Thrilling 1958 Indianapolis 500 Auto Race - rare film 

Amazing the progress in safety and efficiency. An F1 pit stop including all new tires now takes a fraction over 2 SECONDS.

Once upon a time the Indianapolis 500 was the Great American race. Anyone who could build a car to compete was welcome. Not the case anymore. No more "home built" racers. Never again will there be cars powered by turbines or even diesel engines. My personal favorite were the cars powered by the Offenhauser 4 cylinder. A legend at the "Brickyard".

Fascinating snapshot of motorsports back then. The lack of safety for drivers, mechanics, photographers/ camera men and even the spectators as compared to modern era ,(2024) is amazing. But think of it this way, to those fans those cars looked as futuristic as the Indy cars of 2024 look to us.🤔

The pits and the stands from the paddock all the way to stand E look much like they do today. The shocker is the fact that stands are completely absent the entirety of the rest of the track. Nothing but grass and trees on turns 2, 3 and 4. I notice there is no black pole either. And the catch fence protecting the fans is so small and thin that it’s difficult to see.

Ah! the good old days, when all a pit crew needed was a sledgehammer, a pair of scissors and some drinks on a stick

George Amick, a rookie driver came in second in this 1958 Indy 500. The next year Bill France decided to run two 100 mile heats using USAC cars. That was the only time I got to see Indy cars run. I was ten years old. As George was coming out of the West turn a gust of air picked up his car and it rolled over. As it sat down on the tarmac poor George was decapitated. I was looking at the exact spot it happened. It was a lot for a ten year old to process. France decided that Indy cars were too fast on the 31 degree high banked turns at Daytona and that is the last Indy car race that was run. Amick hailed from Vernonia, Oregon, he was 34 years old. RIP.

@1:25 A Real Marlboro Man👍

Amazing footage, have never seen this before. Thanks for sharing. These roadsters are beautiful machines.

Thanks for posting -- I was ten years old living in North Dakota when this ran, was the first year I tracked the Indy 500 (rooted for the lay-down engine, Belund AP Special -- that eventually won). My dad worked at a TV station and took my kid brother and me out to the transmitter that evening to see the delayed TV broadcast since we didn't have a TV at the house (radio was live in those days, but TV was delayed and condensed into 30 minutes as I recall). Made a lap chart and followed it all the way... memories !!

My dad was a machinist at Meyer-Drake engineering and helped build that car that won the 1958 Indianapolis 500. I was only 3 years old at the time. The first Indy 500 i saw was the 1964 race.....yikes!.

ending up upside down sure looks dangerous

at the same time, 1958, a small rear engine car appears in Europe. this Formula one car's name was COOPER

GREAT footage from the big balls era

Doesn't even mention Pat O'Conner died in that accident.

I've never understood why they didn't have a roll bar high enough to protect their heads. Thanks for posting this classic video.

I remember my folks talking about Jimmy Bryan and seeing him race at the Arizona State Fairground one mile dirt track. I was born in 1960 and saw sprint and midget cars race at Manzanita Speedway (RIP) in Phoenix that were without roll cages. I saw my first indy car race at Phoenix International Raceway 1976 for the Jimmy Bryan Memorial race, too bad they don't run the Jimmy Bryan nor Bobby Ball Memorial races now, that was great seeing indy cars race twice a season. The first race started the season and the last race ended the season. Lots of memories.

All the red flags this year and this wreck was only a caution

Gotta love those Roadsters ..RIP Tony Bentehousen.Gary and Tony Jr. Got the Indy wins for Dad

Thank you for the memories. Jimmy lived with us in the '50s (in Phoenix -- on 7th Street and Colter) and was a "really good guy" who loved fast cars and great cigars.

These guys had very little protection and we think racing is dangerous today and it is but nothing like back then

The good old days when they had cigarette lighters in the cars. And ashtrays

good job enhancing this 16mm film. In 1960 as a kid, I got to sit in Jimmy Bryan's racecar at a speedshop in Norwalk/Downey area of LA. I still recall thinking how spartan the inside of the racecar was.

I was born in 1958 in May, pretty special to see this, they were so fearless 😮

Pat O'Connor died in that accident.

I think this may have been the year AJ called his car "A tub of shit" on his post crash interview.

