Nice recap of the story. Andy Granatelli talks about his love affair with the Novi in a couple of chapters of his autobiography "They call me Mister 500". That book is a must-read for Indy fans. I wish there was a good sound recording of the Novi engine.
As a child of the 50's I remember my Dad talking about the Novi, it being front wheel drive and although powerful, the chassis design couldn't really handle it. And I lived in New Zealand! so even down the bottom of the World, knew about Novi race cars. Andy Granatelli (Mr STP) is one of those folks who has left a huge mark on Automobile history but many have no idea who he and his family were or what they achieved from the 1940's onwards.
I spent a lot of time at the track when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. I can remember the mighty Novi cars and their distinct sound, they were a crowd favorite. My grandfater come across some small "Novi", decals and he gave me some. I put some of them on my bike and my buddies thought that was the coolest thing ever. I'll never forget the "tornado on wheels", the awesome Novi.
The power of the Novi engine was put to good use in a USAC Champ Car race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1965, with Jim Hurtubise finishing 4th in a STP sponsored Kurtis chassis roadster for that 250 mile event.
Thanks for making this video. As a longtime Novi resident(26 years) I had seen the car at the old Expo center but never knew it was moved to the library. Last night Ed spoke at the SAAC-MCR annual party at the civic center and the history of the Novi special I had no clue to. I knew they made them initially by the water tower mural but didn't know how good they really were or how many years they raced there. Kudos for Ed for spreading the story about the Novi special and as a car guy am proud my city owns such an important piece of Americarna.
Jim Hurtubise was running 2nd in a Novi at the halfway point of the 1963 Indy 500 when he was black-flagged for a nonexistent oil leak. Ironically, Parnelli Jones won the race and wasn't black-flagged, despite spraying oil all over the track for a large portion of the race and causing several crashes.
Just so some people understand. There is a difference between a super-charger and a turbo-charger. Turbos are connected to the exhaust and run at much higher RPMs which is why they whine, but a supercharger is connected to the geared crankshaft and turns not much faster than the RPM of the engine and since is not connected to the exhaust, the engine sounds stock block stockcar, but was supercharged which is why there was a slight whine. That is why NOVIs sounded so cool.
My first “500” was 1965. I saw Bobby Unser Qualify & drive the Mighty Novi in the race. I haven’t missed the “500” since. I’m 68. Was on 16th street in 2020 when no fans were in the stands.😎🇺🇸
Awesome history. Lew Welch was good friends with important people at FoMoCo, including Henry, and the first Novi (Winfield V8) engine was installed in one of the Ford front drive team cars from 1935, in 1941. Sure would be nice to have one in a Model A
I’m from the Midwest, been to the 500 and the Indy 500 Museum a few times...never heard of it, - Novi, MI wasn’t famous to me, anyway. Still, this is fascinating, thanks for preserving the history and presenting it.
There was no other engine that sounded as sweet as the high-revving Novi roaring down the straightway at Indy. Remember that sound like it was yesterday.
AWD by Ferguson ( As with the STP Turbine car...) Known to most as the STP Ferguson-Novi One summer. I was at a dinner table, in Tampa, with Art Malone, Not long after his run in the car... Describing beating the Lotus-Fords on the short chutes RAW power with TRACTION Just a bit TOO HEAVY in the corners.... He had "The Big Eyes"!! Art's freind and rival, Don Garlits was eating with us.... This at Tampa's top welder, Poppa BenWright.. Granny Teagues table.... Who's shop was just across US-92 from my home. A mile west from The Tampa Drag-Way... A fun place to be a GO-FER, in High School... Shop and Track.... An education..... J.C.
The rear wheel drive novi on the dry lakes could straight line over 225mph, with potential to hit 300mph, I think stability incurves were the unknowns, rip Bobby Unser never saw you in the novi but saw you go over 200mph in the turbo eagles, offys, great memories.
Back in it's day I frequently heard the Novi engine screaming on a dyno at the Paxton Products/Granitelli/STP facility in Santa Monica. I worked evenings at a gas station about 3 blocks away. At a different job I built exhaust systems for the fleet of Studebakers that set so many records at Bonneville. Wow, more history because I also had a major part in installing a 289 Ford V-8 in the small Mercedes van that would serve as the crew vehicle for the Indy turbine car. Hadn't thought about these things in many years.
