Ride along with racing legend Mario Andretti as he takes laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1966. This historic footage showcases the historic 1960s era at the Indianapolis 500.
Imagine a real race like the 24 hours of le mans ............where there's braking and top speed to match.....and more than two left turns..............................
Why is the wheel center turned to the left? I'd assume that it would be turned to the right if anything, to make it more centered when going into the left hand turns, but now it's just left or even more left? Any insight?
Deflating tire? Dead. Broken suspension? Dead. You sneeze halfway through a corner? Ya guessed it, dead. Indy and F1 in the 60's, 70's, and 80's took balls the size of west Kansas.
PrimeMujica exactly, and the best thing is, most riders dont even get that much money, so its all for the speed and feeling these guys get. Its such an amazing event
The possibility of death may seem exciting and thrilling-until it’s you scraping the mangled and dismembered corpse of your friend or family from the pavement.
I got a ride around the track twice in one of the pickup trucks. The driver was a young guy that wasn’t afraid to push down on that accelerator. One of the biggest shockers was just how sharp those corners are. At only 70 mph you get pressed pretty hard against the side and it feels like any faster and you could possibly lose control. The idea that you could go through those corners at 150 or even more seems impossible.
Why do people always get mad when someone uses plain old facts? You're the ones who need to chill..
3 года назад
because of my fathers business with an automotive company I got to eat breakfast once with this legend when I was a kid in the 70's at the indianapolis track, also got to meet AJ foyt, Rick Mears, Al unser Sr and Jr, and a few other lesser known Indy racers of that era, (Tom Bigelow, Danny Ongias, bill whittington)...just one of those memories you carry with you throughout life, thanks Pops.
Thelma Peckerwood also, your profile page shows a pig, as well as your description saying you have a pig farm so you would be more likely to be this hog salesman you are talking about
Yeah we should make racing dangerous again, safety equipment and measurement is for pussies i love seeing racer head decapitated in crash or flying limbs and racer dying for sake of entertainment rather than boring safe open wheeler racing of today. Just make them wear construction hard hat, google and gloves and off they go 👍
I'm not a race car driver by any means, but I was able to drive a Winston Cup car in the Richard Petty Experience. At my measly 145 mph, the forces on your helmeted head, body and hands is shocking. Hats off to these guys that sit in a car for several hours, much less inches apart. Anyone who says that they are not athletes, should try this themselves.
My dad and uncle worked for Ford and Chrysler's. The 1968 Indianapolis 500 was the last of eight races I was lucky to attend. I entered the Marine Corp in Oct 68. After Vietnam I settled in the San Diego area. Through the years I continue to watch this great spectacle on TV. "Gentlemen Start Your Engines"
I really appreciate the USA, the whole history and the importance that you Americans have always been to the whole world. Patriotism admired. I am Brazilian patriot 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 but frustrated because I did not have one born in the USA. Congratulations on your life trajectory, congratulations on living and representing everyone in the American uniform. Thank you, always !!!!
I'm guessing it's a 16mm camera, something like this - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BolexH16.jpg Standard film load was 100 feet, good for a bit less than 3 minutes.
When I played with my Hot Wheels as a kid in the late 1960s I would drive them around my mom's bedroom furniture while she sat at the sewing machine making our clothes. (Man, life sure has changed!) I would tell her, "I'm A.J. Foyt! I'm Mario Andretti! I'm Richard Petty!" These guys were my heroes.
F1 Champ, multiple USAC/CART champ, Indy 500 winner, Daytona 500 winner. Driver of the century award for the 20th century. An absolute legend by any definition of the word.
Mario, Wow the usac championship in 65 and 66. Dropped out in the 67 race with a burnt piston took over another drivers car. Then dropped out again with a burnt piston. Bobby Under won the 68 race. Then Mario won in 69. After the 69 race they checked out Mario's car it had no gear oil in it. The car would have broke and he would have dropped out of the race. If he it would have gone another lap. The gears were messed up badly in the rear end. Also Mario was testing a car at the track one day. The air got under his car on the back stretch. The Indy car did a complete flip end over end and landed on it wheels and he kept going. Now that's a great Indy car driver. No one else in Indy car History. Can tell that story! Mario you were the best that there ever was. You the Man! Shawn
Wow wow wow! I love that motor sound. Mario was 26 that year, in only his second Indy 500. He won the pole position with a 4-lap average of 165.899 mph (266.989 kph).
@@kevinwood3376 All I know is it was a Ford V8 DOHC 4-valve. I think about 2/3 of the field was running that engine for the 1966 race, and the other cars ran with Offenhausers.
It's not that different today; the cars have a lot more grip, and thus the driver has to deal with a much higher g-force level. It's physically very demanding to do that for several hours straight.
