1981 AAR Eagle Pepsi Challenger IndyCar Highlights

Take a tour of the 1981 CART IndyCar Series season with the convention-defying All American Racers Eagle-the stock block V8-powered “Pepsi Challenger” where driver Mike Mosley starts in the middle of the front row at the Indy 500. Then move to the Michigan 500 where Mosley stars and Bruce Jenner interviews team owner Dan Gurney, and look for the sweeping yellow tail of Mosley’s No. 48 as an early in-car camera system--weighing 10.5 pounds and mounted four inches off the ground in the nose-is utilized. Despite the age of the VHS tape and its inevitable decay, the footage is stunning.
The highlight reel jumps to Riverside where Geoff Brabham starts from pole on the winding SoCal road course, and closes with the car’s finest day as Mosley, who was unable to qualify at Milwaukee due to an engine problem, storms from 25th and last to win the Rex Mays 150.
As a byproduct of its radical aerodynamics, the Pepsi Challenger continues to stand as one of the great open-wheel achievements in the last four decades. It's also the car, among the dozens of unique designs to emerge from AAR, that Gurney rates as his favorite.

[@kevinhuber8723]

RIP Mike, Wayne and Dan. What a day!

[@wfvesely]

There was not a lot of race coverage back in those days so to get a glimpse of such a beautiful car was a real treat. What a beautiful design and of course it was lightning fast. One of my favorite people in racing was the late great Dan Gurney.

[@therrydicule]

I miss having different cars in indycar...

[@beyond_the_infinite2098]

Mosley demonstrated how good he and the Eagle were. Great driver, great car, great race.

[@metrichotrods1763]

Dan Gurney had the midas touch.

[@johnnylongfeather3086]

6:44 listen to that stock block engine

[@hoopsheavenpa]

That was one gorgeous race car!

[@archibaldchimpin]

What a fantastic race car that was.

[@hazy33]

What an absolutely fantastic aero design. The rest seem to be using ground effects which gives the Eagle a huge advantage in top speed.

[@scullystie4389]

Shame what happened to the Riverside circuit. Great clips, thanks for sharing.

[@richardfowler3254]

I have a picture of my daughter in this very car when she was four years old (many years ago). A very good friend was doing some body work on this car for Dan and we just happened to stop by his shop when it was there...

[@seanmcbain7097]

Loved your video. Thank you for posting 😎👌

[@sharifshuvon5580]

Wonderful

[@mountcomfort740]

How IMS has changed through the years. The pit lane road, rubble strips, the stands are different

[@AdnanVision]

nice video

[@stillhunter2]

Was Danny Ongais,s Batmobile car {the one he wrecked horribly }#25 at 1981 Indy based on the same concept or was it totally different ? They look similar.

[@brianblessing8369]

the sound of that car is hard to foget i miss the sound of that car

[@Mopar21277]

What were the engine rules, what was everyone running etc?

[@fueldragster]

You had three options back then: 161 cubic inch turbo overhead cam purpose built racing engines, 209 cubic inch turbo pushrod “stock block” engines and 355 cubic inch (I think) naturally aspirated engines, which is what this car ran

[@neilalbaugh4793]

@@fueldragster The AAR Eagle was listed as a "Chevrolet" but it was actually an aluminum block Donovan, a racing copy of a SBC.

[@pablohabibefigueiredo7142]

Is it a "Williams" beside him at the road course?

[@justingurney8692]

yup

[@pablohabibefigueiredo7142]

About the engine... Is it a F5000 engine? Atmo?

[@alainbelanger6788]

Than the rules book was 1 inches thick now probably a foot thick so less rules good spectacle now everyone has the same it becomes boring can not pass

[@orangelion03]

Then they changed the rules...

[@repetitivemotion]

What a cool design. These were great days for Indy Car racing with the variety in chassis and engine design. Now, it’s boring. All the cars are identical and there are only 2 engines. All the cars sound the same too, boring. Indy car has been boring for years now.