A Ford V8 (289 etc ) into a mercedes was a popular swap in the 60's and some cars which were converted are worth serious money today. What sort of Van was it that recieved the Ford Engine? 1950's and 60's Mercedes Vans and busses also collect good prices now too because so few are left.
@@Mercmad I just now saw your comment. It was a new small bus like van, probably a lot like a Ford E-350 windowed van but smaller. I remember it was originally a 4 cyl. diesel and manual transmission. We installed a small block 260 or possibly 289 with a 4 speed Ford trans. As I remember it, I installed the engine & trans, fabricated crossmembers, motor & trans mounts, clutch linkage, and exhaust system. When it left our shop it still needed at the minimum wiring, fuel lines, drive shaft, and a radiator so I never saw it actually run. When they came to pick it up, we put it on the rack for inspection. Andy G. liked my work well enough to give me a $100. tip and offer me a job in the race shop. Unfortunately I had just received my Viet Nam era Army draft notice. That was the single most disappointing moment of my life. One high point is that I previously drove their fastest twin blower Avanti Bonneville record car on the Santa Monica streets after we fabricated and installed the exhaust system. Great memories.
4:34 1952? Some race historians believe the Turbo Cummins Diesel #28 qualified for the pole position in 1952 and that Novi #36 Duke Nalon started as 4th qualifier.
Interesting footnote that was not mentioned here is where the name NOVI came from. At one time the town was no more than a whistle stop for the railroad. That stop was Number 6 or in Roman numerals NO. VI . I hope someone can verify this story that I have heard about for years.
You can learn more about the history and origins of the name Novi from another episode in the same history series. ua-cam.com/video/GaJVPGYkwAM/v-deo.html
I can vaguely recall that NOVI came from a surface transportation designation, where the Roman numeral _VI,_ for _6,_ was combined with NO. as the abbreviation for "number."
Too much power for the suspensions, brakes and tires of 1941 to about 1960. And too much weight and girth thereafter, even though some assert it might have been competitive in a more beefy, rear-engined chassis in the mid- or late 1960s. Designer/draftsman Leo Goosen was the interpreter of Harry Miller's, Tommy Milton's, Frank Lockart's and Fred Offenhauser's -- as well as Art Sparks's and Bud Winfield's -- powerplant philosophies. Look at the two or three (not sure) Novis that were built: See Offies and Millers all the way back to 1923. Built like battleships owing to the evolving metallurgy of the time. In the '40s, at least, only the Maserati 8CTF, the Mercedes W-154 and Winfield's earlier straight eight could could even hope to qualify faster.
Too bad no mention of the Novi engine's return to Indy in 1963, with Jim Hurtubise putting the new #56 Novi-Kurtis in middle of the front row and leading the 1st lap of the race, while rookie Bobby Unser qualified the other, #6. Also, the Granatelli's efforts with the later 4WD Ferguson Novis were technically impressive but plagued with bad luck!
How many cars? How many teams? How many drivers? Every mention of any novi was as it’s a singular car , but obviously its multiple cars, as shown in the multiple vignettes, until the gentleman near the very end. How many cars? Who commissioned them? Not enough on Offenhausers input. It’s good video editing skills, and a nice curation of photos and film, just some crucial history gaps.
It occurs to me that Indy cars, CART, USAC, doesn't do some kind of historic racing. It seems it generate a lot of interest to see, and hear, some of the old racers do even just a few parade laps. How many of those old Indianapolis racers are still around?
I recall in Andy Granatelli's autobiography, "They Call Me Mister 500," that what ended the run for the Novi-powered racers was USAC's engine formula change with supercharged/turbocharged engines at Indy. From the Novi's first year until 1966 the engine displacement at Indy stayed the same; but sometime after 1966 USAC lowered the engine displacement just a tad, which made the Novi engine illegal to run at Indy since its engine displacement, due to it being a sleeveless cylinder design for the pistons, could not be modified. Whereas the Offy engines could be modified with thicker cylinder sleeves to lower the engine displacement. In that same autobiography, Granatelli had considered using the Novi engine on a rear-engine racer, possibly built by Lotus; but the engine displacement rule change nixed it. My Thumbs Up click placed me at number 400.
