Indy car constructors (1971-1978)

The table below shows the constructors whose cars appeared in USAC races between 1971 and 1978.

Everything is open to interpretation of course: the Dragon and Kingfish were both Grant King cars and should probably be grouped together, the Ras-Car could be regarded as a reworked Atlanta and the Kenyon-Coyote could also be seen as a Coyote or as a Kuzma. The Colt-Lolas are more troublesome, as it has not yet been possible to completely separate the Colts from the Lolas on which they were based. The 1971-72 Finleys may turn out to be Huffakers and it is possible that more Gerhardts, Halibrands and Watsons may emerge as the research continues.

Marque	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978
Antares		x				x	x	x
Atlanta		x	x	x			x
Brabham	x	x	x	x
Cecil	x		x	x	x
Cicada		x	x	x	x
Colt	x	x	x
Colt-Lola	x	x	x
Coyote	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Curtis		x	x	x	x
Dragon						x	x	x
Eagle	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Eisert	x
Epperley	x
Finley	x	x	x	x	x
Fiore					x	x	x
Gerhardt	x	x	x	x	x
Gilbert		x
Halibrand	x	x
Hawk	x	x
Hayhoe	x
Huffaker	x
Kenyon-Coyote			x	x
Kingfish	x	x	x	x	x	x
Kuzma	x	x
Lightning						x	x	x
Lola	x	x	x			x
Mallard	x	x			x	x	x	x
McLaren	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
McNamara	x
Mongoose	x		x	x	x
Morris	x	x
Parnelli		x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Peat-Lola	x	x	x		x
Penske							x	x
Philipp	x
RasCar-Atlanta			x	x	x	x	x	x
Riley				x	x	x
Scorpion	x	x
Sugai Fox								x
Tipke		x	x
Vollstedt	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Watson	x	x	x				x	x
Wildcat					x	x	x	x
Wolverine	x

The 'Kramer' that appeared on a previous version of this page was found to be a 1965 Vollstedt entered by Larry Kramer, the 'Seymour' was Louis Seymour's old Gerhardt-Chev and the 'Kenyon' was just another name for a 1971 Kuzma. The Webster that appeared at Ontario in 1976 was Webster Racing's 1972 Eagle. Efforts continue to ascertain if Larry Cannon's 1971 'Autotron Special' was really the Philipp. The 1971 Peat-Lola has been added, now that we know it wasn't a Lola. The Epperly is now included as it appeared at two 1971 meetings but didn't start either race.

Please email Allen if you can add anything.

Indy sections

The research

The results in this section are based on the ground-breaking research performed by the late, and much-missed, Phil Harms. This data was kindly made available by Michael Ferner who has added much new information. Since then, a group of researchers has worked on identifying the exact racing history of each car that took part, a mammoth task only made possibly by collecting photographs of every car at every race, an ongoing project. Simmo Iskül, Michael Ferner, 'gbl', Gerry Measures and Luis Mateus have played a major part in this research, and we have been helped by a large number of car owners, restorers and other researchers.

There was an aggregate total of 2,663 race starts at the Indy races held between 1971 and 1978. Histories of the cars responsible for 1,800 (68%) of those starts have been published so far, leaving 863 (32%) still to complete. The main models still to be published are Cicada 72 (11 race starts between 1971 and 1978), Colt 71 (12), Coyote 66-70 (15), Eagle 74 (307), Eagle 78 (12), Lola T150 (12), Lola T500 (16), McLaren M16/A (67), McLaren M16B (85), McLaren M16E (40), Mongoose 70 and 71 (37), Parnelli VPJ-1 (26), Parnelli VPJ2 (49), Parnelli VPJ6/VPJ6B/VPJ6C (61), Penske PC6 (37), Scorpion 70/71 (17) and Vollstedt 77 (17).

All comments, clarifications, corrections, additions (and photographs!) are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you have any additions, corrections or comments.

Race starts by constructor

Between 1971 and 1978, there were 110 USAC races, with a total of 2,663 starters. The starting cars were built by a total of 40 different constructors. The top 20 are shown here.

	Starts	Wins	Top 3
Eagle	976	29	103
McLaren	428	26	73
Parnelli	137	15	31
Wildcat	137	8	37
Coyote	130	19	33
Kingfish+Dragon	120		1
Lightning	102		4
Vollstedt	92
Gerhardt	61		3
Atlanta+RasCar	53
Lola	50	3	5
Penske	48	4	18
Watson	44
Mongoose	39		2
Colt	33	6	11
Kuzma	33		4
Finley	29
Brabham	17
Riley	17
Scorpion	17		1

Note that the definition of a constructor in USAC racing is open to debate, so for the purpose of this table, Grant King's Kingfish and Dragon cars have been grouped together, and RasCars combined with Atlantas. A case could also be made for Colts being combined with Parnellis, and Scorpions with Hawks, and even for combining Lindsey Hopkins' Kuzma, Riley and Lightning cars.