@@FT-64 The physical part is one thing, the mental concentration for the duration of the race is a completely different kind of fatigue. No - zero - room for error.
I watched mario live in 1991 at laguna seca do a lap on wayne raineys gp bike in only a firesuit. His time was good enough for fifth on grid in motogp. Unreal driver talent.
Andrew Ongais, not to dispute what you are saying, but I went to plenty of time trials and races in 60's and early 70's, they still had some roadsters, namely driven by Hurtibease (can't remember the spelling), and just the beginning of turbo-chargers and a wing, never will forget the famous words every May on the 2 weekends of qualifying.....'and it's a new track record'. It was about speed, it was getting over the 150 mph barrier, then the 160 mph barrier, then the 170, etc.. Besides all the different makes and designs of cars and all kinds of engines, it was always exciting to see if this would be the year of 'a new track record'. It was about speed, as well as who came up with something new to try to get the edge. Besides turbines, you had cars that looked like boats flipped upside down.
@G Galilei Well, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell and Jacques Villeneuve succeeded both in F1 and USAC/Indycars as well so what's your point? And they are all still alive and well too, so I reiterate what's your point? You know I could make a point about Mansell since he raced in both an incredibly competitive era of F1 and what was arguably the most competitive era of CART and won successive championships. Aged 39-40 no less. Jim Clark still has the record of 8 "Grand slams" (pole, win, fastest lap, every single lap led) in F1, which not even present day drivers like Lewis Hamilton (6 of them) and Michael Schumacher (5 of them) or Ayrton Senna (4 of them) in F1. All the more remarkable considering he only started 72 races, compared to Hamilton's 257, Schumacher's 307 or Senna's 161. When he arrived at Indianapolis in 1963 he nearly won the first time out if not for the lap chart. Then he won his second ever USAC race start at the Milwaukee Mile in 1963. He won the 1965 Indy 500 by breaking records and also leading 190 out of 200 laps. It took *years* before Mario Andretti won his first Indy 500. Despite him being way more experienced in USAC racing. In F1 Andretti won the championship with Lotus in 1978 when they had their revolutionary ground-effect car which made everybody else look like they were racing ten year old cars. And his team mate Ronnie Peterson was contracted not to race him (much to his chagrin) because Lotus could gain more sponsorship deals and "Ford support" with Andretti than they could with Super-Swede. In 1979 Andretti's team mate at Lotus was Carlos Reutemann who beat him over the season. And Lauda beat Reutemann at Ferrari in 1977. So was Andretti at Lauda's level in the mid 70's in F1? Well, Lauda did fix Ferrari after many years without a title. Andretti *did* have a chance with Ferrari in 1971 and 1972. He won a race so he did well. But did he make easy work of Jacky Ickx? I wouldn't say so. Mario Andretti. A technical and smart driver. Yes. Reliable and consistent. Yes. The best ever? Neither in F1 nor in USAC/CART. Scott Dixon will soon pass his overall wins in USAC/CART (combined) in far shorter time but I wouldn't call Scott Dixon the best driver in the world or one of the all-time legends as much as I respect him and his achievements. Stirling Moss won 212 out of 529 races he competed in all forms of motor racing 1948-1962 for a whopping 40% win ratio. His 1955 Mille Miglia win alone may have been one of the greatest achievements in the history of motor racing. Or his 1961 Monaco Grand Prix win driving a hundred laps of qualifying speed (literally since his winning time was his qualifying time times a hundred plus 25 seconds - and that includes all the pit stops too...) Btw, this 1966 Indianapolis 500 was won by Graham Hill. The only driver ever to win the Indy 500, the LeMans 24 hours and the Monaco GP (which he won 5 times). I'm afraid there's neither a LeMans nor Monaco GP victory for Mario Andretti - and he had plenty of fair chances. I'll tell you a little secret: You're ultimately compared to your team mates in any motor racing. The greater they were in their own right the greater the driver is. This is why somebody like Senna can legitimately have a claim to be great (beat Prost in the same car) or Hamilton (beat record-young double world champion Alonso as a rookie in the same car) whereas somebody like Schumacher (only had hand-picked number two's, most of which never had even won a race before) does not. But when it comes to raw skill and speed I wouldn't put Mario Andretti in the top 10 list of the best drivers of all time.
Jim Clark is still the greatest driver to ever get behind the wheel of a car ... the guy was on another planet, even Fangio said it ... still to this day he has the biggest winning distance in an F1 race ... he also pitted and came out last in one race and went on to win ... the guy was incredible ... but for a car failure that took his life in an F2 race he would have won double figure world titles
If talking USAC spectrum, Indy, 24hrs, etc, etc AJ hands down…he was the one to beat whenever he rolled off the trailer only man to win Indy in front and rear engine cars…master of the loose car if you don’t believe me ask Smokey Yunik
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Talk about lack of safety equipment and design! You almost had to have a death wish to compete in a car like that! Crazy to think they did it for fun! Incredibly stable footage considering the era and conditions, though!
