1969 AAR Eagle Mark 7

The All American Racers was founded by Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby in 1964 and was based in Santa Ana, California. They participated in American sports car, Champ Car, and Formula One events with cars named Eagle. The Formula One Team had a separate division, based in the United Kingdom and powered by British-built Weslake engines, and was known as the Anglo American Racers. During its racing career, the team participated in 25 Grand Prix events, entering a total of 34 cars.

The 1969 AAR entry was named after the city in which it was built, Santa Ana. Internally, it was the Mark 7 and wore a design by British designer Tony Southgate inspired by the Lotus Type 56 raced the prior season at Indianapolis. It used a triangular aluminum monocoque with a double-wishbone suspension and was designed to accommodate stock V8s or Ford's turbocharged twin-cam V8. The chassis was slightly shorter and lower than its predecessor. In compliance with USAC rules changes, it wore wider wheels that measured 10 inches at the front and 14 inches at the back. Other improvements included changes to the roll bar design, Gurney's helical-toothed steering box, and ventilated disc brakes.

Prepared in time for the 1969 Indianapolis 500, the three entries were tremendously quick but the lack of development time proved to be its Achilles heel. Two cars were fielded by the AAR team, with Dan Gurney driving a stock-block engined example while Denny Hulme drove a turbocharged Ford V8 entry. Although the turbo version was more powerful, it suffered from turbo lag and poor fuel economy. The Henry 'Smokey' Yunick entry had a 159 CID DOHC turbo Ford V8 engine, was painted gold and was driven by Joe Leonard. The Yunick car qualified 11th and ran as high as 2nd during the race.

Denny Hulme qualified 2nd place on the grid, but retired on lap 145 due to a clutch failure, having to settle for 18th overall. Leonard was sidelined when his radiator was punctured. Repairs were made in 14 minutes and the car was back on the track, finishing the race in 6th overall. The car driven by Gurney finished second behind Mario Andretti.

The Mark 7 had a square nose that slightly resembled a beak shape, with the radiator located on the underside. This shape created considerable lift at speed causing it to be difficult to drive. After Indy, the car's development continued, addressing the handling issues by stiffening the roll bars in the front and installing hot-air extruders on the top of the nose. These changes worked and helped Gurney score two victories and five pole positions in 1969.

The Mark 7 remained competitive into 1970 with Gurney scoring his final Indy car victory at Sears Point.

Four chassis had been built with three being raced in period. The fourth chassis was driven by Dan Gurney at Indianapolis during free practice where it wore number 7. It was built to a similar specification as the Gurney Indy 500 entry but never raced.

The AAR Eagle Mark 4 driven by Bobby Unser won the 1968 Indy 500 and Dan Gurney placed second. The 'Santa Ana' Eagle of 1969 had a wedge body popularized by the lotus 56, and was very effective on road courses but may have had too much drag for the high-speed ovals. It was much less successful than the 1968 Eagle, so Dan Gurney and his AAR team returned to a Len Terry design for a new car for 1970, with a full-length monocoque and a rocker-arm front suspension of the 1966 and 1967 Eagles.

by Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2020