassis number 201. It is one of five Eagles that started the 1966 Indianapolis 500, and it wore race number 31. Lloyd Ruby qualified 5th in the #14 Bardahl Eagle; Jerry Grant was 10th in the #88 Bardahl Pacesetter Homes; Roger McCluskey was 13th in Lindsey Hopkins #8 G.C. Murphy; Dan Gurney was 19th in the #31 All American Racers, and Joe Leonard was 20th in the #6 Yamaha Eagle.

Unfortunately, Dan Gurney's race was very short. Billy Foster, who was gridded on the outside of Row 4, was squeezed into the wall at the green flag. He triggered a huge pileup on the front straight, which took out 11 cars, including Gurney, A.J. Foyt, and the entire sixth and eleventh rows. Gurney was classified 27th, one place behind Foyt.

The car's racing history for the rest of the 1966 season is not known. For 1967, it returned to Indy wearing the #48 AAR entry for future Formula 1 World Champion Jochen Rindt. The car was fitted with a 303 cubic-inch Gurney-Weslake Ford V8. During the race, Rindt was forced to retire prematurely on lap 108 due to a dropped valve. He was classified in 24th place.

The history after the race is not entirely clear. It is believed that the car remained with AAR and was used as a test bed for the Weslake V-8 until 1970 when it re-appeared as the Tassi Vatis entry #95 for Sam Posey in the Indy 500, but it failed to start.

Again, its fate is not fully known from that point to the 1971 Indy 500, where it was Tassi Vatis #95 entry again, this time for Bentley Warren, who was side-lined on lap 76 due to a gearbox failure and finished 23rd. Carl Williams raced the car in other races in 1971.

The car returned to Indy in 1972. As #95 for Tassi Vatis, he qualified 22nd at 180.469 mph but went out on lap 52 with a broken oil cooler, finishing 29th.

The car's last known entry was at Pocono in July of 1972.

Bob Johnson was the car's next owner, who sold it to Jim Mann in 1978, before passing it to Bob Sutherland, via Joe and Don Tarwaki. Jim Robbins restored it for Sutherland, then sold it to Joe McPherson in Tustin, California. Doug Magnon purchased it at auction for the Riverside International Automotive Museum in 2008.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2016

This is the first 1966 Eagle which was Dan Gurney's entry at the 1966 Indianapolis 500. The following year, fitted with a new Gurney Weslake Ford V8 engine, it appeared again at the Indianapolis 500, driven by Jochen Rindt. Later that year, Gurney drove this car at Riverside, winning the race. It is believed to have remained with the All American Racers as a test car until 1970, then it was entered again that year in the Indy race, this time by Tassi Vatis for Sam Posey - but it failed to start. Its penultimate appearance at Indianapolis was in 1971 when it was raced by Bentley Warren, and then Carl Williams qualified the car for its final Indy 500 in 1972. Its last known race appearance was at Pocono in July 1972. After several owners, the car was bought by Doug Magnon of the Riverside International Automotive Museum in May 2015. After Magnon sadly passed away, the car was acquired by its current owner and has been carefully restored to its 1966 configuration.