All American Racers is an American-licensed

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

team and constructor based in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

. Founded by

Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, engineer and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of motorspo ...

and

Carroll Shelby Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby was involved with the AC Cobra and Ford Mustang, Mustang for Ford Motor Company. With driver Ken Miles, he dev ...

in 1964, All American Racers initially participated in American

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

and

Champ Car Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., a Governing body, sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing T ...

races as well as international

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

events with cars named Eagle. The Formula One team, based in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and using British-built

Weslake Weslake & Co also known as Weslake Research and Development was founded by Harry Weslake, described as England's greatest expert on cylinder head design, with premises in Rye, East Sussex, England. Weslake is most famous for its work with Bentley ...

engines was named Anglo American Racers. Under team manager Bill Dunne they set up shop in

Rye, East Sussex Rye is a town and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district of East Sussex, England, from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the River Rother (Eastern), Rother, the River Tillingham, Tillingham and the River Brede, Brede. An ...

. The team were adjacent to Harry Weslake's engine development plant and half a mile from Elva cars. They participated in 25 Grands Prix, entering a total of 34 cars. The first Eagles were created after AAR entered a Goodyear-backed Lotus 38 in the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and Gurney hired former Lotus designer

Len Terry Leonard E. Terry (11 February 1924 – 25 August 2014) was an English racing car designer and engineer, known for his work with Lotus, BRM and Eagle. He also designed chassis for many other teams, including ERA and Aston Martin and produced ...

to develop their own car for 1966. The resulting Ford-powered Eagle T2G was codeveloped with the Eagle T1G for Formula 1. After exiting Formula One in 1968 and concentrating on Champ Car, Eagle turned to sports car racing in the 1980s, partnering with

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

to develop the Celica and later

sports prototype A sports prototype, sometimes referred to simply as a prototype, is a type of Auto racing, race car that is used in high-level categories of sports car racing. They are purpose-built auto-sports race cars, as opposed to production-car based or s ...

s for the

IMSA GT Championship IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States and occasionally in Canada. History The series was founded in 1969 by John and Peggy Bishop, and Bill ...

. The company built the Ben Bowlby-designed DeltaWing that was run by Highcroft Racing at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Formula 1

In order to run the Formula 1 operations, Gurney established the Anglo American Racers team, based in

, UK, though the cars were built in

, USA by the ''All American Racers'' team. The Eagle T1G car, powered by an obsolete

Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British manufacturer of forklift trucks, fire pumps, racing engines, and other speciality engines. History Pre WWI The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, a joint venture by Jens Stroyer and Pelham Lee. In 1 ...

engine, debuted at the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix and scored its first points with a fifth place three weeks later at the

French Grand Prix The French Grand Prix (), formerly known as the Grand Prix de l'ACF (Automobile Club de France), is an auto race held as part of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One World Championship. It is one of the oldest ...

. For the season

Richie Ginther Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther (5 August 1930 – 20 September 1989) was an American racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Ginther won the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix with Honda. Born in Hollywood, Ginther competed in Formula One f ...

was signed as a second driver. The Climax engine was replaced by a new 3-liter Weslake V12 engine designed by

Aubrey Woods Aubrey Harold Woods (9 April 1928 – 7 May 2013) was an English actor. He is best remembered for playing Bill in ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'', where he sang " The Candy Man". Biography and career Woods was born on 9 April 19 ...

and built in Great Britain by

. At the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix Gurney achieved the first "all-American" victory in a Grand Prix since Jimmy Murphy´s triumph with

Duesenberg Duesenberg Automobile & Motors Company, Inc. was an American race car, racing and luxury car, luxury automobile manufacturer founded in Indianapolis, Indiana, by brothers Fred Duesenberg, Fred and August Duesenberg in 1920. The company is kn ...

at the 1921 French Grand Prix. Excluding the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

, this is the only win for a USA-built car as well as one of only two wins of an American-licensed constructor in Formula One. The Eagle-

was a beautiful and efficient car, one example of which was constructed in

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

and exotic

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

s. More than this, the Eagle was designed to make the tall Gurney fit comfortably at the wheel. Their efforts produced a V12 that was smooth and powerful. At Monza, an insight into the future of engine design was seen for the first time. The engine had four valves per cylinder at a narrow included angle (thirty degrees) that allowed a single cover to enclose both the close-spaced camshafts on each bank. The sixty-degree-vee layout had a larger bore than stroke (72.8 X 60mm). Gurney's program ran out of money in 1968 and by the end of the year he returned to the United States to concentrate his efforts on the more successful Indycar program, in which

Bobby Unser Robert William Unser (February 20, 1934 – May 2, 2021) was an American automobile racer. At his induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994, he had the fourth most IndyCar Series wins at 35 (behind his brother Al Unser, Al, A ...

had won the

and the 1968 Indycar Championship. A non-works version briefly appeared with privateer Al Pease in the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix, but Pease became noticed for all the wrong reasons and made history as the only F1 driver ever disqualified for being too slow.

USAC & CART Champ Car

During the USAC years, the Eagle chassis was very successful in the late 1960s and 1970s. Eagles won 51 Champ Car races, including the 1968 and 1975 Indy 500's won by

and the 1973 race won by Gordon Johncock. During this two-decade period, Bobby Unser, who drove Eagle cars for most of his teams, joined AAR as the sole driver, winning the 1975 Indianapolis 500. Unser also claimed 22 wins and 52 podiums with Eagle cars. After Unser's departure from the team for

Team Penske Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Day ...

