The failed Indy “nitro ban”
Nowadays, the use of nitromethane to boost the horsepower
output of racing engines is well known, but such was not the case in the
nineteen fifties. Produced by the
treatment of sodium chloroacetate with sodium nitrite to create the chemical
compound CH3NO2, an colorless oily liquid that is very effective as a power
adder because carries its own oxygen.
Nitromethane is 52-1/2 percent oxygen by weight, so it needs much less
atmospheric oxygen to burn and release its massive energy.
The theoretical stoichiometric air/fuel ratio of
nitromethane ne is 1.7:1, which means it takes 1.7 pounds of air are needed to
burn 1 pound of nitromethane. By comparison the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio
of gasoline is 14.7:1 and methanol commonly used in Indianapolis racing engines
has a stoichiometric air/fuel ratio of 6.45:1.
As far back as 1919 Arthur A Backhaus of Baltimore Maryland
patented a fuel mixture of gasoline, alcohol and nitro benzol, but Backhaus did
not make any claims of increased power output. In the nineteen thirties, Carleton
Ellis, Standard Oil’s pioneering automotive chemist, patented several mixtures
of nitro-hydrocarbons as ‘anti-knock” additives for lower octane gasoline.
Prior to the outbreak of World War 2, the Mercedes and
Auto-Union racing teams both used nitro compounds to boost horsepower; the
German teams used a mixture of 85-percent methanol, 10-pecent nitromethane and
five-percent acetone. While the mixture increased horsepower, nitromethane was
also corrosive to the internal components in the engines and fuel system which
required a strict program of draining a flushing the fuel system between races.
In 1949, Southern California hot rodder Vic Edelbrock was
introduced to nitromethane by midget racer Eddie Haddad, who had been given a
gallon of nitromethane by the trio of pioneering tether car builders the
Dooling brothers. Edelbrock experimented with the use of nitromethane in his Ford
flathead V-8 60 engine to keep up with the purpose-built Offenhauser
four-cylinder racing engine which had a significant power advantage over the
Ford V-8 60 cubic inch power plant.
Through trial and error Vic learned that the use of nitromethane
required the metal portions of the fuel system to be nickel-plated and the use
of spark plugs with a cooler spark tip.
Edelbrock's late-night work paid off as on the evening of August 10, 1950, Vic’s
midget the seventh Kurtis-Kraft car built driven by Rodger Ward to victory at
the famous Gilmore Stadium with a 20% blend of nitromethane in the tank, then
Edelbrock and Ward followed up the next night with another URA midget race win at
Orange Show Stadium in San Bernardino.
The growth of the use of nitromethane in American open-wheel
racing paralleled the wide-spread use of fuel injection as both spread east
from the West Coast. Following his service in World War 2, Jim Travers
partnered with Stuart Hilborn to develop and sell fuel-injection systems, but
that venture failed. Hilborn returned to
working at night in his home garage to perfect his system while Travers
fulfilled his promise to his war-time buddy Elinor “Swede” Lindskog to go
midget racing full-time.
Lindskog from “backwoods Washington” was a pre-war midget
racing standout, and with the “Swede” driving and Travers on the wrenches, the
pair were very successful, but their partnership was tragically short-lived. On the evening June 27, 1946, “Swede” set a
new track record of 14.78 seconds on his first timed lap on Gilmore’s
quarter-mile track, but on his second lap, Lindskog’s midget crashed into the
outside retaining wall and rolled over three times. Just 29 years old, “Swede”
died enroute to the Hollywood hospital and Jim Travers swore to quit
racing.
Eddie Haddad soon persuaded Travers to join his team which
was owned by Southern California garage owner John Balch. Shortly afterward,
Balch sold the team to Superior Oil Company tycoon Howard Keck and before long
Keck wanted to add a second mechanic to the team and Jim Travers suggested his
dry lakes competitor, Frank Coon.
In 1948, with Keck’s backing, Travers and Coon ordered a new
front wheel drive chassis from Los Angeles metalsmith Emil Diedt to try to
conquer Indianapolis. During the 1948 Indianapolis ‘500’ driver Jimmy Jackson
ran just outside the top five for most of the race, but a good finish was
spoiled when a wheel spindle broke on the sleek maroon machine with seven laps
to go and Jackson spun into the infield and was placed tenth.
Early in 1949 Stuart Hilborn left his day job to devote
himself full time to the manufacture of his injectors, with the first
production run for the 105-cubic inch Offenhauser midget engine with Eddie
Haddad as one of the salesmen and pioneers of the use of the fuel injection
system. Hilborn then advanced into building injectors for the 270-cubic inch
Offenhauser engines for Indianapolis cars.
The prototype Offenhauser 270 injector system was fitted to the Keck machine
and Jimmy Jackson qualified with the first Hilborn fuel injectors at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, but the team switched back to carburetors for the 500-mile
race.
By 1950 there were seven Hilborn injection set ups at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway and some of the qualified teams rented their set-ups to other
teams for qualifying. Car owner Howard Keck and his mechanics, “the Whiz Kids” Travers
and Coon hired three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Mauri Rose who liked the Hilborn
injection system.