You look at these cars and shiver at No roll bar

*Stunning!* to see the comparative danger -- No fencing, bare concrete walls, no pit lane exit, no full-face helmets or fire suits, and still bopping along at 150mph. Ground forces? What's that??

I’ll bet some drivers got elbow burns with those tires !

Jimmy Bryan was my hero when I was a kid.

I remember going to the local theater to see the Indy 500 on closed circuit back in the 60's with my Dad. And the 1st lap was usually a mess with injury and fatlities.

When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation downsized to video only they threw their entire film library in dumpsters after first drilling 3" holes through the cans and the reels they contained. Your tax dollars at work.

Wow, at 12:35 a guy is reading a newspaper that says Pat O'Conner has died in a crash as the same race is still underway! How is that possible?

I never knew him but Pat O'Conner was actually my cousin by marriage. After his death i lived near his sister and niece in the little town of Butlerville Indiana. His mother and my uncle by marriage lived in North Vernon. I was at his mother's house many times. He had a son three years younger than me. Today there is a monument to him in North Veron.

Great improvement over the other videos of this race.. Verdadeiros pilotos, de coragem e determinação.

This is one of the better race highlight films-no heavy product promotion or guy singing dialog. It's odd how the film makes no mention of Pat O'Connor's tragic death yet they show a spectator holding a newspaper with the headline of his passing.

Great improvement over the other videos of this race.

01:23 madlad having a quick smoke before the race 😂

AJ Foyt's rookie year.

Anyone notice @ 1:25 the driver taking a last drag on a cigarette?

Mechanic smoking a cigar on the grid. Amazing.

That first lap crash can still make you mad 65 years later. From what I've read the other drivers felt the same way about Elisian and got their revenge in a particularly gruesome manner (if the rumor is true).

The so called helmets they wore. Grew up in Indy, lived by Laguna Seca, it is just crazy and wonderful at the same time to see the evolution of driver safety over the years. Cars, tracks, gear, spectators, it had to get better and it did.

Jimmy Bryan - legend

Men so tough they used their heads as roll bars!

Was that Shirley McClain kissing Bryan again and again?

16:02 that is actress Shirley McLane

This designed car that won would go on to win again. They laid the engine down horizontal. BAD ASS DESIGN

The glory days of the big Indy Roadsters and the last days of the Offenhauser and Novi engines at the Brickyard. Ten years later and only a lonely few tried to qualify front-engine cars, without success. But these roadsters were hot rods; channel frame, front engine, rear differential, drum brakes, much the same configuration as a passenger car. Basically the same as the first Indy 500 car designs.

Very cool to see my uncle Paul in car #15 near the beginning of the video as well as coming into the pits to get his car repaired.

The driver at one minute twenty se3conds is smoking.

Thank you for showing me the very precious color film record! (And it even has audio!) By the way, mid-ship cars weren't participating yet at this time. These guys are full of courage to run around with such thin tires with a big displacement engine on a very long bonnet!

Open cockpits and tires that suck what a horrible accident on turn 3

These cars were SOOOO unsafe

My first 500

Verdadeiros pilotos, de coragem e determinação

That's a grueling race. 500 miles is a long way. Cheers from eastern TN

Good dawg, it was so dangerous back then. No fire suits, full-face helmets, a single seat-belt, no side-protection, no roll-bar...INSANITY!!

A lot of bad wrecks and fires in the next years after this! I think it was Eddie sacks that burnt up in the car in a couple years. It was a bad era for racing.

Jean Marcenac, Novi

Blows my mind how they were clueless enough to run onto the track after a pileup or with flags while the cars were still running. Good lord.

Pretty cool coverage showing the actual race...

It was another time with no security, amazing cars terrible pilot heroes, time of legend... Now, it's always dangerous but with more money, precision, technic... Message from old 76' guy of france.

Thank you TF for sharing, also GREAT comments, I was a 50 plus year fan, Dad took us kids to Pocono in June 29 1972, WOW, delved into the history, became a CART , etc Timing n Scoring , worked 1000s of hot track sessions, became a photographer, writer, interviewed everyone, learned to be an artist , painted tons of racing cars new and old, But i will not watch any corporate sports ever again. I only watch historics. love to all real race fans , Robert in Italy. PS have art on my channel if you are curious....😁

Had roll bars been used/required in the 1950’s, Bill Vukovich may have been the first and only to win three consecutive Indy’s. He won in 53 and 54 and was leading in 55 when he flipped on the backstretch and killed when he landed upside down. He was certainly the most dominating racer at Indy in the 1950’s.

