Persistence - the Rudolph Wehr story
part two
Throughout the long history of American automobile racing,
few men have personified persistence as did Rudolph K. B. Wehr. The previous
chapter dealt with Wehr’s efforts through 1932; this chapter will pick up
with his entries for the 1934 Indianapolis 500 and carry through his last Indianapolis attempt in 1940.
1934 Indianapolis 500
Sometime after the running of the 1933 Indianapolis ‘500’
Wehr purchased the two quasi-factory Hudson entries built by former driver
Russell G. “Buddy” Marr, an employee of the Hudson factory experimental department.
In 1928, Marr successfully qualified the #35 supercharged Miller owned by B.W.
Cooke owner of the Chicago based Coyne Electrical School for the ‘500’ field at
109.685 MPH. Marr was scheduled to start 28th in the 1928 ‘500,’ but the day
before the race, his designated relief driver, a 25-year old rookie driver
named Clarence “Chet” Miller took the car out for practice and crashed which
damaged the Miller beyond repair. Marr
evidently held no ill will towards Chet Miller, as Miller drove Marr’s Hudson entries
in the 1931, 1932 and 1933 Indianapolis 500-mile races, the last two teamed
with the unrelated Allen Miller.
Willard Prentiss looks over the Wehr powerplant in 1934
photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection
IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies
Denver driver Willard Prentiss was the nominated driver of
the #64 ‘Wehr Rotary Valve Special’ for the 1934 Indianapolis 500 powered by a Wehr
rotary valve engine the details of which are unknown to the author. After the
Wehr car proved to be too slow, Prentiss replaced Lockbourne, Ohio’s Bill
Chittum as the driver of the #59 “G & P Hudson Special.” Prentiss qualified
on May 28th with a 107.797 MPH average for his 25-mile time trial run,
initially good enough for the 30th starting position, but he was later bumped
and wound up on Race Day as the first alternate.
1937 Indianapolis 500
Three years passed before Rudolph Wehr made another Indianapolis
attempt, when he posted two entries for the 25th running of the International
500-mile Sweepstakes. The two Hudson
chassis, fitted with new awkward-looking grille shells, were powered by all-new
4-cylinder two-cycle supercharged rotary valve engines. There had been previous
experiments with two-cycle engines at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway first
with Fred Duesenberg’s factory two-cycle entry for the 1926 ‘500’, followed by
Leon Duray’s 1931 supercharged “U” (cylinder side-by-side) 16-cylinder monster,
and Clessie Cummins’ 1934 oil-burning two-cycle experiment, all of which were
later deemed failures by their builders.
The June 1937 issue of the Automotive Trade Journal provided
technical details of the Wehr entries. Each cylinder of the Wehr engine
measured a 4-inch bore while the piston had a 4 ¼-inch stroke for a total
engine displacement of 213 cubic inches. The rear-mounted Roots supercharger
was fed by a single Winfield down-draft carburetor, with the fuel mixture
ignited by Champion Spark plugs supplied energy through Packard ignition cables
from the Bosch magneto. Each wheel of the 1931 Hudson chassis was equipped a
Hartford-Fageol friction disk shock absorber from Oakland California and
mechanical brakes, and each car weighed 1986 pounds dry.
A May 19, 1937 article in the Indianapolis Star explained
the advantage of the unique rotary valve design as “it eliminates most of the
up-and-down motion in the motor, except that of the pistons. The two-cycle
engine is intended get twice the explosions that a four-cycle engine. The
rotary valves, according to the inventor, do away with much of the intricate
machinery of the engine and do not even require a camshaft in the motor.
According to experts, the principle is perfect, but it merely doesn't
function.”
"When it does work," proclaimed Wehr, "I will
have done away with all valve trouble not only in automobiles but also in
airplanes. It will make plane travel safer than ever.” The Star article went on
to state that Wehr’s “principal fear was that the motor will become overheated.
Since bringing the two cars here several weeks ago he has spent hours in the
garages trying to overcome his problem and has signed up two drivers to qualify
them.”
The drivers were identified in the Star as Frank Wearne and
Thomas Cosman, described as “two newcomers to Indianapolis who have been racing
on the Pacific Coast for several years. Both are inclined mechanically and are
working with Wehr in ironing out his problems.”
"I don't expect to set any speed records with my cars," Wehr
said, "All I want to do is make them run fast enough to qualify, say
around 114 miles an hour. I want my rotary valve and two-cycle engine to run in
the race."
The May 19 1937 Indianapolis Star article wrapped up with a
depressing recounting of Wehr’s history with rotary valves at the Speedway
which began “in 1916 when Wehr built his first rotary valve motor for a racing
automobile. It failed.” After the historical recap, the article closed by
stating that “these are the one hundred and seventh (107) and one hundred and
eighth (108) engines that Wehr has built with rotary valves. Not one has
worked.” Rudolph Wehr was persistent if
nothing else.
