Paramount Ranch Racetrack
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Paramount Ranch Racetrack
Paramount Ranch Racetrack (sometimes called Paramount Ranch Raceway) was a motorsports racetrack located at Paramount Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains in Agoura Hills, California. A total of seven events were held at Paramount Ranch from 1956-1957. After a series of fatalities in short proximity to each other, the track gained a reputation for being a dangerous circuit. After two seasons, Paramount Ranch Racetrack was closed. Background In 1956, the owner of Paramount Ranch decided to build a road-racing facility. He approached Ken Miles and Dick Van Laanen to design the road course. They designed a paved road course nearly miles in length. The road course included 11 turns with uphill and downhill sections, a straightaway just shy of mile, a bridge and underpass as well as a lake opposite the start/finish line. Bob Bondurant described the course as “unforgiving but a real challenge”. Events A total of seven events were held at Paramount Ranch. Five events were s ...
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Agoura, California
Agoura () is an unincorporated community of Los Angeles County, which is located southeast of the city of Agoura Hills, California, adjacent to the city of Calabasas in Los Angeles County. Agoura was the historical name of the area, before much of the area was developed and before the incorporation of the city of Agoura Hills. There are a few nearby pockets of unincorporated areas that contain a handful of houses. Much of the area is also often referred to as the neighborhood of Old Agoura. The ZIP code is 91301 and the area codes are 747 and 818. History A stagecoach stop here was known as "Vegar Junction" and in the 1920s the community was briefly known as Picture City, as Paramount Pictures owned the Paramount Ranch, a movie ranch filming outdoor scenes and Western movies. To obtain a post office of its own, the Postal Service required the residents to choose a one-word name, and in 1927 they chose the last name of Pierre Agoure. Pierre was a local French Basque imm ...
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Ferrari Monza
The Ferrari Monza is one of a series of cars built by Ferrari. In the early 1950s, Ferrari shifted from using the compact Gioacchino Colombo-designed V12 engine in its smallest class of sports racers to a line of four-cylinder engines designed by Aurelio Lampredi. Inspired by the success of the light and reliable 2.5 L 553 F1 car, the four-cylinder sports racers competed successfully through the late 1950s, culminating with the famed 500 Mondial and 750 Monza. V12 models used downdraft carburettors located centrally in the "valley" of the engine, while the inline-engined fours used side-draft units and thus did not need the hood scoops. Almost all Monzas had of wheelbase, except for 250 and 860 Monza. 1953 1953 was a breakout year for Ferrari, beginning with the new World Sportscar Championship series. The company augmented their traditional V12-powered 250 MM with the new 340 MM and 375 MM and introduced the new four-cylinder 625 TF and 735 S models. With this profu ...
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MG T-type
The MG T-Type is a series of body-on-frame open two-seater sports cars that were produced by MG from 1936 to 1955. The series included the MG TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, and MG TF Midget models. The last of these models, the TF, was replaced by the MGA. Although the design was similar to contemporary cars of the 1930s, it came to be considered outdated by the 1950s. The TF name was reinstated in 2002 on the mid-engined MG TF sports car. TA Midget The TA Midget replaced the PB in 1936. It was an evolution of the previous car and was wider in its track at and longer in its wheelbase at . The previous advanced overhead-cam inline-four engine was by then not in use by any other production car so it was replaced by the MPJG OHV unit from the Wolseley Ten, but with twin SU carburettors, modified camshaft and manifolding. The engine displaced just 1292 cc, with a stroke of and a bore of and power output was 50 hp (40.3 kW) at 4,500 rpm. The four-speed manu ...
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Ford Thunderbird (first Generation)
The first generation of the Ford Thunderbird is a two-seat convertible produced by Ford for the 1955 to 1957 model year, the first 2-seat Ford since 1938. It was developed in response to the 1953 Motorama display at the New York Auto Show, which showed the Chevrolet Corvette. The Corvette in turn was developed in response to the popularity of European sports cars among Americans. Dubbed a "a personal car of distinction" by Ford, this appellation was also used by the motoring press at the time. The car built upon the heritage of the bespoke roadsters of the 1930s, yet was constructed largely of existing components, marking the first step toward the evolution of the personal luxury car as a mass market segment in the United States. While light weight for its era and fitted with a standard V8 engine, the Thunderbird focused more on driver comfort than speed, and was not a direct rival to either the Corvette or European sports cars. The Thunderbird proved more suited to the American m ...
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Chuck Daigh
Chuck Daigh (November 29, 1923 – April 29, 2008) was an American racing car driver. He broke into Grand Prix racing through Lance Reventlow's Scarab team, through the virtue of being one of the resident engineers. Born in Long Beach, California, he participated in six World Championship Formula One races, debuting on May 29, 1960, and scoring no championship points. He also participated in one non-Championship Formula One race. Following the 1960 season, Chuck Daigh went on to contest races in the International Formula league in Europe, driving the previous year's front-engined Scarab. He finished eighth at Goodwood contesting the Lavant Cup and finished seventh in an attempt at the International Trophy. He went on to crash out of the British Empire Trophy at Silverstone. He was also a successful sportscar driver in America, winning the 1959 Sebring endurance classic & also tried to qualify twice for the Indianapolis 500, but without success. He also won the 1958 United Sta ...
