Winging It at Indy

The strange machines look as if they might suddenly dip flaps, lift noses and head off into the wild blue yonder, borne on small wings that protrude fore and aft, and sometimes in between. Actually the wings, or foils, have an entirely different purpose. They are aerodynamically designed to keep a dazzling new crop of racing cars glued to the ground in this year's Indianapolis 500, giving them better stability and traction and thus greater speed. This Saturday, as the traditional field of 33 cars challenges Indy's confining concrete-walled track, speed--much more than ever before--is what the expected crowd of 350,000 is almost sure to get.

The qualifying trials already have produced astounding times. Of the first dozen drivers to make the field, eleven broke last year's record qualifying speed of 178.696 miles an hour. Bobby Unser's average for four laps of the 21-mile rectangular speedway was a phenomenal 195.940. That average was achieved in one of the sleekest new cars, an Eagle-Offenhauser designed by Los Angeleno Roman Slobodynskyj. Besides wings, the vehicle has air scoops streamlined into its sides, thus reducing the drag caused by nose scoops.

Other winged beauties include an Eric Broadley-designed Lola, which has its engine-cooling air vents mounted like hollow eyes in front of the driver's cockpit; the Maurice Phillippe-designed Parnelli, which had two of its multiple wings clipped after some experimentation; and the McLaren, which got almost everybody wing-conscious when it appeared last year with a striking rear-mounted foil.

The new body designs are not the only factors behind this year's Indy speed boom. As happens virtually every year, engines are more powerful than ever and perhaps more prone to break down--dozens, worth about $30,000 each, have blown up during trials over the past few weeks. Other boosts to speed are new tires which have no tread. This puts more rubber on the track to provide even better traction. Along with the greater speed, however, comes higher risk. In a practice run last week, Veteran Jim Malloy hit the wall as he came out of a turn at around 175 m.p.h. He died four days later, bringing the fatality toll at Indy since it started in 1911 to 49.

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