Four Small Wheels 05/2001

technique 1

The Unfair Advantage Building Roger Penske's 1962 Zerex Special
by Wayne E. Moyer Mark Donohue certainly talked about the "unfair advantage", that legal technical "edge" that makes you faster than your competition, but Roger Penske had developed the concept to a fine art before Mark ever joined the Penske program. Long before the towering fuel rigs, air jacks, pneumatically operated brake piston retractors, and acid-dipped Camaro bodies, there was the Zerex Special! American race fans know that Roger Penske is one of the most successful race team owners ever to tackle Indianapolis and American open-wheel racing, as well as being a race track owner, founding member of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and multimillionaire businessman, but too few recall that he was also a very successful driver before giving up the cockpit for owner/manager duties. By 1962 Penske was on his way to a second SCCA National Championship and was looking to move into the ranks of professional racers. Back then, that meant Formula One if you were a road racer with no experience on the short dirt tracks of American oval-track racing. He'd already finished 8th in the 1961 United States Grand Prix in a "rent-a-ride" Cooper (no mean feat in those days) and realized that there was no way to be competitive in "last year's racer" in F.1. When Penske tried to order a new Cooper for the '62 season, he quickly learned that while renting a ride in a factory leftover was one thing, buying a car equal to that of the factory team drivers was something else. He did learn that Briggs Cunningham had one of the factory Coopers that had been wrecked at Watkins Glen in 1961, but by that time he had enough experience to realize that the only thing in F.1 that could be worse than last year's racer was last year's racer that had been wrecked so badly the team didn't even want it for parts! Then the SCCA announced the creation of a new "professional" sports car series, the United States Road Racing Championship. Being FIA sanctioned, it would be open to drivers with USAC, NASCAR, and other "professional" licenses.	Penske, who already had a USAC license, sat down to read the rules and found that a "sports car" was required to have a body that covered all four tyres and two seats. Virtually nothing else was specified. He then called the head of the USAC technical committee and explained what he had in mind; assured that his concept met the rules (at least the letter of them) he proceeded to buy Cunningham's wrecked Cooper and set to work. He missed the first four races of the 1962 USRRC, but showed up at Riverside for the prestigious "L.A. Times Grand Prix" with his "Zerex Special" sports car. There were a few complaints about his commercial sponsorship, but there were universal screams of displeasure at the car's configuration. While all other competitors had two equal-sized seats and full-width windshields, the Zerex Special appeared to have only a single seat, right on the centerline, and a small windscreen only for the driver. Its low, sleek body did cover all four tyres, but I'd bet that the few additional pounds of weight was more than offset by the reduction in drag achieved by covering the tyres. In response to his competitor's complaints, Roger removed a small panel on the left side, exposing a minuscule second seat, and pointed out that the rules didn't specify the size of said seat. There's a great photo of him perched on the seat with his knees up around his nose. He also pointed out that the driver's seat wasn't on the centerline but was offset a whole half-inch to one side. With USAC approval already in hand, the tech inspectors had no choice but to pass what was in reality a "cleaned up" Cooper Formula One. In true Hollywood fashion, Penske and his "barely disguised F.1 Cooper" won the Riverside race. He retired from the Northwest G. P. a couple of weeks later, but beat Dan Gurney to take the second big West Coast race, the Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, and then followed that with a win in the Puerto Rican G. P. While three wins weren't enough to win him the 1962 USRRC title, he did become the last-ever USAC Sports Car Division Champion in 1962. He probably also got a lot of satisfaction in seeing the SCCA re-write the description of "sports car" for the 1963 USRRC season.

Although the Zerex Special established Roger Penske as a major force in American "professional" racing, a position he still holds 39 years later, there was never a model available until Marsh Models brought out this beautiful multi-medium kit (MM074) of the car as it first appeared at Riverside. I've given you a lot of background on the car (and its creator) because there really isn't much to say about the kit. It's as close to a "shake the box" kit as I've ever seen and would make a great "first model" for anyone contemplating building their first 1/43 scale model.
The one-piece resin body is absolutely superb. The tiny mould lines on the bottom were nearly invisible and there was no flash at all, just a couple of small "ragged edges" inside the wheel arch openings. It took literally only a couple of minutes to get the body ready for priming.
There are 23 white-metal castings, all equally well done, six machined aluminum pieces, and 34 photo-etched parts, of which 24 are "3-D etched" Dzus fasteners that are literally smaller than a pinhead! There are, of course, small mould lines on the white-metal parts, especially the small round tubes, but they were easily removed with X-Acto files. My kit's "upper chassis tubing" (Part 12) has some flash, but removing that was simple, too. The instructions include a detailed "exploded view", parts list with complete painting information, a real paint chip, and several photos of the finished model, including one of the interior.
The first primer coat showed a flawless body - not even a single "pinhole" or other surface blemish! The paint specified isn't available over here (USA), of course, but a little checking showed me that MCW Automotive Finish (a.k.a. Model Car World) 2086 red was a perfect match. Since the entire body is red and the chassis is flat black, painting was easy, too. In between coats of red paint, I built up the interior on the baseplate as shown. The bare aluminum floor is a photo-etched piece, and that photo shows clearly how to cut and fit the lower chassis tubes. Don't add seat belts; "real racers" didn't use them in '62. I had no problems at all -not a single "tweak" was needed as the parts simply fell into place.

There are very few decals, they're thin, flexible, opaque, and easy to work, and best of all, the white discs are white! Penske's cars have always been immaculately prepared, but paint was a lot different back then than it is now. I'd buffed out the body before applying the decals and they fit so well that I didn't see any need for a clear top coat. The result looks "just right" to me.Take your time trimming the windscreen, checking as you go, and it will fit perfectly from inside the body. I polished the two scoops first with steel wool and then with Simichrome polish. The location of each Dzus fastener is clearly indicated by a small dimple in the body. After carefully cutting them free from the tree (a few extra ones would have been nice, John), I glued them to the body by dipping the end of a round toothpick into a "puddle" of thick super glue and placing just a dot of glue in a "dimple". A Dzus fastener was then picked up with the other end of the toothpick (just push hard and it will stick to the dry wood) and placed on the body. It took less than 10 minutes to glue all 24 in place - and yes, the instructions show where they go if you haven't figured out the reason for the "dimples".

I found lots of photos of the Zerex Special: some of the best are on "Pro Sports Car Racing in America, 1958-1974", and the model matches them from every angle. The wheelbase checks out to exactly 1/43 of that of a '61 Cooper F.1, but the track is a bit wider. I suspect that Roger, realizing that "Wider is Better" long before Pontiac, may have made some modifications there. I don't see how it's possible to make a kit any easier to build and still call it a kit; I didn't keep track but I know that it took me well under 10 hours for this one. But with its accurate wheels, detailed body, Dzus fasteners, and both upper and lower chassis tubes, there's enough detail to make this a very realistic model, too. It is, of course, available from GPM and this is one that belongs in any collection of American race cars, oval-track or road-racing.

First "Old Yeller", and now the "Zerex Special". We already have Scarabs, Lister-Chevys and Chaparrals: I can't wait to see what Marsh Models will give us next! As a hint, we could really use a good King Cobra, both the early Billy McDonald version and Parnelli's later mount, and Pete Lovely's "Pooper", the rear-engine Scarab sports car, and the "Nickey Chevrolet" along with other Cooper-Chevys are still absent from my collection.