by Leonard Williams

    In 1962 the first serious attempt was made to qualify a gas turbine powered race car in the Indianapolis 500. The car was built by the John Zink Company in Tulsa Oklahoma and was powered by a Boeing 502-10F engine.

    Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) paper
The concept originated with the publication of an SAE paper titled "Gas Turbine Competition at Indianapolis" that was presented at a meeting of the Mid-Continent Section of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in September 1957. The paper was critiqued by "Jack" Zink, a United States Auto Club car owner who had won this race with Pat Flaherty in 1956. To see a copy of this paper click on SAE Paper

    Frank Kurtis
Frank Kurtis, designer and builder of most of the world's race cars was the first person I went to. Mr. Kurtis was enthused about the project but received little encouragement when he contacted the United States Auto Club. For this story in his own words, click on  Kurtis.

   The John Zink Company
About 1959 Jack Zink decided to go ahead with the turbine race car program and contacted the Boeing Company. After considerable head scratching and moralizing, Boeing reluctantly agreed to go ahead with the engine sale..... "Is this the business we want to get into?." 
In April of 1962 a 502-10F engine was delivered to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I followed shortly thereafter.
Jack decided to go one step further and put the lightweight turbine in a rear engine chassis with full independent suspension The success of the rear engine English Cooper in the 61 race had a lot to do with this decision. The car was powered with a small Coventry Climax engine and finished in ninth position with Jack Brabham driving.  
The building of the car and the attempt to put it in the show is pretty well covered in the trip report I wrote after returning to Seattle. To see a copy of the report click on Trip Report.

Photos
Here's some photos showing the car construction and the engine installation, also some photos showing the activity back at the track. 

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