The Galmer

[FCYTravis]

Whatever became of the Galmer program? Was it too ambitious with too little money? Not enough testing time? Simply a bad design?

My interest has been piqued by starting to watch the 1992 CART season, and I figured the OffCamber hivemind might have some thoughts :)

[indyfan31]

I don't remember whatever happened to it, it was only around 2 or 3 years, but it was fast enough to win Indy .... once.

[JLMannin]

Whatever became of the Galmer program? Was it too ambitious with too little money? Not enough testing time? Simply a bad design?

My interest has been piqued by starting to watch the 1992 CART season, and I figured the OffCamber hivemind might have some thoughts :)

The minds behind the Galmer went to PACWEST, correct?

[cameraman]

Wikipedia sez:


Galmer was an American racecar manufacturer that built cars used from 1992 through 1993 in CART competition and the Indianapolis 500. The cars were commissioned by the Galles Racing team. Although they were an American-based effort, spearheaded by Alan Mertens (galmerinc.com), the cars were actually assembled at the Galmer Engineering shop in Bicester, England.
The Galmer chassis program came at a time in the CART series when interest in in-house chassis development was at its peak. It followed in the footsteps of Penske and Truesports, who also had similar programs.
The name "Galmer" is a portmanteau of the surnames of Rick Galles and Alan Mertens.
Its most notable accomplishment was Al Unser Jr.'s win in the 1992 Indianapolis 500 in the closest finish in race history. One other CART race was won with the chassis by Danny Sullivan in 1992. In 1993 the car was used on a part-time basis by Dominic Dobson. Proving uncompetitive, the car was retired never to be raced in CART competition again. Only those three men ever raced a Galmer in CART competition, yet it won two races, making it one of the most successful chassis on a per-race basis.
Though it was not openly revealed at the time, the decision for Galles Racing to shelf the Galmer project was made on the morning of the 1992 Indianapolis 500. The same race that Unser, Jr. went on to win.

[Michaelhatesfans]

...but it was fast enough to win Indy .... once.

Technically. That race was such a crash fest that there were only a few cars running at the end. The fact that Unser was barely able to hold off Scott Goodyear at the finish doesn't say much for the chassis.:laugh:

But hey, credit where it's due - a win is a win.

[Napoleon]

The 93 Galmer was a disaster. My memory is that it was like entering a wagon in a car race.

[SteveH]

The 93 Galmer was a disaster. My memory is that it was like entering a wagon in a car race.

it porpoised, didn't it?

[Badger]

The Galmer was not as bad as a quick look through the books might indicate though they did have problems with front end grip in road course short oval trim. 92 was the year of the Chevy A and B engines and I'm not sure which was the "good" engine, but it most definitely was the one used by Roger and not the one used by Galles. If you didn't have the latest Chevy, you needed the XB which was the other dominant engine. The only other team to win with the older Chevy was Rahal Hogan.



http://www.galmerinc.com/

[miatanut]

92 was the year of the Chevy A and B engines and I'm not sure which was the "good" engine, but it most definitely was the one used by Roger and not the one used by Galles.

:confused:

The Chevy A & B (and later C) were during the period of incredible shrinking engines. The B was smaller, lighter, lower center of gravity. All things that were better for the car. Did they give up any horsepower? I don't recall that. I recall it just being the same or better horsepower our of a smaller engine and if anything went backward, it was reliability on superspeedways.

[Brickman]

It was the Truesports chassis that was the devil. I don't recall what veteran driver stepped into and and was amazed that Pruett got out of it what he did. Later it became the Hogan chassis which led to the Rahal Miller Beer cardboard standup with added note "Got tickets?' 1993

[Badger]

:confused:

The Chevy A & B (and later C) were during the period of incredible shrinking engines. The B was smaller, lighter, lower center of gravity. All things that were better for the car. Did they give up any horsepower? I don't recall that. I recall it just being the same or better horsepower our of a smaller engine and if anything went backward, it was reliability on superspeedways.

