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winner vintage race car vintage indy car tn showroom ray harroun racing racecar marmon wasp marmon lobby indy 500 indianapolis 500 inaugural honest charley garage hcg firestone corky coker coker tires coker tire chattanooga 1911 marmon
In case you haven't heard, we recreated the infamous Marmon Wasp, which was the winner car at the inaugural Indianapolis 500 back in 1911. It was driven by Ray Harroun, and it was the first racecar of its kind--it had a single seat, and a rear view mirror, as opposed to other cars at the time, which had a ride-along mechanic. This lighter design, in combination with strict guidelines from the engineers at Firestone tires regarding speed and possible tire failure, gave Ray Harroun the win with an average speed of nearly 75mph. By the way, the Firestone representatives allegedly stated that speeds over 75mph would result in tire failure... Anyway, we had the guys at Honest Charley Garage recreate this awesome piece of history, and we put it on display at the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 a couple weeks ago. It was a big hit there, but now that it's big event is over, the car will live in the Coker Tire lobby for a while. It's an awesome conversation piece, and we're proud of the crew at Honest Charley Garage for the amazing work they did to complete this car in such a short timeframe. Check it out!!!