Savoy Automobile Museum, Cartersville (Georgia), USA
Until September 29, 2024
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is located in the heart of the oval circuit on which the famous Indianapolis 500 and many other races are held every year. The Museum preserves the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. Since 1956, the museum’s collection has grown from a modest 12-car exhibit to one of the world’s largest collections of automobiles and racing memorabilia, 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 set up a collaboration. This allows the Savoy Museum to offer a two-part exhibition. The first part, open until September 29, features a dozen cars from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection.
The oldest is a 1912 Fiat, the most recent a 1991 Benetton B191B/Ford Formula 1. In fact, the Indianapolis speedway has hosted several F1 Grand Prix races on a road circuit laid out inside the oval, using one of its straights line. Also on display are a number of Miller cars, which won the 500 Miles several times in the 1920s and 1930s, a Bugatti Type 35, as the most famous Bugatti racing car has also raced at Indianapolis, or a Ferrari 375.
Not to mention the “Belond Special” (Epperly chassis, Offy engine), Indy 500 winner in 1957 and 1958; and the astonishing Smokey Yunnick “side-car”, with the driver in a bucket seat on the side of the main “fuselage”! The 2nd exhibition of the Indianapolis collection starts in October, and we’ll come back to it then.
The photos on this page with Courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.