The smaller engine that I remember went backwards (less power) was the engine that went in the High nosed Penske (John travis designed car). I'm pretty sure it was an Mercedes by that time.

[SteveH]

It was the Truesports chassis that was the devil. I don't recall what veteran driver stepped into and and was amazed that Pruett got out of it what he did. Later it became the Hogan chassis which led to the Rahal Miller Beer cardboard standup with added note "Got tickets?' 1993

That's the one I was thinking off.

[Badger]

It was the Truesports chassis that was the devil. I don't recall what veteran driver stepped into and and was amazed that Pruett got out of it what he did. Later it became the Hogan chassis which led to the Rahal Miller Beer cardboard standup with added note "Got tickets?' 1993

Wasn't that driver Rahal and he actually felt the car WAS competitive. He did choose to run it the next year and it didn't work out all that well for him. I thought he initially thought the car was decent, but when he ran it the next season, he found the car was much more difficult to drive when the weather was hot.

[Brickman]

Wasn't that driver Rahal and he actually felt the car WAS competitive. He did choose to run it the next year and it didn't work out all that well for him. I thought he initially thought the car was decent, but when he ran it the next season, he found the car was much more difficult to drive when the weather was hot.

It could have been, 16 years is cobwebs for me. I just remember the driver being amazed by what Scott was able to do in spite of it...

[STD]

The 93 Galmer was a disaster. My memory is that it was like entering a wagon in a car race.

They only built the Galmer indycar for one year. Galles canned the program and went with the Lola T93/00 in 1993. Too expensive to properly develop, too few results to merit carrying on.
The 1992 cars were sold off and showed up for a few races in 1993.

1992 Indy 500 is best summed up by the pole sitter Roberto Guerrero's pre race wreck. It went on to be a cold tire crashfest (restarts were not kind) with more than a few drivers sent to the hospital. Twelve cars finished, four on the lead lap, thirteen crashed out.

Rahal won the 1992 championship with a Lola T92/00 Chevy A

[opinionated ow]

http://www.champcarstats.com/chassis/galmer.htm

[Napoleon]

I don't recall what veteran driver stepped into and and was amazed that Pruett got out of it what he did.

Was Roberto Guerrero in that car after Pruett?

(edit, correction to the above - I was thinking Guerrero was in that car based on remembering a poster in my brothers garage of Guerrero next to a car with Bud on it - he tells me that was Kenny Bernstein's short lived team).

[pchall]

That was the period when Booby R. either changed engine programs or chassis about every year. NOVA (on PBS) did a special on Champcar racing that featured Rahal screwing around with the RH-01 (née Truesport) and then the original iron block Honda. In that program Rahal called the chassis "Sybil" because of its many personalities.


Wasn't that driver Rahal and he actually felt the car WAS competitive. He did choose to run it the next year and it didn't work out all that well for him. I thought he initially thought the car was decent, but when he ran it the next season, he found the car was much more difficult to drive when the weather was hot.

[JohnHKart]

I remember that great quote by Team Rahal about the Truesports "It almost killed our two drivers" (Rahal and Groff).

John

[Brickman]

That was the period when Booby R. either changed engine programs or chassis about every year. NOVA (on PBS) did a special on Champcar racing that featured Rahal screwing around with the RH-01 (née Truesport) and then the original iron block Honda. In that program Rahal called the chassis "Sybil" because of its many personalities.

:thumbup:

That's it! I kept thinking Stephen King's "Christine"... :o

What was amazing was how fast Bobby was in 1992, I still remember him going around Phoenix on rails, and then go the other way in 93. Of course Penske did the same thing looking for the keys to dominate.

Review: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/23/movies/television-review-man-joined-to-machine-at-220-mph.html

Transcripts: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2208fast.html


:nicethread:

[Badger]

Was Roberto Guerrero in that car after Pruett?



When Pruett got hurt, Boesel took over for him at Truesports for the rest of the season. I'm pretty sure, Scott crashed while running a year old Lola which Truesport decided to run while they developed their in house chassis. The year old cars were allowed a larger venturi exit compared to the new cars which were required smaller exits. It didn't matter because even with Truesport mods, the year old car was no match for the latest cars and it really didn't matter after the brake failure left him in the hospital with broken legs/back.

