10 November 2022
The Golden Submarine was a historical race car built by Fred Offenhauser and Harry Miller for Barney Oldfield in 1917. The most interesting and noticeable feature is Golden Submarine’s aluminium body which looks like a submarine. The car had a 4.7-litre 4-cylinder aluminium alloy engine which developed 136 HP and, despite failing a few times, still completed 54 races with 20wins, 2 seconds and 2 thirds.
The inaugural race for the Golden Submarine was the 1917 Chicago War Derby, where Oldfield qualified at 107.4 mph.
Harry Miller’s enclosed race car was many things; it was aerodynamic, fast, far safer than open race cars, and mercilessly mocked by the press. It was built for Barney Oldfield after the death of his friend Bob Burman in 1916, driving an open cockpit car.
The 1917 Golden Submarine was the first car to incorporate a roll cage.
The body and chassis were first tested in a wind tunnel, which shows how advanced this car was for the time. And it also had a perfect teardrop shape.
The Golden Submarine no longer exists, and no one knows what happened to it, but fortunately, in 2006, a replica was constructed.