According to the author’s friend and fellow racing historian
Jim Thurman, Thomas Charles “Tommy” Cosman, born on May 13 1908 in
Pennsylvania, had a decent racing career in California, twice finishing in the
top 30 (28th in 1933) (35 in 1934) in AAA Pacific Coast points, and apparently
finished 11th in the 1933 Legion Ascot "Class B" classification. When
not racing, Cosman ran a car wrecking business, and after he failed to qualify
the #63 ‘Wehr 2-cycle Rotary Valve Special’ for the 1937 ‘500,’ he never
returned to the Speedway. Cosman passed away in 1973 and is buried in Whittier
California.
Frank Wearne in 1939
photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection
IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies
Frank Wearne was another Legion Ascot veteran who for a
period drove the Frank Kurtis-bodied ‘Atlas Chrome Special,’ one of the top rides on
the AAA Pacific Coast ‘big car’ circuit. After his #64 ‘Wehr 2-cycle Rotary
Valve Special’ was withdrawn during the month of May with terminal engine
problems, Wearne picked up the ride in Leon Duray’s Miller-powered Stevens
chassis for his first Indianapolis ‘500’ start.
Wearne went on to race in seven consecutive Indianapolis 500-mile races,
with his best finish of seventh in the “Boyle Valve Special” Stevens-Miller in
1940.
While the author does not profess to be expert on the
theories of the operation of an internal combustion engine, it appears as
though a rotary valve design could have several significant advantages over a
conventional poppet valve train. The rotary valve assembly is less complex and
more compact than a conventional pushrod system, which would result in a
lighter weight cylinder head.
The rotary valve engine would have the potential for a
higher compression ratio and without the weak point of valve springs, the
engine could turn more revolutions per minutes (RPM) than a conventional
design. However, the rotary valves cylinder head design would require special
attention to valve lubrication and cooling to prevent the valve from
overheating. Valve overheating was
apparently the problem with which Wehr most struggled, the failure of which
newspapers referred to as “frozen valves” and catastrophic engine
failures.
1939 Indianapolis 500
For his fifth Indianapolis entry in 1939, Rudolph Wehr and
his new partner, Edwin Anderson entered the #23 “Wehr-Anderson Rotary Valve
Special” powered by a supercharged four-cylinder four-stoke rotary valve 181
cubic inch engine without a driver named. The 1939 chassis which weighed a
hefty 2021 pounds, rode on 18-inch wheels, and carried 4-wheel hydraulic brakes
and Delco shock absorbers with the engine fed by a single “Speed” side-draft
carburetor and the Roots-type centrifugal supercharger.
Author's copy of the 1939 AAA technical specifications sheet
for the Wehr-Anderson Rotary Valve Special
George Robson a rookie driver from Huntington Beach
California took his rookie test in the “Wehr-Anderson Rotary Valve Special,”
and then drove it in practice. Towards the end of the month of May the
Indianapolis Star newspaper proclaimed that “if she (the car) manages to go all
the way through the race, Robson will earn the undying gratitude of a man
(Wehr) who has stuck with an idea despite obstacles which would have throttled
the ordinary person years and years ago.” Alas, by the final day of qualifying,
Robson abandoned Wehr’s rotary valve entry for a more competitive machine.
George was the eldest of the three racing Robson brothers,
born in Newcastle England in February 1909, before the Robson family relocated
to Canada and eventually in Huntington Beach California around 1924. Harold
Junior “Hal” was born in Canada in 1911, followed by James “Jimmy,” born in
1917, Albert, and the family’s youngest child, daughter Amy. All the brothers
worked in their father Harold’s machine shop, Robson Engineering, and three of
the brothers- George, Hall and Jimmy- raced.
The two older Robson brothers both began racing in 1930 but
eventually the Robson trio advanced to race “big cars” up and down the West
Coast, particularly at the half-mile dirt Southern Ascot Speedway in South
Gate, the third Los Angeles area “Ascot” track which operated from 1937 until
the cessation of racing due to World War 2 in 1942.
George Robson 1941 Maserati
photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway collection
IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Studies
.
On the final day of 1939 Indianapolis ‘500’ time trials,
George qualified Artha B “Deacon” Litz’ Maserati for the starting field with a
4-lap time trial run that averaged 116.305 MPH for the 28th spot but was the
slowest car in the field. Litz’ Maserati Tipo V8RI, chassis # 4501, was powered
by an unsupercharged 4 ½ liter (270 cubic inch) V-8 engine fed by four Linkert
motorcycle-type carburetors. The 225-pound Litz (billed as the “biggest race
car driver in the world”) had earlier abandoned his own entry in favor of Dick
Wharton’s similar Maserati Tipo V8RI chassis #4502 powered by a supercharged
3-liter (182 cubic inch) engine that Litz qualified for the starting field at
117.979 MPH.
Louis Tomei easily qualified Frank Griswold’s supercharged
8-cylinder Alfa Romeo for the final starting spot with a run of 118.454 MPH and
the field was filled. Billy Devore, the son of racer Earl Devore, in Leon
Duray’s four-cylinder supercharged ‘Barbasol Special’ made a qualifying
attempt, but during his run the brake handle broke and he coasted over the last
lap and posted a four-lap average of 104 MPH, below the required 110 MPH
minimum. Mechanics quickly repaired Devore’s car, but he stalled as he left the
pit area for second attempt.