The Truesports problems

[nrc]

Right, and then when Pruett came back the chasis program was in full force. When it wasn't making progress there were always intimations that Pruett had simply lost his nerve after the crash.

[Napoleon]

When Pruett got hurt, Boesel took over for him at Truesports for the rest of the season. . . . . It didn't matter because even with Truesport mods, the year old car was no match for the latest cars and it really didn't matter after the brake failure left him in the hospital with broken legs/back.

The year he was recovering My brother and I had seats at Cleveland right on the row that the announcers would use to go up to the booth (that was when the booth was at the top on the middle stands). Pruett walked up the stairs to that booth for an interview right past my brother and I, and it was one of the most painful things I ever had to watch. He could just barely climb those stairs.

Boesel was who I must have been thinking of up thread.

[eiregosod]

1992 Indy 500 is best summed up by the pole sitter Roberto Guerrero's pre race wreck. It went on to be a cold tire crashfest (restarts were not kind) with more than a few drivers sent to the hospital. Twelve cars finished, four on the lead lap, thirteen crashed out.



I believe Methodist hospital became Andretti-central, with Mario going down to tend to his spawn.

[STD]

Mario wasn't just a visitor.

[pchall]

I remember it was slow enough to survive the cold track temp crashfest that was Indy that year.


I don't remember whatever happened to it, it was only around 2 or 3 years, but it was fast enough to win Indy .... once.

[FCYTravis]

Just watched '92 Long Beach - the other Galmer win.

In the waning laps, Danny Sullivan, in the Molson/Galles team car, ducked under Little Al on the right-hander at the end of Seaside. Unser decided to drive his line anyway, clipped Danny's front wing and spun off, leaving Sullivan to drive on to victory.

[FCYTravis]

1992 Indy 500 is best summed up by the pole sitter Roberto Guerrero's pre race wreck. It went on to be a cold tire crashfest (restarts were not kind) with more than a few drivers sent to the hospital. Twelve cars finished, four on the lead lap, thirteen crashed out.

Unfortunately, the star-crossed nature of the '92 race began well before Guerrero's ignominious exit. Young Filipino driver Jovy Marcelo, the reigning Formula Atlantic champion, was killed in practice, and Nelson Piquet's career was effectively ended in qualifying :(

In direct response to the toll it took on drivers' feet and legs, they stretched the nose close to a foot for the 1993 regulations.

[racermike]

I remember checking out of my hotel in Vancouver BC in 1992 on the monday after the Champcar race. Rick Galles was in the lobby on his "brick" cellphone, bitching to someone about the fact how this chassis "was a giant pile of ****" (his words) to whoever was on the other end of the line.

I think the Buick (RIP) I rented to get up there that weekend probably could have kept up better in the race.

[racermike]

Few photos (those sidepods were SO low)

http://www.seattleautoshow.com/2009/b_303_indycar1.jpg

http://mwphoto.smugmug.com/photos/63370192_uRbJL-M.jpg

http://br.geocities.com/champcarbrasil.2006/CC94SEBpw3099.jpg

[Ziggy]

I'm not going to get into it with everybody here

Galmer built a second generation car which had a wider cockpit and some aero changes. It debuted at the Marlboro Challenge at Nazareth Speedway. I think Little Al wound up in a large pool of water after getting out of shape....

anyhow

This car was sold to Thom Burns Racing an ran with Dominic Dobson on board as the "Coor's Light/Indy Parks." The car also ran at Mid Ohio and actually qualified for the race but Dobson had a transmission failure in morning warm-up and it was scratched (DNS) I was a stooge for this effort.

The car bounced around Indy for a few years and was finally purchased by the Speedway were in was involved in a very bad accident while being unloaded from a car hauler. One of the cables broke and the man un loading the car lost all the fingers on one hand as the errant cable drug his hand through the pulley and guard..... the guy is a friend of mine.