, All American Racers started to lose their edge in IndyCar competition. Mike Mosley won a few races for the team before being dismissed at the end of 1982. By 1984, AAR merged with

Mike Curb Michael Curb (born December 24, 1944) is an American politician, record executive, and philanthropist who served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California, lieutenant governor of California from 1979 to 1983. He is the founder of Curb Recor ...

's team to form Curb-All American Racers. After a two-year partnership with Curb, Gurney and Curb parted ways, and this marked the beginning of the end of AAR's time in IndyCar. The All American Racers team was inactive in single-seaters from 1987 to 1995 and returned in 1996 again building their own chassis and using new

engines. However, this new effort, a combination of new and untested equipment, did not prove to be successful, never winning a race and collecting only occasional top-tens. The team ceased active racing after the 1999 CART season. File:Eagle Rislone Special front Honda Collection Hall.jpg,

1968 Indianapolis 500 The 52nd International 500 Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Thursday May 30, 1968. Bobby Unser won the first of his three Indy 500 victories (1968, 1975, 1981). This was the final Indianapolis ...

-winning chassis, driven by

Offenhauser The Offenhauser Racing Engine, or Offy, is a racing engine design that dominated American open wheel racing for more than 50 years and is still popular among vintage sprint and midget car racers. History The Offenhauser engine, familiarl ...

turbo File:JoeLeonardEagle.jpg, The Eagle 68, powered by a turbocharged Ford Indy V8 engine, driven to 6th place in the

1969 Indianapolis 500 The 53rd International 500 Mile Sweepstakes was an auto race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Friday, May 30, 1969. It was the third round of the 1969 USAC Championship Car season. Polesitter A. J. Foyt led the rac ...

Joe Leonard Joseph Paul Leonard (August 4, 1932 – April 27, 2017) was an American professional motorcycle racer and racecar driver. Biography Motorcycle career Leonard won the first A.M.A. Grand National Championship Series in 1954 and won it again in 19 ...

File:1972 Mark Donohue Indycar Gurney Eagle.jpg, 1972 Gurney-Eagle Indycar chassis driven by

Mark Donohue Mark Neary Donohue Jr. (March 18, 1937 – August 19, 1975), nicknamed "Captain Nice," was an American race car driver and engineer known for his ability to set up his own race car as well as driving it to victory. Donohue is probably best kno ...

File:Robby Gordon 1998 Gurney Eagle.jpg, The Eagle 997 was the final CART car designed by AAR.

CART/USAC drivers

* Alex Barron (1998–1999) * Raul Boesel (1999) * Geoff Brabham (1981) * Mike Chandler (1982, 1984) * Kevin Cogan (1984–1985) *

Juan Manuel Fangio II Juan Manuel Fangio II (born September 19, 1956 in Balcarce, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine former auto racing driver. He is the nephew of five-time Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio. After some experience in European Formula Thr ...

(1996–1997) * Pete Halsmer (1984) * P. J. Jones (1996–1998) * Jan Lammers (1986) *

(1972–1978, USAC) *

Andrea Montermini Andrea Montermini (born 30 May 1964) is an Italian racing driver. He drove in Formula One from 1994 to 1996. Career Montermini raced in Formula 3 in 1989, taking second place in the List of Monaco Grand Prix Formula Three support race winners, Mo ...

(1999) * Rocky Moran (1981) * Mike Mosley (1979–1981) * Ed Pimm (1984–1985) * Gualter Salles (1999) * Tom Sneva (1985) * Vincenzo Sospiri (1998)

Eagle 987

The Eagle 987 was the second to last chassis built by All American Racers. The car was raced only by Eagle, and was driven by Vincenzo Sospiri and Alex Barron. The car was entirely unsuccessful, and would be replaced by the Eagle 997 for the 1999 CART Championship.

IMSA GT

Gurney's team was contracted by

in 1983 to enter the

with specially-modified

Toyota Celica The is an automobile produced by Toyota from 1970 until 2006. The Celica name derives from the Latin word ''wikt:coelicus, coelica'' meaning ''heavenly'' or ''celestial''. In Japan, the Celica was exclusive to ''Toyota Corolla Store'' Car deale ...

s. In 1988, the team moved up to the GTP category with two chassis – a modified Toyota 88C

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

car and a team-designed Eagle HF89 purpose-built for IMSA competition. AAR experienced its greatest success in GTP competition with the Eagle MkIII, introduced in 1991. Powered by a

turbocharged In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into the ...

2.1-liter Toyota inline-4 developing up to 800 horsepower and generating 10,000 pounds of downforce at 200 mph, the MkIII won 21 of the 27 races in which it was entered – a record so dominant that it has been blamed for the collapse of the GTP series.Toyota Eagle MkIII
, Mulsanne's CornerEagle MkIII GTP
, quoted from RACER magazine

Trans-Am

AAR created a special

Trans-Am Series The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of ...

version of the

Plymouth Barracuda The Plymouth Barracuda is a two-door pony car that was manufactured by Chrysler Corporation from 1964 through 1974 model years. The first-generation Barracuda was based on the Chrysler A platform, Chrysler A-body and was offered from 1964 unti ...

, running in the 1970 season with drivers Dan Gurney and Swede Savage. A

homologation Homologation (Greek language, Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would n ...

special production edition was offered in 1970.

Racing results

Complete Formula One World Championship results

Anglo American Racers

( key)

Non-works entries

( key)

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results

( key)

Complete CART PPG Indy Car World Series results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Notes

References

External links

Official Website
{{American open-wheel car racing champions Formula One entrants Champ Car teams Sports car racing teams 1964 establishments in California 1999 disestablishments in California American auto racing teams American racecar constructors Companies based in Santa Ana, California Auto racing teams established in 1964 Auto racing teams disestablished in 1999 Atlantic Championship teams