The small Pratt & Whitney turbine power plant might have otherwise found itself in a helicopter or a corporate jet. Instead it sat side by side with driver Parnelli Jones. It produced more than 550 horsepower delivered through an innovative all-wheel-drive system. “People forget how well it handled,” Jones says now, but what people talked about and fought over was the smooth, linear power it made. Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson remembers standing on the veranda of the old Pagoda (the multitiered front-stretch scoring stand) watching the first lap. “Jones was so far in front,” Davidson recalls, “just a huge lead, and the car was painted Day-Glo red or fluorescent orange or whatever you want to call it. That paint! It actually hurt the eyeballs to look at it. As Parnelli came by, you heard the whoosh and he lifted his right hand off the steering wheel and did a finger and thumb OK sign. Just a finger and thumb up in the air, probably to say ‘Hey it’s beautiful.’”
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