Leading by example
We like to use this e-space to present worthwhile books to the Hemmings Nation every so often. This is one such case. Gordon Eliot White is one of the most authoritative people around on classic American racing history. His latest work is Leader Card Racers, on the famed team founded by Bob Wilke in Milwaukee. The book’s great, on a number of levels, including its photography and the kind of delightful minutiae that usually doesn’t get into print.
Take this fantastic photo from the Wilke family archives. The lead car is Johnny Boyd, who’s just passed Jim Rathmann in the Wilke-backed, Quinn Epperly-built roadster owned by Lindsey Hopkins during the 1958 Indianapolis 500. This was the first in a long line of Leader Card roadsters. How would you like to be one of the guys who socked that inside bank? Jimmy Bryan won this 500, Boyd was third and Rathmann – a graduate of Andy Granatelli’s Hurricane Hot Rod Association in Chicago, who also had a good career in stock cars and won Indy in 1960 – finished fifth.
Here’s how Bob Wilke had fun when he wasn’t blowing money on his race cars. Given the level of hand craftsmanship that went into the typical Indy roadster, it’s no surprise that Wilke valued the same thing in premium road cars. Here’s just part of his collection. On the left is a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing with Ghia custom work, which he’d bought off the Frankfurt show floor in 1954. Next is a Vignale-customized 250 Europa. To its left is a 1955 375 MM, off the Turin stand, also a Vignale one-off. Nothing compares to what’s on the end, an insanely finned Wilke commissioning done by Ghia on a 1955 410 Superamerica chassis, with a Lampredi V-12 punched out to 5.1 liters for power. Nuts. The race team, incidentally, takes its name from a family-created press for cutting custom cards and envelopes.
The book is $55 from www.racemaker.com, or 617-723-6533. If you’d like one inscribed, write to the author at P.O. Box 129, Hardyville, Virginia 23070, and enclose a check for $60.90, which also covers shipping.
