Chuck Manning was an aircraft stress engineer who built his own sports/racing car. He laid out a strong round tube frame and stacked parallel 2.75 inch mild steel tubes on each side (see photographs below), mounting 1939 Ford suspension, hydraulic drum brakes and a Mercury flat head engine. The car was very quick and won a major race at Palm Springs, California in 1952. Now here's the interesting bit - Manning never made a car for sale, but , as he developed his project, he wrote a series of articles for Road and Track outlining the design process and subsequently sold plans so that others could build replicas. I was thinking this may have been the birth of the kit car industry but I reckon it goes further than that - this is the birth of the Locost concept. Anyway, it appears several cars were built, including the car in these pictures and, it would seem, the cars built by David as mentioned in the previous post. This particular yellow one competed successfully in Quebec and "upstate" New York. In 1991 it was restored and ran at that year's Monterey Historics and continues to run in West Coast Historic events.
The photos of this car, the Schaghtcoke Manning Special, were taken at last year's or the year before's Monterey Histerics (where the old South Australian ex-Greeneklee Elfin Formula Junior also appeared).
Just up the road from Monterey is Santa Cruz and I wonder if it is a coincidence that at 1000 Water Street, Santa Cruz is a mechanical workshop called Chuck Manning Autos. Also in Santa Cruz is the high security Lockheed aeronautical facility. I started to think that all made sense as Manning was an aircraft engineer but he worked for Douglas I think. We have a daughter in Santa Cruz. I seem to recall her taking her Honda to that part of Water Street for work on her transmission. What a coincidence.
I'm starting to reminisce about the old sidevalve. Maybe I'll have to get Mike Davidson to keep an eye out for one for me.
10 comments:
I read in an article about the typical ladder frame as an effective chassis - the Manning chassis was "remarkably similar to those used under the 289 Cobra of the 60s. These frames allowed early kit cars to perform as well as most factory-built sports cars of the era."
Old Yella 1 was a similarly successful Yankee special in the 50's as was old yella 3. Try this link: http://books.google.com/books?id=oZempfWXoe4C&pg=PT30&lpg=PT30&dq=Old+Yella+racing+car+USA&source=bl&ots=qE02OUY4dH&sig=BHiOVL1Ej_iDzetCPrZhs1cG5lg&hl=en&ei=bpVASqmELIiHkQWM16H2CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9
There is also the Monsterati (great name). I'll post a picture in the morning and I think you'll agree.
John Davies, whose call sign is B8/26, has just written....."Dick Vermuelen (bike riders uncle) has built quite a few prewar special replicas. The latest is a Ford V8 for Michael Collins (Leyburn resident not WRX man) which ran at the Cootha Classic. Photos should be on the web. Michael reckons it cost only $15,000 which seems a bargain for something which just about gets automatic entry at any historic event."
There were 3 V8 specials at Mount Coot-tha. I was planning a post on that event tomorrow too (there were 2 Bolwells running - 3 actually entered, plus a great little Milano GT, a Rochdale - see video bar, and lots of other good stuff) so I'll include some photos of the Ford V8s as well.
I agree with John, replicas are an inexpensive way to get into historic motorsport. I've been thinking that since Lobethal last year when a couple of newish Dodge specials turned up. Then there's Tony's Alfa although that's hardly inexpensive.
Another special built on the Chuck Manning designed chassis was an envelope body car from the shop of Gordon Vann in Berkeley, CA. It participated in the Golden Gate Park races in 1953 or '54. Vann's body shop was a well known customizer during those years. The car was Vann's own design, fabricated from aluminum and pretty basic in form, but it had a beautiful dark maroon paint job. In the race it was troubled by mechanical problems having gone straight to the track without any shakedown time.
Andy Graybeal
I've been searching the internet. I've found the body shop, I've found the Golden Gate Park races, but so far I haven't found anything on the car but I'll keep trying.
I have pictures of the Vann special of you are interested.
I also know that Chuck manning wasn't the first to produce a "kit" style frame. I'm sure that Eric Irwin was the first.
I have found that he actually did sell these cars as a complete kit. More to comr.
Thanks Joel.
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