A plucky (unlucky) Brit at the Brickyard

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Recycling prewar cars and turning them into specials was nothing unusual in the 1940s. The lack of new sports cars and general economic state of Europe in the post-war era meant people had to make do with whatever they could lay their hands on. What is unusual, however, is taking one of these cars across the Atlantic and entering it into one of the most grueling circuit races of the time, the Indianapolis 500. That's exactly what enterprising garagiste Robert Arbuthnot did in 1946, with a hastily rebodied V-12 Lagonda, one of the factory Le Mans cars that had been partially destroyed by a bomb blast during the war. So, how did this amateur driver in his make-do-and-mend car fare at the Brickyard? Well, you've most likely never heard of Arbuthnot, so you can probably guess how the story ends, but it makes fascinating reading anyway. David Venables describes the whole affair in the latest issue of The Automobile, which is out now.

(Photographs by IMS Photo) 

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