Long known as not only a great actor, but also a gearhead, James Garner passed away July 19th at the age of 82. Growing up with “The Rockford Files”, he seemed like an old friend, and watching him in movies like “Gran Prix” and “The Great Escape” he always played a character that everyone could relate to, having a mixture of courage, honor and duty as well as arrogance, selfishness and cowardice. He served his country in the Merchant Marine, and later in the Army during the Korean War, where he was wounded and received a Purple Heart. His duty while there was much like the role he played in “The Great Escape”- a scrounger. In a reversal of going from real life to film, after Garner filmed “Grand Prix”, he fell in love with cars and racing, and eventually went on to own his own racing team. Known to his colleagues and coworkers from high school through the military and Hollywood as a friendly, caring, and all around nice guy. He was the common man and yet uncommon. He was the man many of us aspired to be. In memory of his passing, we are reposting this article from Jalopnik from February 2012. Rest in peace Maverick.
The Mystery Of James Garner’s Secret Indy Car
James Garner, like a several other notable actors, has a longstanding love of racing. After starring in Grand Prix in 1966, he started a long semi-career in racing, owning a racing team, preparing Ramblers for the Baja 500 race as part of a deal with AMC, and driving Indy 500 pace cars three times. The guy loved racing.
There’s plenty of information on the web about James Garner and racing, but there’s also one notable omission: the four-seat Indy car he had built. UPDATE!
I’ve only found one mention of it, in a book in Jalopnik’s vast, underground automotive library (located under Los Angeles, in the tunnels of an aborted mag-lev subway project from the ’70s) called Weird Cars.
The book suggests that the one-off car was built by Garner to “share his race-driving hobby with his friends.” This just leads me to picture two slightly coked-out women in slinky dresses and a paunchy guy with an open shirt donning helmets as they climbed into the three open seats of James Garner’s Indy Car, and then moments later shrieking, vomiting, and wetting themselves as Garner mercilessly whips his car around the track.
The car itself looks pretty fascinating; the book says it was restored by George Barber, of the Barber Motorsports Museum, and I’d wager the car is somewhere in their collection. Based on looking at the car, we can figure out a few things: It must have been built after 1974, as the two rectangular headlights on that very robot-face looking spoiler tower/engine cover would only have been available after Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, which allowed rectangular headlights, was enacted. The overall styling is consistent with a mid-70s timeframe as well.
It’s mid-engined, though aside from the fat dual exhausts, the engine is completely enclosed. I’d guess it’s a fairly standard Indy car chassis for the period, with custom bodywork. The bodywork appears to be very well executed, with two side-by-side seats up front, and two ‘sidecar’-type seats just ahead of each rear wheel. It’s sort of a semi-open wheel design, as the wheels have partial fenders fore and aft, but open on top.
Mostly, I’m amazed I couldn’t find anything on the web about this interesting car, and I’d love to know more about it. Anyone know anything?
UPDATE: Commenters to the rescue! A few of you correctly confirmed that the car resides in the basement of the Barber Motorsports Museum. More on this as we look into it. Thanks!
Farewell James Garner
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