Bombs for the Brickyard

Ever since he drove at the Brickyard in 1948 (and crashed in the qualifying trials), Andy Granatelli, 44, has dreamed of building a car that would win the Indianapolis 500, the world's richest auto race. In the early '60s, his monstrous (837 h.p.) Novi V-8s hit 200 m.p.h. on the Indy straightaways, but always fell prey to one bug or another. Last year Granatelli came tantalizingly close with his revolutionary, turbine-powered STP Special, driven by Parnelli Jones, which missed winning only because a $6 ball bearing failed with eight miles to go. This May 30, it will take an awful lot of broken bearings to keep Granatelli out of victory lane. He will enter four turbine cars in what promises to be the fastest Indy in history.

Granatelli's new bombs are designed by Britain's Colin Chapman, builder of the famed Lotus Grand Prix cars and the Lotus-Fords that have taken a first and two seconds at the 500 in the past five years. Their specifications are a carefully kept secret mainly because Andy is currently suing the U.S. Auto Club, which last summer passed new rules aimed at limiting the power of turbine racing cars. The few details that have leaked out seem to indicate that the U.S.A.C.'s aim was bad; reduced engine power or no, Granatelli's turbines are still likely to be the fastest racers on the track. The new cars are chiselnosed, so low to the ground that the only part of the body higher than the tires is the exhaust funnel located be hind the driver's head. And one source close to Granatelli says that this year's models will make last year's STP Special --which qualified for the 500 at 166 m.p.h.--"look like a Model T."

To drive his cars, Granatelli has probably the most impressive team of racing drivers ever assembled: four men who among them have won three 500s and three Grand Prix championships. The four are the U.S.'s Parnelli Jones, 34, the 1963 Indy winner; England's mustachioed Graham Hill, 39, the 1966 winner and Grand Prix champion in 1962; Scotland's flashy young Jackie Stewart, 28; and Scotland's 32-year-old Jim Clark (TIME cover, July 9, 1965), who won the 500 in 1965 and has more Grand Prix victories (25) to his credit than any other racer in history.

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