1979 Edmunds/Autoresearch Formula Super Vee

SOLD

History

The Autoresearch Super Vees were designed by David Bruns, designer of the SCCA pro and national Championship winning ADF and Swift Formula Fords, and the Swift Formula Atlantic cars. The cars were constructed by Indy Car builder, and 1957 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, Don Edmunds. Seven cars were constructed. Included in this sale are chassis number 4, and a second chassis, possibly number 7.

Chassis number 4 was raced by future Indy Car racer, Stan Fox. Fox ran the factory backed car supported by builder Don Edmunds and Steve Lewis. The car ran in the Bosch Pro Series in the early 1980’s. It’s sister car, driven by Dave McMillan, finished 5th in the Series Championship racing against the likes of Michael Andretti, Al Unser, Jr. and Ari Luyendyk, driving Ralt RT5’s. The Fox car was sponsored by Pabst Brewing Co., as seen in period photos.

After the pro series, the Fox car became part of a five car Autoresearch team in the early 1990’s, run by Mike Alfred. Alfred ran his cars in the Northern California SCCA Formula Atlantic Series with several other drivers. One of the cars won the SCCA Northern Pacific Formula Atlantic Championship. It is unknown at this time, which car it was, but it was most likely the Fox car, or the McMillan car, as they were the two factory built ground effects cars. Incidentally, the ground effect side pods and skins on the Fox car are made of lightweight aluminum, unlike those on the competitor Super Vees. It was also during this time that Mike bought out all the remaining spares for the cars at the former Autoresearch factory in Southern California, then run by David Bruns and Swift cars.

After the being part of the Alfred team, the car was sold to Chuck Blair, also of Northern California. Chuck raced the car into the late 1990’s. At some point the nose and front wings were damaged, the right front side pod and the rear wing took some damage as well. Thereafter the car was disassembled for repair. The car remained disassembled in Chuck’s basement for a period of years. In 2013 the cars and all the parts were purchased by its current owner who intended to restore it, but did not get around to it.

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