9:12 I'll have one Big Mac and large fries.

A couple of months before my birthday. Congratulations Jimmy Bryant.

Priceless … thank you

Id like to clarify as a long ago champion watercraft competitor, and a highway boss... " Only the men out there, know how lonely the world can be". LOL! There is NOTHING at all lonely about racing.. Pretty much all sorts of racing.. Those who have done it with any sort of drive to win will tell you... IT is not ever lonely...

I stopped by the raceway on the way through and was very impressed with the museum there and the history it was cool

I remember the days of 3 tire changes

These guys were absolutely nuts! And to think it took until 1973 for them to change the pit entrance swede savage paid for that with his life!

I was 8 years old and with my dad. We were sitting across from the pits and 3/4 of the way down pit wall to the south and about fifteen rows up from the fence. I remember it being hot, and the cars were very loud.

THIS HAPPENS EVERY MAY 30, MEMORIAL DAY,,,,,SAME OLE SHIT,,,,,,2024

Was that Shirley MacLaine giving him kisses in the Winners Circle?

that driver at 1:24 is smoking a cigarette, in the car, while waiting to start at 1:41. Truly insane.

My late father attended the ‘58 race and he said he was sitting in a section called the Terrace Annex. It seems the sections have been reconfigured since then and “Terrace Annex” no longer exists? Does anyone know where it might have been located?

Merci aux reporters d'avoir mémorisé cette mémorable et légendaire course ... 👍 👍 😍

So bizarre that guys would race without rollcages, wtf?

IMO, it was a great time for racing, "much fewer politics/ rules as compared to today". YES driver safety is important!!!!!, but on the other side of the spectrum it may/ could (30/ 40 years from now) get to a point where races are only done on video games/ AI, which will provide "TOTAL" safety

I like the improvement of the video. The audio for the narrator is lacking, but I like what you’ve done. Great improvement over the other videos of the race.

I listened to this on my Arvin 3 transistor radio, couldn't put it down.

No roll bars, only helmets sticking out.

No head protection! Amazing years....regards from Brazil.

No protection at all. One death already at 3:36.

I love those type of racing cars. Thanks for sharing 👍

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Last time the same car won 2 years in a row?? 1957, 1958, and both winners retired in victory lane. sadly JB returned to die on 1st lap at Langhorne,New Jersey soon after,, Sam Hanks, 1957 500 winner, drove the pace car at many races at Pocono 500 and was a real nice guy. No longer follow THE PARADE CAR 500 as its all manufactured, heck all the cars are designed and built here in effing Italy, WTF,, oh well thank heaven for a good memory and all the Historics and Retro Racing going on and spreading like wildfire. Great Drags from an Italian guy down under in New Zealand all winter here in Italy, as it was summer down there, he has a simple utoobe channel, and he just shoots great vids of events all over his area. anyhoo, cheers to ALL real race fans out there. Love from Italy a Brooklyn, NYC boy in the foothills of The Alps,,!!

3:28 Did the driver from the car that flipped over, died?

I believe I sat in that car, at the Devington Shopping center In Indianapolis- the Dean Van Lines special that Rodger Ward won the race in 1959. I was 6 or 7 and we lived a block away about 1961 or so. The '58 500 was the first race I saw and we were in the infield near that big wreck.

Look how simple the world was

This was before the British got interested in Indy, when antediluvian roadsters were the thing. Within a few years, rear engined cars took over, followed by AWD turbine Lotuses. The goodole boys didn't know what had hit them and they were scrambling to change the rules fast enough to regain control.

At 12:35 the camera briefly pans past a newspaper with the headline, "PAT O'CONNER KILLED" while the race is still running. I'm not implying this is Twilight Zone or a Glitch In The Matrix, but it certainly is strange.

subbing,cheers mates,!

A big one at Indy 500…

Helmets are nearly useless 😅

Is he smoking !!! 1:25 Also, the man who is cleaning the windshield is smoking a cigar while another is pumping fuel 😂

Metal front engine cars, back before racing turned gay . No damn gay wings, those were days Archie .

古いレーシングカーだけどカッコいい。 安全面では十分な設計ではなかった時代だけに、レーサー達は命懸けだっただろう。

Thank you

Is James garner in it