This 1993 Penske PC-22 Indianapolis/CART racer is Chassis 001 and it was built at Penske’s Poole, England production facility. I first saw it in late 2012 at the suggestion of a contact I met at an afternoon “safe driving” school. The Roger Penske/Marlboro Racing team used it exclusively for testing and it is known to have been driven by Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr., and Paul Tracy from late 1992 through early 1994.
During 1994 and 1995, Stefan Johansson drove it for the Bettenhausen Alumax team. As such, it was an operational racing car in period. At the time I saw it, the car was complete except for the engine (an Ilmor-Chevrolet V-8 was the original unit), which was removed at some point and I suspect this would have happened when Penske Racing switched to pushrod Mercedes-Benz engines around 1994. The car seems to have been owned during the late-1990s to the mid-2000s by actor Anthony Edwards.
The 6-speed sequential gearbox remained in place, but I do not know if it still had the gears and internal components. The racing shocks were removed and replaced by Heim-jointed solid links and the wishbones are engraved “Display Car Only”. The then-owner acquired it circa 2005 and he had the body refinished in the handsome Penske/Marlboro livery of the era. It was displayed in the reception area of the owner’s place of business in London, Ontario. At the time, he was selling the car in order to place another racing car with his company logo in the same place.
The car was a very attractive piece from Penske’s early-1990s CART series dominance and in addition to the team’s star driver roster, it also represents the era when 1970s/1980s F1 champions like Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, and several others raced in CART events including Indianapolis. The driver’s padded headrest carried the label “Emmo 3-93” (Fittipaldi) and the back side of the steering wheel was engraved “Al 94” (Al Unser, Jr.).
This PC-22 was also once believed to have been tested by F1 legend Ayrton Senna at Arizona’s Firebird Raceway in December 1992 at the urging of fellow Brazilian star driver, Fittipaldi. It is well known that Senna was dissatisfied with McLaren, also sponsored by Marlboro, after the 1992 F1 season, and he test-drove a Penske, nearly matching Fittipaldi’s lap times in the unfamiliar car during the session. However, thanks to a 2016 Road & Track article, (https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a14464669/ayrton-sennas-indycar-test/), the car was
