1934 Indianapolis 500 Race

[@MichaelHeil-ei4ss]

Loved how the commentator kept the action rolling talking about anything and everything: the bricks, the tires, the gas allowance, etc.

[@billr8667]

Freaking bricks caused many drivers to see double for days! Back then, the fans had to have almost as much endurance as the drivers and crews. At 100 mph average, watching the race for five hours or more had to be tough. Also, the race now ends with the laps when the winner crosses the fuinish line. Back then, the race conrinued, but I'm not sure for how long. My Dad grew up on a farm about six miles north of the speedway. He once told me that he could hear the cars from his house at the start of the race. There wasn't much except farms on the northwest corner of Indy back then.

[@KingRoseArchives]

I suspect the cameras were hand cranked (not battery operated and regulated) so the speed would have been less than 24 fps. When it's played back at that normal film speed everything appears to going faster. This could have been intentionally done in order to create that sensation of speed or an accident. Not sure. I didn't modify the film. That's how it was put together. Thanks for your question.

[@cjs83172]

Walt Disney actually explained the reasoning behind the seemingly faster speeds at which the picture seems to be going in the 1964 Disneyland series episode "Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair". He noted in that episode that when you cranked those manually operated cameras too slow, that you'd get the picture sped up, and if you cranked those cameras too fast, you'd get slow motion. So it was not intentionally done to create the sensation of speed. The cameras were simply cranked a bit too slow, hence the faster speed at which the action seems to be going.

[@jipsstanley]

Amazing. They had a onboard camera at that time.

[@RuiCunha68]

jips stanley the camara should be huge and heavy.. so shaky! lol

[@seth_5394]

Jips - I’m not trying to insult, really I’m not, but, are you serious? It wasn’t live footage in the car.

[@franklarizza6510]

It was not only progress for the race cars but also for the filmmakers also

[@drex23100]

By 1934, the Indy 500 was already a legend.

[@slortchannel]

Great stuff. Thanks. At 50 sec the pace car looks like it almost loses it. Fast forward to 1971...

[@davidrudolph2825]

Great Firestone advertisement! I think "Wild Bill" Cummings won the race, but you wouldn't know it from THIS video!

[@MrChristopherHaas]

This is just AWESOME. THANK YOU! Aaaaah they are UNDERWAY! Slooowly and deliberately...

[@notapplicable531]

A Firestone tire commercial! Did he even say who won the race? If he did, it got lost somewhere!

[@infiniteuniverse123]

It is just staggering how dangerous those cars were

[@naughtmoses]

First ever 500 win for the Miller-Goosen "marine" four-banger that would be called the "Offy" from 1935 onward. Had old Harry been better at managing his money, his employee Fred would never have bought the company on the cheap, and we'd still be talking about the half-century =Miller= dominance of American champ car racing that began in 1922 with Jimmy Murphy and ended in 1976 with Johnny Rutherford.

[@KingRoseArchives]

Thanks for the analysis and filling in the history.

[@susanboylefanable]

When I was in the service in 1982, I got into it with a fellow know-ir-all who was telling folks they ran Porsche engines.....

[@stilichobias]

@@susanboylefanable Porches have run at Indy, but much later than 1934.

[@timford3599]

Great post of this historic chapter of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." I just found this video and it's really neat to see this look back in time. My, how things have changed but it's still a case (as I have always referred to it since my first Indianapolis 500 in 1958) of "Life and Death in one day."

[@susanboylefanable]

150 on the straights, 100 in the turns, thin tires, open cockpits, no roll cages, on BRICKS, & they "just did it!!!" Anyone still wonder why Tom Brokaw called them "The Greatest Generation?!"

[@seth_5394]

jeff pace - Yes, yes I am.

[@kevincanter2575]

Real MEN!!✌🌎

[@tabstabs1204]

ther is no greatest generation...look at the Dakar Rally, at the TT on the Isle of Man, almots every year some get killed at those races, not counting aerobatics airplanes, extreme skying, jackass jumping without parachute...They have the same passion and crazyness through generations...

[@noviranger88]

Now they do 220-230 basically the whole track. Shows you the effect of downforce.

[@gregorygolden1296]

And in less than 10 years, they went and fought in WWII. The track sat silent for like 4 years, and after the War they went at it again. Definitely the "Greatest Generation." GOD BLESS them all who fought.

[@extramile150]

thanks for these posts!

[@onoyoudont]

Sounds like Dr Emmett Brown commentating “Great Scott Marty! These cars are generating 1.21 Gigawatts of power!”

[@hehateme71]

Amazing his talk about progress, translating into better efficiency. Obviously it was inevitable, but still cool.

[@psalmtone2008]

15 gallon gas tank? Three stops??!!

[@mindeloman]

Barbed wire at a racetrak?!?!??! This was a long time ago.

[@harponercam]

Gee wiz Dad. I want a FIRESTONE bicycle!

[@brkyrd86]

Was the footage of the cars in fast forward when you got it? Seems cheezy. I want to see them actually go around 100 mph. It would make it accurate, awesome, amazing, and would take me back to the 1930's when they thought that was fast, which was back then, if you go to the museum and look at those cars, I guarantee you that you would not want to go 100 mph in that thing on the surface of paved bricks. Just wondering why the footage of the cars on track is speed up so fast. Thanks!

[@1GuyGaming]

A lot of old footage is sped up, and I agree it is dumb.

[@tubedude54]

What yr did they stop 2 person cars?

[@pro-seriesfabrication3810]

They stopped the first time in 1923, then when riding mechanics were resumed in 1930 it ended the second time in 1938.

[@davidschaadt3460]

1937 was the last of the two man cars.

[@43north70]

Look at the cement wall on the inside of turn 1.

[@BrentTnerb2217]

I noticed that. Unprotected wall just waiting to cut a car in half.

[@norbertneighbors3023]

I love old boat tailed Speedsters

[@LaNone952]

actually everyone in this video is now dead...

[@kevincanter2575]

Ha!!😀

[@tabstabs1204]

Maybe some 10 year old kids as spectators , not even 100 years as now !!

[@LaNone952]

@@tabstabs1204 fax

[@joejohnston2035]

My 7 year old mother walking the RR tracks with her older brother collecting coal .