Comments on: 1958 12 Hours of Sebring – Anglo-Americans and the Redhead

By: stephen griswold

stephen griswold — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:45:14 +0000

Sebring 1958 Story
Ed,I was at Sebring 1957 with my dad and Chas Addams( the cartoonist)and I clearly remember the convincing win by Jean Behra and Fangio Maserati 450 S (spectacular at night with the flames exiting the side gutterpipe exhausts as it thundered down the straight). and a fine 2nd OD by Stirling in the 300S( restored by me some years later and now with Tony Wang). Not Exactly a Ferrari day for the 290 MM ,but a Maserati slaughter.
Cheers Stephen

By: Jake R.

Jake R. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:59:06 +0000

Archie Scott Brown is either losing his pants as you said or he is wearing a weight lifting belt! Funny either way…

Thank you for the fine article.

By: Bob Engberg

Bob Engberg — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:37:09 +0000

Fred,

By chance did you know FRANK CAMPBELL of Hinsdale, IL? In late 1957 he bought a red MK II that Burdette Martin owned. Campbell raced it at RA500 in 1958. I now have his MK II and have been trying to locate his descendants.

Bob
bobengberg@aim.com

By: Bob Engberg

Bob Engberg — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:34:09 +0000

I spoke with Doc two years ago about Sebrin. His car was a MK III with the DOHC Climax. He said something broke in he back and he went between a telephone poll and its guide wire, and the back was cut off or4 neary so. The car went back to the UK where the FPF was put into a new MK IV and sold to Burdette Martin.

By: Tom Bucher

Tom Bucher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:20:29 +0000

I wasn’t even aware of Sebring in 1958, but I really enjoyed your coverage. And yes, I do recognize the drivers mentioned and the cars of course. Thank you for the article and pictures.
Tom Bucher

By: Jon Gross

Jon Gross — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:02:39 +0000

Hi Ed

Great piece on the 58 Sebring 12 hour race. What a fabulous era of motor sport and thanks for bringing it all back to life for us. Thanks also for the shot which shows my Aston staying out of trouble (!) or is Constantine taking all 3 cars around the outside? I haven’t seen that photo before – any more?

Quick question – the 1958 World Championship was for cars with 3 litres and under – Corvettes – special engines or special ‘American’ rules?

All the best

Jon

By: Greg Wing

Greg Wing — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:28:28 +0000

Terrific documentation of the ’58 event! Thanks for sharing this. As others have said, keep it coming. There is a real need for quality documents by people who where there with stories and photos.

I’d love to see a story on the ’56 – 12 Hours of Sebring and photos. -Greg

By: Fred Lieb

Fred Lieb — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:15:40 +0000

I was crew chief on the Martin,Baptista, Warren ELVA MK 111 and was in the garage during night practice when Doc Wylie
went off course as he was exiting “Big Bend” about topped out in third gear. With the 1500 FPF the MK 111 was a bit tail light and Doc hit a guy wire at something over 100 MPH and cut the rear end of the car off just behind the cockpit. A differance of 6″ would have been very bad! It looked like someone had taken a saw to the car. Doc was one of the nicest guys racing and a real gentleman needless to say the garage was very subdued that evening.

By: C.D.

C.D. — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:17:57 +0000

God Bless , Ed McDonough. Thank you so very much for letting us drift back to a much simpler time, the GOLDEN Age of Sports Car Racing in America…. All the greats were present …… Ole Shell’s ticker was still good to geaux and Mr 1961 ” Phil Hill” was on still on his way up, to the TOP of the racing world. What a wonderful time to be alive. John Coltrane and Ms Billie Holiday were still alive and performing. You could buy a prototype Ferrari or Maserati or OSCA for under $ 20 thousand… and a new 1958 Custom color Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Amp would only set ya back $225 bucks.

Thanks a bunch Ed, well done. Well done indeed.

By: Bob Engberg

Bob Engberg — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:45:59 +0000

Great story and photos of Sebring. We had a 50th annivsary for Elva there in 2008. Elva driver Rip Ripley came for the ocassion, as did the dauhter of Charles Kurtz (deceased.) The Elva driven by Wylie had a Climax FPF engine.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:10:48 +0000

The picture of the Jean Kunstle/Ken Miles Porsche 550 RS is great! Look beyond the car. Stacks of pipes! A specatator and his car! Possibly a marshall. In the foreground is a fire hydrant on the inside of a turn!! Love it. Whimps need not apply to drive one of those.

By: Tom Gee

Tom Gee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:56:08 +0000

Ed -

my hat is off to you for this article and your efforts to save motorsports history, and I imagine there are many invaluable items that have been lost to dustbins and trash piles. The Gurney/Hanna listing is repeated everywhere, so don’t feel bad…it is in virtually every race result I have ever seen. I only found out the error by contacting the Hanna family looking for photos of the car.

If I can ever help your efforts in any way please let me know.

Regards,

Tom

By: Ed McDonough

Ed McDonough — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:34:50 +0000

Dennis and Tom:
Thanks for the comments.
Yes, I have a substantial photo archive which I continue to work on every day, and for some time have spent efforts finding and saving motor racing photos. I have a collection of some 5000 negatives that literally was fished out of a dust bin. And there is the widow of a well known Jaguar engineer of the ’50s who told me that…’no one would all that old stuff so i threw it out’ “It” was his life long collection of drawings, notes and photos of his work on competition Jaguars….so I try to prevent this in some small way.

Re: Dan Gurney…I am pleased that is clarified now…I should have asked earlier. Many thanks.
Ed McDonough

By: Tom Gee

Tom Gee — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:32:11 +0000

One suggested correction of an often repeated mistake; Dan Gurney did not practice or race the DB with Howard Hanna. I have spoken with Dan and Howard’s son and they both confirmed that it did not happen. I have also corresponded with Denise McCluggage who did confirm that Dan did practice in her Fiat Abarth.

By: dennis gray

dennis gray — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:31:04 +0000

Good stuff. Keep it coming. Ed McDonough must have a wonderful library of images and stories. Those guys that were actually their have a unique look back at history that the rest of us can only wish we had.