# 1963 INDIANAPOLIS 500 SPEED TRIALS & CRASH FILM BOBBY UNSER 74862

Released by Esso Oil Company as part of their promotional efforts, GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES! is a profile of the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway set against the qualifying events for the 1963 race. The film presents some of the "questions that need answers" -- with the ever-present challenge of Indy being that (as the narrator says) the race in this era normally got faster by an average of 1.5 miles per hour, per year. Safety is heavily emphasized in this film, which nevertheless spends quite a bit of time showing a series of devastating accidents including the 1964 double fatal accident that resulted in a race stoppage, and the 1958 disaster that resulted in 17 cars being in a pile-up (and cost the life of a driver). The film includes historic footage of the Indy 500, and shows the official opening of the track, the downtown parade, some fabulous behind-the-scenes views of shop work (including a look inside Mickey Thompson’s facility) and work in the garage area, cars arriving at the speedway, the pole-position mechanic’s banquet, racing personalities at Raymond Firestone’s complimentary buffet, the USAC banquet and annual car-owner meeting. Benson Ford and a young executive named Lee Iacocca confirm in interviews that racing has indeed benefitted US auto manufacturers in developing better cars for the motoring public. Smokey Yunick is shown leaving Gasoline Alley in his new ’63 Impala towing the wrecked #12 Fiberglas Special on a trailer back to Daytona Beach. Shown…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/74862StartYourEngines)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/74862StartYourEngines?play=1)