Savoy Automobile Museum, Cartersville (Georgia), USA
Until February 2, 2025
Located in the heart of the oval circuit on which the famous Indianapolis 500 (and many other races) are held every year, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum preserves the history of the race track and the Indianapolis 500. Since 1956, the museum’s collection has grown from a small exhibition of 12 cars to one of the largest collections of automobiles and racing memorabilia in the world, with over 55,000 objects and more than 300 vehicles.
With the museum currently closed for a complete renovation of its facilities, the Savoy Automobile Museum and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum have been able to collaborate on a two-part exhibition. The second part, open until February 2, 2025, once again features a dozen cars from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum’s collection. All the cars on display have won the Indianapolis 500, from the oldest, the 1911 Marmon Wasp (to be exhibited later in November), to the most recent, a Lola T90/00-16, winner in 1990 at the hands of Dutch driver Arie Luyendyk.
In 1912, Joe Dawson won with the National, having completed just 2 laps at the head of the race. It wasn’t until 2011, almost 100 years later, that this “record” was broken. In 1922, Jimmy Murphy won the 500 Miles with a Duesenberg-Miller. Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French GP with this car, and simply changed the engine to run at Indianapolis! This was both Duesenberg’s 1st victory as a manufacturer and Miller’s first as an engine builder.
Miller engines won the 500 Miles 12 times between 1922 and 1938, 9 on Miller chassis and 3 with other manufacturers. After Miller went bankrupt, engine design and tooling were taken over by Fred Offenhauser, and the engine became the famous Offy 4-cylinder. Demonstrating incredible longevity, the Offy won 27 500 Miles races between 1934 and 1976, including 17 in a row between 1947 and 1964! The Offy equipped the 1948 Deidt Blue Crown Special, which enabled Mauri Rose to become the 1st driver to win the race 3 times, as well as the 1953 Kurtis Kraft, 1962 Watson and 1972 McLaren M16B.
There are also legendary US drivers such as Al Unser with the 1971 Colt-Ford and A.J. Foyt with the 1977 Coyote-Ford.
Photos on this page with Courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, no right of reproduction without the express permission of the museum.