I absolutely hate playing that car in the Indy 500 legends game. When I press B to boost or the top or the left side of ➕ when I have it tilted on the wii game, when I have a good enough draft, The car would just go out of control and would either spin out of control, hit the wall, or both
Clearly the supercharger design was heavily influenced by the one used on the RR Merlin... No mystery there, a lot of tech trickled down from the great engines of WW2.
Centrifugal superchargers were used on engines from the 1910's, when Alfred Buchi originally tested turbocharging. Miller engines used them. The Novi owed nothing to the Merlin, which was all but unknown in the USA prior to WW2. The versions of the Merlin that had centrifugal superchargers worth copying were the 2-stage, 2-speed intercooled versions. The Novi was designed from the start with a centrifugal supercharger and intercooler, in the late 1930's.
Nice recap of the story. Andy Granatelli talks about his love affair with the Novi in a couple of chapters of his autobiography "They call me Mister 500". That book is a must-read for Indy fans. I wish there was a good sound recording of the Novi engine.
As a child of the 50's I remember my Dad talking about the Novi, it being front wheel drive and although powerful, the chassis design couldn't really handle it. And I lived in New Zealand! so even down the bottom of the World, knew about Novi race cars.
Andy Granatelli (Mr STP) is one of those folks who has left a huge mark on Automobile history but many have no idea who he and his family were or what they achieved from the 1940's onwards.
I spent a lot of time at the track when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. I can remember the mighty Novi cars and their distinct sound, they were a crowd favorite. My grandfater come across some small "Novi", decals and he gave me some. I put some of them on my bike and my buddies thought that was the coolest thing ever. I'll never forget the "tornado on wheels", the awesome Novi.
I recall my late father telling stories about the mighty Novi and how Jim Hurtubise bringing the huge qualifying day crowd to its feet and roaring.
I remember listening to the Indy 500 on the radio and you could hear the difference in the sound of the Novi scream and the Offy drone.
The power of the Novi engine was put to good use in a USAC Champ Car race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1965, with Jim Hurtubise finishing 4th in a STP sponsored Kurtis chassis roadster for that 250 mile event.
Neat to see My Uncle Paul (Russo) in this video.
Thanks for making this video. As a longtime Novi resident(26 years) I had seen the car at the old Expo center but never knew it was moved to the library. Last night Ed spoke at the SAAC-MCR annual party at the civic center and the history of the Novi special I had no clue to. I knew they made them initially by the water tower mural but didn't know how good they really were or how many years they raced there. Kudos for Ed for spreading the story about the Novi special and as a car guy am proud my city owns such an important piece of Americarna.
A great story, and interesting history of an iconic racecar...
Saw
Bobby Unser drive that car
Jim Hurtubise was running 2nd in a Novi at the halfway point of the 1963 Indy 500 when he was black-flagged for a nonexistent oil leak. Ironically, Parnelli Jones won the race and wasn't black-flagged, despite spraying oil all over the track for a large portion of the race and causing several crashes.
Well that's a sad story.
Indy has always had a hard on for fucking people over. Look at Roger Rager.
Herk brought the huge crowd to it's feet during qualifying and the race. My late father told me "he never saw anything like it."
Greg, rest in peace to your pops. 831 as in the mont Bay Area?
Just so some people understand. There is a difference between a super-charger and a turbo-charger. Turbos are connected to the exhaust and run at much higher RPMs which is why they whine, but a supercharger is connected to the geared crankshaft and turns not much faster than the RPM of the engine and since is not connected to the exhaust, the engine sounds stock block stockcar, but was supercharged which is why there was a slight whine. That is why NOVIs sounded so cool.
Thank you for keeping this history alive and for putting together this video ❤️
My first “500” was 1965. I saw Bobby Unser Qualify & drive the Mighty Novi in the race. I haven’t missed the “500” since. I’m 68. Was on 16th street in 2020 when no fans were in the stands.😎🇺🇸
Very nice and well done video!!!! 👍👍👍👍
As a huge Indy car fan this has me wanting to go to your town and take in some history.
Awesome history. Lew Welch was good friends with important people at FoMoCo, including Henry, and the first Novi (Winfield V8) engine was installed in one of the Ford front drive team cars from 1935, in 1941. Sure would be nice to have one in a Model A
I’m from the Midwest, been to the 500 and the Indy 500 Museum a few times...never heard of it, - Novi, MI wasn’t famous to me, anyway. Still, this is fascinating, thanks for preserving the history and presenting it.
