New Flora As Well As Restored, Penske's Bluish Hilton
the Blue Hilton transported the No. 66 McLaren that Mark Donohue drove to victory inward the 1972 Indianapolis 500 – the commencement of Team Penske’s tape sixteen wins inward the “Greatest Spectacle inward Racing.” In conjunction amongst its sis transporter, “The White Hilton,” it was used to carry the powerful, championship-winning Porsche 917s that dominated the landscape of the Can-Am Series inward the early on 1970s amongst George Follmer in addition to Donohue earlier it was sold inward 1983.
Until Jerry Breon, a long-time Penske squad member, located the sales listing inward an automotive merchandise periodical inward the autumn of 2015, this historic vehicle was idea to accept been scrapped. The truck was purchased from George Boyd of Urbana, Illinois, who had utilized it spell competing inward diverse racing serial until retiring it to a location on his property.
He was the alone possessor of the truck afterward its days at Team Penske. After verification in addition to removal from the Boyd property, the Blue Hilton was towed to the Penske Truck Leasing (PTL) Collision Center inward Ft. Wayne, Indiana where the restoration began amongst the aid of Donohue’s master copy blueprints.
They took it to truck trunk manufacturer Morgan Corporation, who was able to render many of the master copy extrusions used inward edifice the box section. One Morgan employee had been amongst the fellowship when the Blue Hilton was constructed inward 1972, in addition to provided invaluable advice during the rig’s restoration. While the aluminum peel of the box department appeared well-preserved, much of the internal steel construction had corroded afterward decades parked inward an Illinois field.
“When you lot verbalise amongst the crew members that drove in addition to worked out of this transporter over those years, in addition to you lot await at the photos from the many cars it carried, you lot run into how the Blue Hilton was an integral business office of our history,” said Bernie King. “It’s sure enough really much a business office of the Team Penske heritage. Everyone at Penske Truck Leasing that was involved did a fantastic project of restoring this truck to how it was when it ran in addition to carried many of the team’s winning cars.”
http://www.teampenske.com/news/index.cfm/a/666/53212/TEAM_PENSKE%20RESTORES%20ICONIC%20TRANSPORTER
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/02/27/team-penskes-1972-international-transporter-the-blue-hilton-lives-again/