New at Old Irish Racing

Very nice, indeed!

I had seen the Ermini name but never knew much about the cars.  Some interesting stories involving that make.  Had he not become ill and died in 1958, its possible he would have continued making interesting race cars into the 1960's.  Yes, they have added bolt on Minilites.  I would assume that suitable hubs for knock-on Minilites were either not available or too expensive.  They would have looked much better!  

Frustrating and fun about sums it up when trying to research the history of cars such as this.  According to the current owner/seller, they have a great deal of documentation on the car, just have chosen not to share on line.  Yes Jolly Model was a reason I held off for so long on buying this one.  I have to say its one of their better efforts.  Ok for twenty years ago, but certainly not up to today's standards.  However, no one else will ever likely do this car.  My only question was why not the Mille Miglia car? 

Thanks Tom!  It does have a great story, but I feel I have only told half of it.  It is known that the car was raced successfully at the Nassau Speed Weeks in 1956 where Jim Orr saw it.  He fell in love with the car, bought it on the spot and raced it in the USA, which is where his friend Bill Devin saw the car and fell in love with its shape.  That inspiration launched the beautiful Devin sports racers which Devin smartly made to fit a variety of chassis.  Many race on today in historic events.

I hear you on the Jolly Models.  A good example of their interesting models that are the wrong color and labeled incorrectly is the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato Barchetta.  They painted this one off car green rather than red and it was made in 2001, not the 1960's (although it was made by Aston Martin Engineering on a older cut down chassis.)  Wobbly is a good word for their quality.  



Thanks Julio!

Thanks Ian and agree with you on the Jolly assessment, but for a long time they were the only source for certain models of certain cars.  I think for now it will stay as is, although I will probably detail the wheels some, give them a blackwash.  The Minilites are too modern looking for me and trying to retro to the MM the roll bar was not there.  Maybe the continuation MM?  It would certainly be a prime candidate for that event.  

Off topic, but did you see Spark have announced plans to make the Aston Martin 212 from 1962 Le Mans after all these years?  Release is first part of next year.

Rolla - I am sure when Spark decided to make this model of the Vollstedt 67-B Ford that ran the Rex Mays 300 at Riverside in 1967, the driver Jim Clark was the main attraction. As they did research, they were probably struck by the fact that this car had its genesis in the first rear-engined Offenhauser powered Indy car and for the aerodynamic innovations it carried that race. Innovations which its creator Rolla Vollstedt can count as many he conjured up in a thirty-year career as a car constructor. Rollas famous saying was, There is the right way, the wrong way and the Vollstedt way!


Vollstedt 67-B - 1967 Rex Mays 300, Riverside - Jim Clark



The name Rolla Vollstedt for many isn’t a household name, yet he is widely considered one of the most influential race car designers of the 20th century. As the years pass, the name recognition has begun to fade, but for those of us racing fans in his home state, Rolla was and still is a racing legend. He campaigned and constructed racers that contested the Indy 500 eighteen times. As a constructor, he was an innovator and mentor of talent that would become household names. Among his innovations, he gave Indy cars wings, introduced rear-engine Offy power, gave Indy to its first female driver (Janet Guthrie) and rides to drivers with the familiar names of Grant, Follmer, Rutherford, Johncock, Sneva, Simon, Sutton, Yarborough and a wee Scotsman named Clark.





Vollstedt made the money to fuel his racing passion in the timber and lumber business. From 1952-1963, he owned and sponsored locally run Sprint and Champ cars. In 1963, he designed and built the first successful rear-engined Offy powered car. In 1967, Vollstedt ran two cars in the USAC series, powered by a 4.2L Ford V8 producing 425 HP. For the season finale at Riverside, regular driver Cale Yarborough had a NASCAR scheduling conflict and as a real coup, World Champion Jim Clark who had never raced an Indy car at Riverside, was recruited for the sum of $5,000 (just over $44K today). During the weekend, Vollstedt’s team made two important aerodynamic innovations. They fashioned an adjustable rear wing on top of the exhaust pipes and winglets on the nose cone, both to be widely copied.





Clark took to the Vollstedt 67-B and almost out qualified Dan Gurney on his home track. Starting second, Clark passed Gurney for the lead and held it until Lap 25 when he over-revved the engine after missing a shift and retired. He is said to have apologized to every member of the crew for his mistake and shared his starting money with them. No one was to know he would die six months later, and this would be his last race on U.S. soil. Unfortunately, Vollstedt never had the major sponsorship to take his cars to the next level and this was his only effort at fielding a top named driver. His cars were always mid-pack runners, but great proving ground for up and coming drivers. This car would race until 1972, seeing six Indy 500s. Rolla died in 2017 at the age of 99.




I was fortunate to meet Rolla on a couple of occasions, the last at the debut of the car as restored in Portland.  The signed book on Rolla, his cars and career has pride of place in my library.  The Canadian co-author Ralph Zbarsky has been an active MG vintage racer we have known for many years.  We see Ralph about once a year and always ask when his Indy car project will ever be done.  He owns a Huffaker MG Liquid Suspension Special Indy car, a car influenced by Rolla Vollstedt. 

Agreed, that's fantastic!

Learn something new every day. Great story about a car i'd never heard of.

Spark did an excellent job on this one and even their Clark figure is a bit better than their usual fare.  I know that Spark plans the 1967 Indy version of this car driven by Yarborough, as well as the sister car (67-A) driven by George Follmer at Riverside.  

Thanks Paul!

How Rolla Vollstedt got Jim Clark to drive at Indy is an interesting story in and of itself.  Clark was adamant about his fee to drive of $5,000.  Firestone had suggested Clark to Vollstedt but also told him they couldn't help with any of the money Clark required for a one race deal.  Vollstedt didn't have that type of money and sought additional sponsorship money using Clark as the draw to enlist it.  He knew his usual sponsor (Bryant Cooling/Heating), wouldn't be able to pony up the sum, so he turned to Riverside Raceway.  They realized the draw potential of having the two-time World Champion driving a contending car and gave Vollstedt $4,000, and Sperex Paint also wanted in and gave $2,500, so Clark raced for Vollstedt at Riverside and Sperex got their name and logos on the car.  How much Clark gave the crew of that money after his mistake caused the engine to blow while leading the race is unknown.  Speculation is, most of it.  Says a great deal of what type of chap and sportsman Clark was.  Impossible to fathom anything remotely similar happening today.  

Well, no need to apply for a crew position if you don't know the difference between a dust bin lid and a fuel funnel.  

This has attracted me as well, love the odd shape and I remember reading about it in a magazine. Your pictures might have convinced me.