1969 AAR Eagle Mark 5

In 1967, Dan Gurney accomplished something that no other American manufacturer had done before, by winning a World Championship Grand Prix in an American car. His V-12 Eagle won the Grand Prix of Belgium and the following year Bobby Unser won the Indy 500 in an Offenhauser-powered Eagle. 1968 was the same year that Dr. Lou Sell won the SCCA Grand Prix Championship in a Chevrolet-powered F5000 Eagle. Dr. Sellw won five races while the other Eagle driven by George Wintersteen won two. The only other car to win a race during the season was the Lola T140 driven by Jerry Hansen.

Dan Gurney's AAR (All American Racers) used their 1968 Indy Eagle as the basis for the 3-liter Formula A/5000 car. Designer Tony Southgate was tasked with making the necessary changes to the car so it would comply with racing regulations and be suitable for the road courses. The Indy Car had an outboard suspension in both front and rear which was suitable for the road courses. The chassis was updated slightly with steel instead of the chrome-moly used by the USAC.

Five more cars were created for the 1969 season. In the first six races of the 1969 season, the Eagle won five of the races. By this point, the competition had caught up with the Eagle and began to surpass the nimble car. McLaren's M10A and Surtees TS5 started to win races and with no further development of the Eagle by AAR, it soon was off-pace with the leaders.

The Eagle Mark I was a Formula 1 cars, and the Mark 2 and Mark 3 were Indy 500 racers. All three of these models had been designed by Len Terry and were very similar. The Mark 4 was another Indy 500 racer but its design was by Tony Southgate. The Mark 4 driven by Bobby Unser placed first at the 1968 Indy 500, followed by Dan Gurney in second in his MK4.

The Eagle Mark 5
The Eagle Mark 5, like the Mark 4, was designed by Tony Southgate but it was built to contest SCCA Formula A. The single-seater Formula A series was a class within Formula 5000 and the cars that competed used production-based American V8 engines, generally in 5-liter displacement size. The AAR Eagle Mark 5 won the first two US 5-liter Formula A championships, with Lou Sell driving to victory in 1968 and Tony Adamowicz by the slimmest of margins in 1969.

The Eagle Mark 5 was given a full-length aluminum tub and was powered by either Chevrolet or Ford small-block engines, with the Chevy being the more popular of the two. The transmission was a Hewland DG 600 unit and the suspension followed a conventional arrangement of double wishbones at the front with a multi-link setup in the back.

As many as five examples were built and sold to customers in 1968, and due to its competitive nature, production would reach 14 units. The cars built to contest the 1969 season continued to be called the Mark 5, yet had several significant updates including a rear wing towering high above the car, and a Hewland DG300 gearbox.

Dr. Lou Sell raced a Mark 5 during the 1968 season and won five of the eight races, earning him the Continental Championship. Of the three races that Dr. Sell did not win, two were won by other Eagle Mark 5s.

The Eagle Mark 5 remained competitive during the 1969 season but had been joined by several competitive models from Surtees and McLaren (the Surtees TS5 and the McLaren M10A). Of the 13 rounds, the Eagle Mark 5 won 5 including two by Tony Adamowicz who would finish the season as that year's Continental Championship, edging out David Hobbs and his Surtees by a narrow margin.

AAR raced a Mark 5 for the first time in the final round of the 1969 championship season. Driven by Swede Savage, the Plymouth V8-powered Mark 5 qualified in pole position but retired early from the race due to mechanical issues with the clutch.

After the 1969 season, AAR focused its attention on the Trans-Am championship with the Plymouth Barracudas. With no further development from AAR, 1969 was the final successful season.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jul 2009