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Jimmy Reece
Jimmy Reece (November 17, 1929 – September 28, 1958) was an American racecar driver. He died in an accident during a 1958 Champ Car race at Trenton Speedway. Indianapolis 500 results World Championship career summary The Indianapolis 500 was part of the FIA World Championship from 1950 through 1960. Drivers competing at Indy during those years were credited with World Championship points and participation. Jimmy Reece participated in 6 World Championship races but scored no World Championship points. 1954 Bobby Ball Memorial race On November 8, 1954, Reece crashed during the Bobby Ball Memorial, an AAA Champ Car event held at the Arizona State Fairgrounds, sustaining "a punctured lung, fractured right shoulder and possible internal injuries when his car flipped coming out of the south turn ..and crashed into the east wall." AAA Championship Trail Reece and Bill Vukovich tied for 4th in the 1954 AAA championship standings. Reece scored 1000 points in 6 races b ...
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1957 Ford
The mainstream Ford Motor Company, Ford line of Automobile, cars grew substantially larger for 1957, a model which lasted through 1959. The Crown Victoria with its flashy chrome "basket handle" was no more, and the acrylic glass-roofed Ford Crown Victoria Skyliner, Crown Victoria Skyliner was replaced by a new model, the retracting-roof hardtop Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner, Skyliner. The new chassis allowed the floor to be placed much lower, which in turn led to a lower and longer look overall. Wheels were now 14 inches in diameter rather the previous 15 inches, this also helped to give a lower profile. The major component of this chassis was a differential (mechanical device), differential whose pinion gear was exceptionally low relative to the axleshafts, lower than in conventional hypoid differentials. 1957 The 1957 models retained a single-headlight front end like their predecessors, but were unmistakable with their long flanks and Car tailfin, tailfins. A plethora of trim line ...
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Troy Ruttman
Troy Ruttman (born March 11, 1930 – May 19, 1997) was an American race car driver. He was the older brother of Jimmy Ruttman, and NASCAR driver Joe Ruttman. Ruttman won the Indianapolis 500 in 1952, at the age of 22 years and 80 days. , he is the youngest winner of the race. From 1950–1960, the Indianapolis 500 also counted toward the World Drivers' Championship (now synonymous with Formula One), although most of the racers did not compete in the other races in the Championship. Ruttman was the first Indianapolis 500 winner to participate in a Formula One event beyond Indy and his 1952 Indy 500 win earned him the distinction of being the youngest driver to win a round of the World Championship, an honor he held until Fernando Alonso won the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix. Racing career Ruttman entered his family car in a roadster race in San Bernardino, California in 1945 at age 15, and won the race.
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Jaguar D-Type
The Jaguar D-Type is a sports racing car that was produced by Jaguar Cars Ltd. between 1954 and 1957. Designed specifically to win the Le Mans 24-hour race, it shared the straight-6 XK engine and many mechanical components with its C-Type predecessor. Its structure, however, was radically different, with innovative monocoque construction and slippery aerodynamics that integrated aviation technology, including in some examples a distinctive vertical stabilizer. Engine displacement began at 3.4 litres, was enlarged to 3.8 L in 1957, and reduced to 3.0 L in 1958 when Le Mans rules limited engines for sports racing cars to that maximum. D-Types won Le Mans in 1955, 1956 and 1957. After Jaguar temporarily retired from racing as a factory team, the company offered the remaining unfinished D-Types as street-legal XKSS versions, whose perfunctory road-going equipment made them eligible for production sports car races in America. In 1957 25 of these cars were in various stages ...
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Bob Drake (racing Driver)
Phil Robert "Bob" Drake (December 14, 1919 – April 18, 1990) was an American racecar driver. He participated in one Formula One Grand Prix, on November 20, 1960. He scored no championship points. Drake was the last driver to race the famous Maserati 250F The Maserati 250F was a racing car made by Maserati of Italy used in '2.5 litre' Formula One racing between January 1954 and November 1960. Twenty-six examples were made. Mechanical details The 250F principally used the SSG 220 bhp (@ 7400 rpm ... in a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1960 United States Grand Prix. The 250F was a 2.5 litre front-engined Grand Prix car that was considered obsolete in 1961 due to new engine rules. Aside from being a race car driver, he was a naval diver, restaurateur, and stunt performer. Complete Formula One World Championship results ( key) References 1919 births 1990 deaths American Formula One drivers Racing drivers from San Francisco {{F1-bio-stub ...
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Cooper Car Company
The Cooper Car Company is a British car manufacturer founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles's small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England, in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s they reached motor racing's highest levels as their mid-engined, single-seat cars competed in both Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and their Mini Cooper dominated rally racing. The Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini production cars that are built in England, but is now owned and marketed by BMW. Origins The first cars built by the Coopers were single-seat 500-cc Formula Three racing cars driven by John Cooper and Eric Brandon, and powered by a JAP motorcycle engine. Since materials were in short supply immediately after World War II, the prototypes were constructed by joining two old Fiat Topolino front-ends together. According to J ...
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AC Ace
AC Ace is a car which was produced by AC Cars of Thames Ditton, England, from 1953 until 1963. History AC came back to the market after the Second World War with the 2-Litre range of cars in 1947, but it was with the Ace sports car of 1953 that the company really made its reputation in the post war years. Casting around for a replacement for the ageing 2-Litre, AC took up a design by John Tojeiro that used a light, ladder-type tubular frame, all independent transverse leaf spring suspension, and an open two-seater alloy body made using English wheeling machines, possibly inspired by the Ferrari Barchetta of the day. Early cars used AC's elderly two-litre overhead cam straight-six engine (first seen soon after the end of the First World War), which, according to a 1954 road test by ''Motor'' magazine, gave a top speed of and in 11.4 seconds and a fuel consumption of . It was hardly a sporting engine however, and it was felt that something more modern and powerful was r ...
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