As for the car’s life from new and in the years leading up to now, the car seems to have had an interesting run of it, leaping from brickyard limelight to aspirations of record-breaking and everything in between.
Its early years were the flight of fancy of a typical American superstar. Ray Crawford was a decorated pilot, flying a P38 lightning to deadly effect in wartime. He returned home to a testing gig on the very first jets including the P80 shooting star. Coming from money, with his parents the owners of several large local stores, Ray had options in terms of what to turn his attention to. What fast dangerous hobby better befits a retired war ace than motor racing? So the “flying grosser” would turn his hand to Indy…
Frederick had his own opinions on Ray’s proficiency behind the wheel:
“I think he was a better pilot than driver. He sold this on in 58-59, to one of his mechanics. The car did better when other people got in it.”
After its tenure as a contemporary racer we’re told it moved on to faster pastures with Firestone at their testing facility and then relative retirement:
“Firestone had it for testing – it managed a 181mph lap at their test track. Then it went into the Indianapolis museum.”
Then a brief stint chasing world records in the ‘80s before being purchased by his Dad who put it to work in the historic motorsport calendar:
“My old man bought it in the mid-'90s. He drove it for ten years. He took it to Phillip Island. He’s done quite a lot with it. Some chap brought it over for an endurance record at Millbrook. He was gonna do 200mph for however many hours. We’ve no idea how he was going to manage that.”