There were eight PC22s built for the 1993 IndyCar season with the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy taking seat time. An F1 and CART champion should command a championship-calibre machine and so the PC22 was, with Emmo bringing it home second-to-top in the 1993 CART season behind F1 world champion Nigel Mansell, as well as taking first at the Indy 500. Though this wasn’t his actual Indy 500-winning car, it did participate in 1993’s 77th running and placed eleventh with Stefan Johansson at the wheel.
At present, it’s fresh out of a restoration that began not long after being acquired by Anthony. That Jeremy Smith was able to hot foot it up the Hill on the car’s first real weekend out post-restoration in 46.33 seconds – just 0.09 seconds behind Justin Law in the Jag – is either a testament to some prodigious driving skills or the car’s preparation performance and tractability. We suspect it’s a bit of both.
It began life as the original PC22 test car, carrying chassis code PC 93 001. Emerson spent time enough in the car such that his personal neck brace remains with it to this day, including for its visit to this year’s FOS. PC 93 001’s most intriguing tidbit was however only revealed in a curious, if in-part speculatory anecdote:
“This car was at Firebird in Phoenix when Senna did his Indycar test. We always like to think that he might’ve driven this but heh, who knows…
“An article written way back talked of how Senna had to stop and go again to get used to the sequential box. This has a sequential box, the other car was an older H-pattern, so it’s possible…”