Randy Lovering Would definitely recommend. I live in Indy and was just there last Saturday for qualifications and going back for the race over the weekend. The sound and scale of the track is unreal.
Would highly recommend. But. It's nothing like it used to be. I grew up there. From the early 50's into the 90's. Worked as full time crew member the entire 1999 season. It's a fantastic place, but has lost too many of it's traditions, spectators and importance. It's no longer the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, in my opinion.
I clocked a 55.96 second lap starting at the pit wall entrance (after the white line). In full screen mode I started and ended the time when the wall hit the left edge of the screen. My calculations are: (2.5/55.96) *60 = 2.680 MPM * 60 = 160.829 MPH (numbers are rounded to the thousandths).
Considering how big the camera must’ve been to get this kind of quality footage in the old days, it’s very likely the drag from it caused the car to go a few MPH slower. Or Mario was just chilling, looks a lot like a practice lap to me anyway.
@@pit19931 that's exactly the nickname Nelson Piquet have the Ferrari car after the death of Gilles Villeneuve in 1982. He comment was and I quote: "The Ferrari is a f*cking coffin on wheels. People tell me it's a dream to drive for Ferrari and now I can say with confidence that not only this has never been a dream of mine, but my current dream is to stay away from a Ferrari as much as possible" at that point Enzo Ferrari answered saying that: "this is a comment based on envy. Nelson had a good year in 81 but will never be anything more than that. Specially without a Ferrari". After Piquet got his 3rd WC title in 87, and knowing about the poor conditions of health that the Ferrari "comendadore" was in, he said: "I feel sorry for him. He has to live knowing that his cars killed many talents and now he has to live with the fact that I won 3 titles and never needed a Ferrari for anything". Enzo died in 1988, and Piquet's 3rd title in 1987 would be his last.
@@leweee lol. Mario still drives a 2 seater indy car at 180-190 mph and takes fans etc for rides before the races. He would get in that Mercedes and lay a lap down that would probably qualify for the race.
This was the first design of the ABC Go-slow camera mount. Can you imagine the weight of the mount, camera? plus the aerodynamic looses.? ABC Sports to Mario Andretti ."Your loss is our gain"
ESTOS SI HERAN PILOTOS DE VERDAD NO HAY CONTROL DE TRACCIO NO CONTR. DE VELOCIDAD NADA PURA MANO . THESE LRAN REAL PILOTS NO TRACTION CONTROL NO SPEED CONTROL NOTHING PURO HAND.JA
Nerves made of hardened steel. Mario is a legend and a nice guy too! -my kid got to meet him at the 500 Speedway museum two years ago on a preschool trip. Race legend wanted to take a picture with a bunch of kids. Seriously, what was he doing there? He should be in Monaco drinking martinis and polishing his corvette or whatever you do when you are Mario Andretti
The empty grandstands is what did it for you? Not the fact that he just came out of the pits slowly? Or that other drivers are slowing down on the inside lane?
I know this video is old, but honestly, I think Mario Andretti could still be competitive today, in any series, NASCAR, Indycar, IMSA, WEC, Formula One, you name the series, the GOAT could enter and beat them kids who are young enough to be his great grandsons and/or great granddaughters
He has the talent for sure, that doesn't go away. And he raced basically everything in motorsports. But we have to take some stuff into account: drivers nowadays have to deal with the technology of the cars far more. I mean, doing things themselves. Like setting something on the car using the steering wheel during the race. For a guy of his time, this is a struggle. Ex: Niki Lauda tested a Jaguar F1 in 2003. His first time driving an F1 in 18 years back them. Everything was different, he was slower than his talent and skill, and his reflexes weren't sharp. Which brings me to my second point: reflexes, vision, quickness of mind, firm hands. Mario has been retired for a long time. In the last 26 years he drove an Indycar, aside from the two seated version, once. And we all know the crash that he suffered. He didn't got any younger since. With old age, we all lose that kind of stuff, and they're much needed while racing at such high speeds. This would be too dangerous for him to do
@@AmericasChoice thanks. We, as fans, tend to look into such situations with our hearts. But we have to bring reason to the table. It's very likely that he wouldn't even be medically cleared to race, due to all circumstances that I've mentioned. That's why we have, if we have the chance to, cherish the drivers when they're racing and preserve their moments while they're still alive. Time will not go back neither for Mario to have another shot at his 2nd Indy 500 win, nor for us to think that he will show his A game. We have to enjoy while it lasts