There was no other engine that sounded as sweet as the high-revving Novi roaring down the straightway at Indy. Remember that sound like it was yesterday.
Excellent video, thank you.
AWD by Ferguson
( As with the STP Turbine car...)
Known to most as the STP Ferguson-Novi
One summer. I was at a dinner table, in Tampa, with Art Malone,
Not long after his run in the car...
Describing beating the Lotus-Fords on the short chutes
RAW power with TRACTION
Just a bit TOO HEAVY in the corners....
He had "The Big Eyes"!!
Art's freind and rival, Don Garlits was eating with us....
This at Tampa's top welder, Poppa BenWright..
Granny Teagues table....
Who's shop was just across US-92 from my home.
A mile west from The Tampa Drag-Way...
A fun place to be a GO-FER, in High School...
Shop and Track....
An education.....
J.C.
Good for Novi! Important history here.
I demand to know who could downvote this. Sheesh. A fantastic vid here. Thanks for posting.
Novi is the stuff of legends... also over here in Europe we remember...
The rear wheel drive novi on the dry lakes could straight line over 225mph, with potential to hit 300mph, I think stability incurves were the unknowns, rip Bobby Unser never saw you in the novi but saw you go over 200mph in the turbo eagles, offys, great memories.
I never realized who designed that motor. Leo Goosen, the Offenhousers! Holy cow!!
Thank You!
Back in it's day I frequently heard the Novi engine screaming on a dyno at the Paxton Products/Granitelli/STP facility in Santa Monica. I worked evenings at a gas station about 3 blocks away. At a different job I built exhaust systems for the fleet of Studebakers that set so many records at Bonneville. Wow, more history because I also had a major part in installing a 289 Ford V-8 in the small Mercedes van that would serve as the crew vehicle for the Indy turbine car. Hadn't thought about these things in many years.
I worked for Vince at his Phoenix Shop and "Novi" was everywhere !
Wishing I had paid more attention.
I did help fire up a Turbine Car!
A Ford V8 (289 etc ) into a mercedes was a popular swap in the 60's and some cars which were converted are worth serious money today. What sort of Van was it that recieved the Ford Engine? 1950's and 60's Mercedes Vans and busses also collect good prices now too because so few are left.
Dang, both you guys had special moments! The #40 STP turbine remains my favourite race car of all time.
@@Mercmad I just now saw your comment. It was a new small bus like van, probably a lot like a Ford E-350 windowed van but smaller. I remember it was originally a 4 cyl. diesel and manual transmission. We installed a small block 260 or possibly 289 with a 4 speed Ford trans. As I remember it, I installed the engine & trans, fabricated crossmembers, motor & trans mounts, clutch linkage, and exhaust system. When it left our shop it still needed at the minimum wiring, fuel lines, drive shaft, and a radiator so I never saw it actually run. When they came to pick it up, we put it on the rack for inspection. Andy G. liked my work well enough to give me a $100. tip and offer me a job in the race shop. Unfortunately I had just received my Viet Nam era Army draft notice. That was the single most disappointing moment of my life. One high point is that I previously drove their fastest twin blower Avanti Bonneville record car on the Santa Monica streets after we fabricated and installed the exhaust system. Great memories.
It was one of the most popular cars at Indy. No question about that.
Where did Novi get it’s name? Legend has it that it was the Number 6(no. VI) stop on the stagecoach line on Grand River between Detroit and Lansing.
History baby,it’s all about history
I was a Novi fan...remember Paul Russo .........
Great video, but a small correction, the Novi did not get the pole in 1952, that was the Cummins Diesel.
4:34 1952? Some race historians believe the Turbo Cummins Diesel #28 qualified for the pole position in 1952 and that Novi #36 Duke Nalon started as 4th qualifier.
3:37 Good Lord...look at that steering wheel. Not hard to imagine where that wound up in the event of a head on crash / very sudden stop.
SquillyMon Harness would probably have saved the driver
my mother a machinest that lived n norwayne....n made santa claus believable..from 1953 to 64
I named my whole CHANNEL after that race car.
Interesting footnote that was not mentioned here is where the name NOVI came from. At one time the town was no more than a whistle stop for the railroad. That stop was Number 6 or in Roman numerals NO. VI . I hope someone can verify this story that I have heard about for years.
