Race Cars – RDZ Photography

Scottsdale, Arizona – January 2023 – Penske Racing Musuem

Roger Penske is a long time auto racing team owner, with his cars racing, primarily in Indy Car and Nascar. He is also the owner of numerous business, including many car dealerships.

In the middle of an auto mall of luxury cars such as Lamborghini and Ferrari there is a Penske Racing Museum, with a few of his more famous race cars.

In 1969 Penske had his first entry in the Indy 500 – this Lola. It was driven by Mark Donohue, who qualified 4th but finished 7th.

Penske Racing and Donohue won Indy in 1927 with this McLaren M16B Offenhauser.

The 1984 Indy 500 winner, with a March chassis and a Cosworth engine (as nearly every entry that year were). It was driven by Rick Mears.

This 2018 car was another Indy 500 winner, driven by Will Power. It was Penske’s 17th win at Indy as an owner. The car was powered by a Chevrolet V6 engine.

More Indy cars from over the years.

2018 Indy 500 Corvette Pace Car

Tom Sneva Penske PC-5 1977 Indy 500 car. He is famous for being the first driver to qualify with a lap over 200 MPH. While he did well in the race he ended up finishing second to A.J. Foyt.

Danny Sullivan’s 1985 Indy 500 winner, another March chassis with a Cosworth engine. This race is famous for Danny doing a 360 degree spin while fighting for first place, and not crashing, later to retake 1st place for the win.

The final car is the 1972 Pontiac 442 that was the pace car for the Indy 500. The Penske Racing Museum in Phoenix is worth the visit if you are in the area. While it isn’t very large, the cars are unique, and the cost is great – it is free.

Vance, Alabama – May 2019 – Benz in ‘Bama

History, Transportation

As you are driving down the interstate in rural Alabama one of the most unlikely road names you expect to see is Mercedes Drive!

That is until you exit and find car carriers leaving with new Mercedes Benz SUVs.

Over the last 25 years most non domestic car makers have built factories in the U.S., and Mercedes is no different. Their facility here is first class – an almost 4 million square feet manufacturing plant…

A state of the art training facility…

And a beautiful visitor center.

Normally you can go to the visitor center and take tours of the factory but they are retooling and the tours are shut down.

The visitor center however remains open with their museum to tour.

It features some recent models from AMG.

Lewis Hamilton’s Petronas F1 car.

The display included a concept car.

The museum portion have some very early examples of Mercedes.

The classic 1970s MB look.

The pre war years were very stylish.

It was disappointing that the factory tours are unavailable, but the small museum was worth the stop.

Leeds, Alabama – May 2019 – Barber Motorsport Museum

Architecture, Art, History, Sports, Transportation

The Barber Motorsports Museum is located in suburban Birmingham in the town of Leeds. It is hands down one of the very best Motorsports museums in the world.

With over 1600 motorcycles from over 200 manufacturers it is the preeminent collection. Over 900 are displayed in the 200,000+ square foot museum, along with 100 cars. Oh yeah, a world class road course race track is on the grounds as well that Porsche uses for their racing school.

Please note with that many options for photos this posting is quite long, with over 40 photos. But words don’t do the venue justice so the photos will speak for themselves.

Columbus – December 2018 – Ohio’s Attic

Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Uncategorized

The Ohio History Center in Columbus is sort of Ohio’s attic, if an attic is a brutalist style concrete building with a number of galleries with extremely diverse displays.

Still, a good way to spend a few hours on a cold, rainy Saturday.

First up – African American Art

A long time Columbus TV legend, Flippo (or more appropriately Flippo’s outfit)

A small engine.

Silver Bracelet from the 1800s.

Ohio has always been known for it’s many glass makers.

Coverlets

A display on World War I had a gas mask. Interestingly the precursor to the gas mask was invented by Garrett Morgan in Cleveland. An African American, Garrett had a long and distinguished life as an inventor.

An exhibit on Ohio artists. This display honors Paul Henri Bourguignon, a Belgian born artist who settled in Columbus in 1950 after his wife joined the faculty of Ohio State University.