BRAKE DANCE

IN 1953, THERE WAS NO STOPPING BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM'S C-5R, THE FASTEST CAR AT LE MANS.

“THEY WILL JUST have to be bigger!” he shouted. “But, sir, they can’t be bigger!” the other man replied, panicked. “The wheels are 16 inches, and those are the biggest wheels we have. You can’t fit 17-inch brakes inside 16-inch wheels, sir.”

“Who says brakes have to fit inside the wheels?” I wasn’t alive in 1952, when Briggs Cunning ham and his team developed the C-5R, an open topped road racer, for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but I imagine this is how the conversation went. Cunningham got his 17-inch drum brakes; they are mounted inboard of the Halibrand magnesium wheels. Sure, disc brakes were the more compact, elegant solution. But at that time, only Dunlop made disc brakes, reserving them for Jaguar.

The only thing more American than starting a privateer racing team to take on the big-bad manufacturers (see heroes Shelby, Haas, Glickenhaus) is doing so using dead-reliable, low-tech, proven hardware. Ergo, Cunningham was the most American privateer, the first to stand proudly on the Le Mans podium with his own name on the car.

Cunningham was a racer first and manufacturer second. His motorsport career began, as many do, in other people’s cars. He owned and raced Buicks, Cadillacs, Ferraris, and Healeys, modifying them for racing in creative and innovative ways. He transplanted engines from one car into another, such as his Cadillac V-8–powered Healey. Or he would fit custom coachwork onto production vehicles, like the legendary Cadillac “Le Monstre,” a ghastly and amateurish-looking—but brutally effective—speedster-style body draped over the standard 122-inch-wheelbase chassis of a luxurious 1950 Series 61 Club Coupe.