1939 FAGEOL SUPERSONIC
ÒFageol SuperSonicÓ as it sits today.
Originally designed and built by Joel Thorne and Art
Sparks at Thorne Engineering Racing Shop in Burbank, California in 1938 as a
Land Speed racing car. The
streamlined Thorne Racer was intended to break the Land Speed record against
the Mercedes ÒSilver ArrowÓ and Auto Union Land Speed cars. The project never saw sand or salt.
Lou Fageol bought this unfinished race car and turned
it into the fabulous Fageol Supersonic.
Lou and his brothers Frank and William owned the Twin Coach company
– which specialized in building jet aircraft parts and twin engined
busses.
In its original configuration it was equipped with
twin Miller engines, but those engines and the original chassis are gone -
during conversion the powertrain was changed out in favor of a Twin Coach six
cylinder bus engine.
Note numerous aircraft styling cues.
Originally Super-Streamlined – the car had no
doors. With the push of a button,
the fighter plane style elctro hydraulicly controlled roof slides back and
pop-out step plates fold out of the sides – allowing entry into the 2
seater cockpit. Now the car has
conventional doors.
The car is made of ÒDuraluminumÓ and has ÒTorsalasticÓ
suspension – the front wheels lean into a curve similar to a motorcycle.
Lou Fageol had a fixation with twin-engined
vehicles. At one point he owned a
Porsche dealership and a company that sold Pepco superchargers for VWs and
Porsches. This car has two 356
Porsche engines in it – one in the front and one in the back,
transmitting power through two separate gearboxes.
The car also has two small chainsaw engines powering
two superchargers. Here you can
see how the chainsaw engine driven supercharger is mounted behind the rear 356
engine.
This set up made 144HP with a top speed of 127.5MPH.
In 1946, Lou entered a twin Offenhauser powered ÒTwin
Coach SpecialÓ at the Indianpolis 500 - which managed to qualify in second
place – but crashed early in the race.
The twin 911 engined 1966 Indy car above is also
attributed to Lou Fageol.