Duray’s mechanics pulled the car back, restarted it and
Devore was pushed off just two minutes before the final gun sounded to end time
trials. Devore’s first lap was too slow at 115.207 MPH, but over the next three
laps Devore picked up his pace and completed his 10-mile time trial run with an
average speed of 116.527 MPH, and “crowded out,” or bumped, George Robson out
of the field. All this exciting action occurred while the “Wehr-Anderson Rotary
Valve Special” sat in the dark inside garage #17 and once again in 1937 Rudolph
Wehr’s creation missed “the big show.”
George Robson would qualify for the Indianapolis ‘500’
starting field again in 1940 and 1941, then he was joined in the 1946 ‘500’ by
younger brother Hal. Jimmy Robson never
made it to Indianapolis, as he retired from race driving after he suffered
severe injuries in an American Racing Association (ARA) “big car” crash in 1941
at the high-banked Oakland Speedway as he practiced for a Labor Day 500-lap
race.
Hal Robson at Funk's Speedway in 1948
author's collection
George Robson, the surprising 1946 ‘500’ champion, was
killed during a 100-lap race at Georgia’s dusty Lakewood Speedway on September
2 1946 in an accident that also killed George Barringer. According to historian Norm Bogan, Hal Robson
was originally scheduled to drive the #7 Wolfe Special in place of Barringer.
1940 Indianapolis 500
Rudolph Wehr and partner Edwin Anderson’s entry of their #51
“Wehr & Anderson Special” for the 29th running of the International
500-Mile Sweepstakes was received in the Speedway offices on May 2. The same machine as the 1939 entry, the entry
blank arrived at the Speedway without a driver named, but the following day,
Emrel Gene “Port” DeFraties, a one-time outlaw “big car” racer during the
nineteen thirties on the Illinois and Kansas fairground circuits, was named as
the driver. “Port” practiced the “Wehr & Anderson Special” but never made a
qualifying attempt.
Later after he retired from driving, DeFraties became a
traveling announcer with the AAA Midwest midget circuit before he started his
own hardtop sanctioning body in 1949. Through the nineteen fifties the
“DeFraties Circuit” made weekly stops during the racing season at track located
in Springfield, Farmer City, Macon, Lincoln, Mazon, and Peoria Illinois.
Rudolph Wehr never returned to the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway after his sixth failed attempt to qualify a car in 1940, but he had
established a record of persistence in the face of adversity.
Rotary valve development after Indy by Wehr and others
The author found
a reference to Rudolph Wehr in Paul Smith’s book Merchants of Speed which
a stoty that in 1953 Chet Herbert found a Wehr 183-cubic inch rotary valve
two-cycle four-cylinder engine in a junkyard that he planned to use a power
plant for his Bonneville car.
Herbert found the engine had 14:1 compression ratio and used
piston rings to seal the rotary valves a system which did not work (Wehr’s
final patent #2368956 attempted to address the sealing issue). Chet fitted the Wehr engine with a
hydraulic-actuated tapered cone system of his own design to seal the rotary
valves and fitted the engine with a GMC supercharger. During testing the revamped engine reportedly self-destructed on the dynamometer.
The book erroneously
attributes to engine to an Wehr 1932 Indianapolis attempt, which of course did not occur. Most likely what Herbert found was the 1932 Legion Ascot ‘big car’ engine although that engine was not
described as a two-cycle engine.
The Crosley rotary valve engine
the author suspects this was Wehr's work
According to Daniel Strohl’s article in the February 2016
issue of Hemmings’ Classic Car magazine after World War 2, Rudolph Wehr worked
to develop a rotary valve cylinder head for the Crosley overhead valve
four-cylinder engine for midget racing, an example of which the author believes is on display at
the Museum of American Speed.
Photo of Wehr patterns by Daniel Strohl
Daniel Strohl also reported that a number of Wehr’s parts
and wooden patterns were offered for sale by Wehr family members at the October
2015 Hershey, Pennsylvania Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) swap
meet. The author would appreciate any
leads to these sellers, as he would like to obtain one of these patterns -
please contact the author at kevracer@aol.com
Smith's rotary valve patent drawing
exploded view of Rotax 532
In the modern era, Austrian engine manufacturer Rotax used
rotary intake valves in their now out-of-production two-cylinder two-stroke 31
cubic inch engine design the 532 for ultralight aircraft and continues to use
rotary intake valves in the 532's larger successor, the 36 cubic inch Rotax 582
Coates International Limited currently builds and markets the
Coates C86GE engine-generator system which with a 855-cubic inch displacement
Inline 6-cylinder engine which can run on natural gas, propane, digested land
fill gas, hydrogen, and other fuels such as diesel which the manufacturer
claims can develop up to 400 horsepower. The engine uses the” Coates Spherical
Rotary Valve System” which replaces the poppet valve system with a pair of
rotary valves (one intake and one outlet) operated by overhead shafts.
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