Rose averaged 132.319 mile per hour (MPH) to qualify on the
outside of the front row as the highest qualifying injected machine, then Rose
and five other cars raced in the 500-mile race with the revolutionary Hilborn
injectors installed.
The use of nitromethane was first discussed publicly after
the 1952 race - most railbirds figured that about half that teams used a
mixture of 10-12% nitromethane for qualifying. In 1952, on straight methanol the 270-cubic
inch four-cylinder Offenhauser engine developed 345 horsepower but a dose of
‘pop’, as nitromethane became known, added at least 40 horsepower, and could
add up to as much as 100 horsepower depending on the amount of nitromethane used.
In addition to the cost - nitromethane cost $5.35 a gallon in 1952 ($50 a
gallon today), too strong a dose of nitromethane could quickly destroy a racing
engine.
A 1954 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) paper prepared
by E.S. Starkman a University of California professor entitled “Nitromethane as
a Piston Engine Fuel” found the when added to methanol, nitromethane increased
power by 13 percent, but Starkman’s experiments found that nitromethane
percentages above 20% created unfavorable pre-ignition conditions in the cylinders.
Jim Travers, left and Frank Coon, right are congratulated by
Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Wilbur Shaw
at the 1953 "500' Victory banquet as the mechanics on the winning car.
Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library
Center for Digital Studies Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection
It was widely believed that in addition to adding the liquid
for time trials, several teams added a small percentage of nitromethane for the
running 1952 Indianapolis 500-mile race. Those teams included oilman Jack
Hinkle’s team with driver/mechanic Jack McGrath, J.C. Agajanian’s team with
chief mechanic Clay Smith and driver Troy Ruttman, the Granatelli brothers team
from Chicago with driver Jim Rathmann, and Bill Vukovich, the new driver of the
Keck “Fuel Injection Special” team. Those teams dominated the 1952 ‘500,’ and
among them led all the laps of the race, which Ruttman won after Vukovich’s
Kurtis-Kraft roadster broke a steering gear on lap 191.
Tommy Milton, the first two-time winner of the Indianapolis
500-mile race and the race’s Chief Steward from 1949 through 1952 gave a
provocative interview published in the May 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.
that discussed among other subjects, the use of nitromethane. In the article entitled “The 500 as the Experts See It” Milton and his long-time friend C.W.
Van Ranst revealed the details of “the so-called nitro fuel” a product most
racing fans knew nothing about in 1953.
Milton explained that nitromethane was added to the base
methanol fuel, and stated that the fuel was dangerous, because “the bravest guy
will win - the driver who is willing to put the highest percentage of nitro in
his fuel will go the fastest until the engine flies apart.” Milton stated that
“they” wanted to eliminate nitro, but that “they” would “have a hard time
trying to police the ban. No matter how they change the rules the minute the
rules are out, everybody goes to work to find out how to beat them.”
In early 1953, the National Championship Car Owners
Association (NCCOA) a group comprised of car owners on the AAA (American
Automobile Association) championship circuit led by Ed Walsh started a movement
to ban “high explosives in fuel” for the 1953 Indianapolis 500-mile race. The
NCCOA sought to ban the use nitromethane, nitrobenzene, nitropropane or “any
other liquid explosive” (the powerful Novis used acetone, propylene oxide,
benzene, and hydrazine fuel additives) because they thought they were
dangerous, but the ban had been not included on the entry blanks sent out for
the 1953 International 500-mile Sweepstakes.
Although three-time ‘500’ winner and Indianapolis Motor
Speedway president Wilbur Shaw said that a chemist had told him that
nitromethane “in proper hands was not too dangerous,” the Speedway wanted to go
along with the car owners group. Shaw forwarded
an agreement to ban the fuel additives to all 83 entrants; acceptance had to be
unanimous for the agreement to become effective.
An Associated Press wire story reported on April 30, 1953
that only 73 car owners had signed and returned the agreement, then on May 4 the
Indianapolis News sportswriter J. E. O’Brien reported that NCCOA
President Walsh of St. Louis, a car owner and partner with Frank Kurtis in
Kurtis-Kraft, Incorporated had told the writer that there was one holdout that
killed the proposed ban.
During the 1953 race run on the second-hottest day in race
history to that time, fourteen drivers sought relief, sickened by the heat and
exhaust fumes and driver Carl Scarborough died of hyperthermia. The day following the 1953 race, Indianapolis
Motor Speedway officials announced their intention to ban “nitro” based on the belief
that the fumes from the “nitro” fuel was what had sickened many drivers during
the running of the ‘500.’
The 1954 nitromethane ban never came to fruition and nitromethane
or nitro compounds continued to be used by many teams that raced at
Indianapolis particularly in time trials. It was the advent of turbocharging in
the later nineteen sixties that brought the end to use of nitromethane and
other exotic fuel additives. With turbocharged engines, mechanics could “turn
the screw” on the turbocharger wastegate to increase the turbocharger boost
level and create more horsepower with straight methanol.
