1930 Indianapolis 500 Rules

YOUNG America is interested in the 500-mile race at Indianapolis, next Memorial Day. Interested, because in a measure the bars have been let down. This year it will not be necessary to spend the large sum for a mount which regulations since the War have required. The youth can take the roadster his father gave him or buy a new one and, without a large investment, have a car for the world’s greatest race. This news has started a flood of correspondence toward T. E. (“Pop”) Myers, vice-president and general manager of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.Â

Some inquiries about the 18th annual race come from the boys who have been racing on the “big time” but they only seek entry blanks to learn the conditions. The great majority of the letters show a lack of understanding of racing but a wealth of enthusiasm and the hope that each can enter his car and win the capital prize.

For the first time in the two decades that the track has functioned, the piston displacement has been increased instead of decreased, and that is the reason why the youths of the country are interested in building cars and obtaining information about the greatest of all automobile speed contests.

The 500-mile race was first run in 1911 on a basis of a maximum of 600 cubic inches piston displacement for the engines. Since that first race the size of the engines has been reduced five times until for the last four years the cars racing have had engines half the size of the Ford powerplant. This did not cheapen the cost of a racing car but increased it to where a youth smitten with the “lure of speed” had to spend from $10,000 to $15,000 for a car, without any of the necessary equipment and any thought of the cost of race time expenses. Last fall the Indianapolis Motor Speedway asked the National Technical Committee of the A.A.A. Contest Board to pass upon their suggestions for a change in specifications for 1930, and to make recommendations. The Speedway, without consulting the engineers, had five times previously fixed its own specifications for the race, which annually carries an aggregate purse of $100,000. The result of this conference was the present specifications for the next five century event.

The engineers suggested that the piston displacement be placed in the range of the engines produced by the factories and used by the motoring public and selected 366 cubic inches maximum, in European terms six litres or 6,000 cubic centimeters. There are only four stock car engines which exceed this classification.

AN erroneous impression has traveled all over the country that the race has been placed on a stock car basis. This is not the case. There is nothing in the rules which prevents the entering of a stock car, although the A.A.A. Contest Board rules would prevent the advertising that such a racer was a stock car, when it competed with specially built racers. No stock examination will be made of any of the cars and except for the specific limitations on parts and accessories, weights, etc., the race driver can take a stock chassis and do anything to it that his genius permits to get speed. However, the car must be manageable and a safe vehicle in the judgment of the technical committee in charge of the race.

Briefly, the 1930 rules provide, in addition to the engine size requirement, that super-chargers cannot be used on four-cycle engines and that not more than two carburetors can be employed. A dual carburetor, even with a single float chamber, is considered two carburetors. Poppet valve engines can have only two valves per cylinder, but two-cycle, sleeve valves, rotary, etc., are not limited. On two-cycle engines a positive displacement supercharger can be used. On Diesel, semi-Diesel and turbine engines there will be no limitation on the number or type of carburetors employed. The racing cars must weigh a minimum of 1750 pounds but there is another provision which provides that the weight must not be less than 7 1/2 pounds per cubic inch of piston displacement. They must have two-man bodies and a tread of 54 to 60 inches. Two sets of brakes, the secondary system independent of the primary system, are required on all cars which are entered.

1930 Indianapolis 500 Rules continued here…

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