Race Cars, Pace Cars, Street Cars, Show Cars
By Karl Schnelle, with input from Dale Dannefer
Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.
Part 1 discussed Dale’s VLC revival race cars and his KD street cars, pace cars and show cars. In this second and final part, we will talk about the WKD Chryslers.
WKD Race Cars and Street Cars
Working with Mike Stephens at Western Models, Dale also commissioned several exclusive models of early 1950s Chrysler cars, including the 1951 Indianapolis Pace Car and at least five (5) different race cars competing in the 1951 Carrera PanAmericana. These race cars included the two cars entered by Carl Kiekhafer’s (owner of Mercury Outboards, later of NASCAR fame) team, with lead drivers of John Fitch (car #32) and Tony Bettenhausen (car #7). Dale discussed this car with John Fitch (see photo) and was provided a color slide of the original Bettenhausen #7 race car by Charles Strang. These cars were black or dark blue over red.
Charles Strang, an engineer for Kiekhafer who had prepped the cars for the race in 1951, told Dale that they made sure to make them the same color in case they needed to switch doors and car numbers during the race. In addition to his engineering work, Strang was also a journalist who wrote about the race in Speed Age which features a photo (incorrectly tinted) of Fitch’s car on the cover. John Fitch could not remember the color of the #32 car and so Dale was put in touch with Strang.
Many people are not aware of the dominance of the new Chrysler hemi-powered cars in the 1951 Carrera PanAmericana. On the first day, John Fitch’3 #32 led the entire field (including the light and nimble yet very powerful entries of Ferrari, Lancia, etc.) until an oil line break ruined the engine. Teammate Bettenhausen, in car #7, fell back in the field due to brake issues, but on the final day, he ran the fastest time of any entrant on the last leg of the race.
Very importantly for the record books, a new Chrysler Saratoga taken directly from dealer stock (car #16) was the top finisher in the big US stock car class, and finished 3rd overall, behind the Ferrari 212s of Ascari and Taruffi. Unlike the Kiekhafer, Cunningham and other entries, this race car was a 4-door sedan rather than the club coupe body style. Entered by the A.B. Poe Chrysler dealership in El Paso, Texas, this car’s performance was quite remarkable as it was driven by an untrained driver, a local furniture salesman named Bill Sterling. The car was finished in Gull Grey over Foam Green, with color information and other details provided by Dick Poe (son of A.B. Poe and who continued to run the dealership until a few years ago), who remembered the car from his college days and signed certificate cards that accompanied these models.
Dale modeled the #32, 7, and 16 cars as well as car #39 driven by Phil Walters and Briggs Cunningham, and car #31 driven by Jacqueline Evans, believed to be the only woman entered in the race. Cunningham expert Larry Berman provided a photo of the Cunningham-entered car (white with blue stripes of course) and a photo of the Evans car, finished in Continental Green Poly (dark) over Foam green, was provided by Charles Strang.
Below are photos of two of the Western 1951 Chrysler Saratoga Club Coupe PanAm race cars. About 30 or 40 of each of these were done.
As you can see John Fitch very generously signed about 25 cars of the 40 or so that were made. The #39 car driven by Cunningham/Walters were actually done later, after Western closed, by noted model craftsman Graham Price, who mastered a lot of the MiniMarque cars.
The late Martin Swig, a major San Francisco auto dealer, created a replica of Fitch’s #32 Saratoga for vintage racing. He and Dale met serendipitously, when he passed Dale in a vintage race car he was testing, which was his Fitch-replica 1951 Saratoga coupe, as they were approaching the Oakland Bay Bridge in California. Dale chased him down leading to a longtime friendship, and a collaboration with a small number of variations being built of Swig’s replica racer, which was Continental Green over Foam Green.
Here is a photo of John Fitch and Dale (taken at an event at Watkins Glen) looking at the magazine article in question (photo credit: Joe Constantino). Fitch is also sitting in the hemi-powered Cunningham that he raced at Watkins Glen and the guy in the background whose head is just above the headrest is Bill Milliken. This was in about 2004-5.
Here are all, or almost all, of the numerology and colors of the street WKD Chryslers:
WKD1 51 Chrysler New Yorker convt, Belvedere Ivory, interior green/grey.
WKD 1-A Same. Indy Pace Car, White with dark red interior.
WKD 2 51 Chrysler New Yorker Club Coupe, Ecuador Blue, Tobacco Brown over Arizona Beige.
WKD 3 52 Chrysler New Yorker Newport (2-dr. HT), Gull Grey over Superior Blue with maroon/grey interior, Ivy Green over Florida Green with green/grey interior.
WKD 4 52 Windsor Club Coupe, Monitor Grey over Gull Grey (and reversed), Banner Red (maroon) with grey interiors.
WKD 5 52 Windsor DeLuxe Club Coupe, same colors, but with Highlander plaid interior and whitewalls, also “Deluxe” side script (decal).
The following are Carrera PanAmericana Race cars:
WKD 6A 51 Saratoga Club Coupe driven by John Fitch, car #32, black over red with Halibrand mag wheels. About 25 of these were signed by Fitch. (A small number of these #32 Fitch cars were done in Continental Green Poly over Foam Green before the correct colors were discovered).
WKD 6B 51 Saratoga Club Coupe driven by Tony Bettenhausen, regular road wheels instead of Halibrands.
WKD 6C 51 Saratoga Club Coupe, street version, Foam Green. <12 of these were done, representing Swig’s replica racer as it was when he purchased it.
WKD 6D Swig vintage racing replica of Fitch’s #32 car, only perhaps 6 of these were made. This is the car as Swig bought it before he turned it into a replica of Fitch’s PanAm car. It was featured in the Chrysler Museum’s short-lived Forward magazine. Continental Green Poly over Foam Green, vintage racer raced by the late Martin Swig of San Francisco.
WKD 6E 51 Saratoga Club Coupe, Carrera PanAmericana racer #31 driven by Jacqueline Evans. Continental Green Poly over Foam Green #31, the only female entry in 1951.
No number, but would be 6F we suppose, 51 Saratoga Club Coupe white with blue stripes, #39, driven by Briggs Cunningham and Phil Walters in Carrera PanAmericana. These were produced after Western closed, by Graham Price’s enterprise in Southern England. Graham had made many of the Duesenberg and Auburn masters for MiniMarque.
WKD7 51 Windsor 4-door sedan, Buckskin Tan, Continental Green over Foam Green, or Buckskin Tan / Arizona Beige.
WKD8 51 Saratoga Sedan, Gull Grey over Foam Green (street version).
WKD8A 51 Saratoga Sedan, Gull Grey over Foam Green, Carrera PanAmericana #16 and 3rd place overall finisher, as noted above. Dick Poe, who took over the dealership from his dad and gave Dale information on the car, signed some signature cards that went with these models.
WKD9 52 Saratoga Sedan, Huron Blue,
WKD9A 52 Saratoga Sedan, Huron Blue, Mille Miglia winner driven by Paul Frère and signed on the roof by him, only about 12 of these were done.
Here are two shots from the rear to show the difference between 1951 and 1952 models — the tail lights are the only styling difference. The #407 car is the car driven by Paul Frère in the Mille Miglia in 1952.
Several models from all three series were shown in a small poster from the turn of the century.
This may be too much information, but we wanted to document these 1:43 cars all in one place. If any readers have any of these rare models, please share your photos with us!
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