You can learn more about the history and origins of the name Novi from another episode in the same history series.
ua-cam.com/video/GaJVPGYkwAM/v-deo.html
I can vaguely recall that NOVI came from a surface transportation designation, where the Roman numeral _VI,_ for _6,_ was combined with NO. as the abbreviation for "number."
That engine was too powerful for itself.
FWD - more forgiving on the limit of cornering, but weight transfer off the driving wheels under acceleration.
Too much power for the suspensions, brakes and tires of 1941 to about 1960. And too much weight and girth thereafter, even though some assert it might have been competitive in a more beefy, rear-engined chassis in the mid- or late 1960s. Designer/draftsman Leo Goosen was the interpreter of Harry Miller's, Tommy Milton's, Frank Lockart's and Fred Offenhauser's -- as well as Art Sparks's and Bud Winfield's -- powerplant philosophies. Look at the two or three (not sure) Novis that were built: See Offies and Millers all the way back to 1923. Built like battleships owing to the evolving metallurgy of the time. In the '40s, at least, only the Maserati 8CTF, the Mercedes W-154 and Winfield's earlier straight eight could could even hope to qualify faster.
What happened to the Brock Yates Novi Special clone?
Wat state was theNovi race car from
Too bad no mention of the Novi engine's return to Indy in 1963, with Jim Hurtubise putting the new #56 Novi-Kurtis in middle of the front row and leading the 1st lap of the race, while rookie Bobby Unser qualified the other, #6. Also, the Granatelli's efforts with the later 4WD Ferguson Novis were technically impressive but plagued with bad luck!
How many cars? How many teams? How many drivers? Every mention of any novi was as it’s a singular car , but obviously its multiple cars, as shown in the multiple vignettes, until the gentleman near the very end. How many cars? Who commissioned them? Not enough on Offenhausers input. It’s good video editing skills, and a nice curation of photos and film, just some crucial history gaps.
Read Andy Granatelli's book "They call me Mister 500" for some very colourful background on the Novis (and yes, there were many Novi Specials).
It occurs to me that Indy cars, CART, USAC, doesn't do some kind of historic racing. It seems it generate a lot of interest to see, and hear, some of the old racers do even just a few parade laps. How many of those old Indianapolis racers are still around?
Yup, big growth in historic events. Bear in mind all gasolene engines will be historic soon.
oh the novi engine was built by gosen and offenhouser nice
I recall in Andy Granatelli's autobiography, "They Call Me Mister 500," that what ended the run for the Novi-powered racers was USAC's engine formula change with supercharged/turbocharged engines at Indy. From the Novi's first year until 1966 the engine displacement at Indy stayed the same; but sometime after 1966 USAC lowered the engine displacement just a tad, which made the Novi engine illegal to run at Indy since its engine displacement, due to it being a sleeveless cylinder design for the pistons, could not be modified. Whereas the Offy engines could be modified with thicker cylinder sleeves to lower the engine displacement.
In that same autobiography, Granatelli had considered using the Novi engine on a rear-engine racer, possibly built by Lotus; but the engine displacement rule change nixed it. My Thumbs Up click placed me at number 400.
Hmm don't know why you could just make a short stroke crank..
I absolutely hate playing that car in the Indy 500 legends game. When I press B to boost or the top or the left side of ➕ when I have it tilted on the wii game, when I have a good enough draft, The car would just go out of control and would either spin out of control, hit the wall, or both
like the opposite exhaust pipe
my mother said novi was famous for the car n 50,s
Why Novi Vespa special?
That's right Andy Granatelli not Tony sorry I said Tony Holman
The music junked another video
my mother worked at novi equipment....next hamburgers made u famous
Clearly the supercharger design was heavily influenced by the one used on the RR Merlin... No mystery there, a lot of tech trickled down from the great engines of WW2.
That type was around from the 1920s
European GP cars such as Delage..
History!
J.C
Centrifugal superchargers were used on engines from the 1910's, when Alfred Buchi originally tested turbocharging. Miller engines used them. The Novi owed nothing to the Merlin, which was all but unknown in the USA prior to WW2. The versions of the Merlin that had centrifugal superchargers worth copying were the 2-stage, 2-speed intercooled versions. The Novi was designed from the start with a centrifugal supercharger and intercooler, in the late 1930's.