1949 Lesovsky-Offenhauser
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Phoenix, Arizona | January 17-18, 2019
Classic race cars take a special breed of person. They’re high-maintenance cars and you can’t exactly take them to the local cruise-in. And the older they are, the crazier they can be. Before big money moved in, there were a lot of people with a lot of different ideas building cars that ran within inches of each other. They were individuals, not spec cars. And because of that, old race cars are awesome.
This car was built by Lujie Lesovsky’s L.A. Lesovsky Race Car Engineering, an open-wheel race car constructor active from the late-1940s through the early-1960s. It’s a short-wheelbase car powered by a Meyer-Drake Offenhauser inline-four making 300 horsepower.
The racing history for this chassis includes:
- 1948 Indianapolis 500 – DNQ
- 1949 Indianapolis 500 – 3rd, with George Connor
- 1950 Indianapolis 500 – 8th, with George Connor
- 1951 Indianapolis 500 – 30th, with George Connor
- 1952 Indianapolis 500 – DNQ, with Bill Taylor
- 1953 Indianapolis 500 – DNQ, with Bill Taylor
- 1954 Indianapolis 500 – DNQ, with Bob Christie
Well there you have it – three Indy 500 starts with a podium finish. The car was also raced in period by Bill Holland and Len Sutton, the latter of which wrecked the car in a race in 1955. After that, it never raced competitively again. It was preserved and later restored to its “Blue Crown Special” livery.
This Offy-powered Lesovsky is one of very few such cars that survive today. They don’t change hands often, but when they do the prices make you take note. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Update: Sold $201,600.