1965 Forsgrini Veloce

The Forsgren brothers, Lyle and Dale, began their racing careers with karts during the 1950s. Next, they turned to the abundant and proven Fiat-Abrths before setting out to build racing specials of their own design. They used their experience gained during racing, and their background in the aircraft industry, to create some very effective and competitive sports racers. Their first example was built to contest the H-Modified racing class and was powered by a Crosley engine and Renault running gear. It had an Almquist fiberglass body and a mid-engine layout.

Future Forsgrini Specials were powered by Fiat, Abarth, Ford, Renault, and Crosley engines. They had four-speed manual gearboxes and an independent suspension setup.

The Forsgren brother's second car was dubbed the Monte Carlo. It was built using Fiat parts, had a mid-engine setup, and was built to contest the H-modified class. The body was built by Dale. During the 1961 and 1962 seasons, it proved to be very competitive.

The Forsgren brother's next car was the Martini, powered by a Renault Dauphine engine. This was followed by the Monaco, which had an 1100cc Ford engine. It was designed to contest the G-Modified racing class.

The Forsgrini Veloce was an F-Modified car that was fitted with an Alfa Romeo engine.

As the 1960s was coming to a close, Lyle decided to leave the aircraft industry and focus his complete attention on building race cars, including those for customers. The vehicles that followed included the Forsgrini MK.10 Formula C car and Mk.12 Formula Ford. A Formula F-5000 car was also built, the MK.10D, powered by a Chevy powerplant. Other models include the Mk.11, which Harry Swanson drove to 13th place at the Seattle pro event. The MK.14 was built but was not very competitive. It was later raced in Australia in the Tasman Championship, where it was able to score a few points.

In 1971, Lyle Forsgren exited the racing business.

by Dan Vaughan

Boeing aerospace engineers Lyle and Dale Forsgren decided in the early 1960s to go racing. Lyle, a magnum cum laude graduate of the University of Washington was a lead research engineer in supersonic propulsion at Boeing. They evolved from karts to production cars and then into the modified classes. Their first cars were Fiat Abarths with which they had some racing success. H Modified specials followed and were either Renault or Crosley powered. Searching for a name for their race cars, the brothers decided to Italianize their own last name and christen their little hotrods 'Forsgrini'. Despite their ungainly appearance the cars were very competitive and won 39 out of 49 races. In 1966 Lyle finished second at the ARRC with a Fiat-powered Forsgrini Monte Carlo. By the mid-1960s, Forsgren's talent for engineering and style had greatly matured and they began building larger and faster cars with more powerful Ford and Alfa Romeo twin-cam engines.

Before graduating up to Formula B and Formula 5000, Lyle and Dale built a series of 6 sports racers that would ultimately race in the D Sports Racer class in SCCA. The current owner of this vehicle spoke with Lyle (who now lives in Oshkosh Wisconsin), and he believes that this car is probably the last sports racer he built. He believes that it would have had either an Alfa Romeo Veloce engine or a PBS twin cam 'back in the day' and was probably driven by his brother Dale. They were quite competitive with the Lotus 23s, and in November 1968 at Riverside Raceway, Dale started first in class and after being punted off by a CSR competitor at the start, he clawed his way back to finish second in DSR at the USRRC (which was the SCCA national championship meet) 0.2 seconds behind the winner. The Forsgrini racing today is one of 3 remaining DSR cars built by the Forsgrens. It was built in April 1965 in Issaquah Washington. Today it runs with a 1600cc Ford (Lotus) twin cam. In the early 1970s, the car passed into the hands of Harry Swanson who raced it extensively through the Pacific Northwest, before it traversed the United States as a tired vintage racer.

The car was completely rebuilt over the winter of 2009/2010.

by Jeff Rothman