Vanderbilt Cup Races

The illustrated concept drawing of the Case Special Superspeedster on the cover of the December 1948 issue of Science and Mechanics magazine.

This car first piqued VanderbiltCupRaces.com readers back in 2009 when the late Walter McCarthy forwarded a 3-minute film of the Third Annual Bridgehampton Races that hadn't been seen in over 25 years at that time. While the historic races were fun and interesting to see, most readers noticed an odd looking tow car at the very beginning of the film with many wanting more information on this unusual car. At that time, there was little, to no information online about it. To this day, there still isn't much online with the exception of what has been posted on this site about it.

A recently discovered photo that was used as a Mystery Friday Foto 2 weeks ago reignited interest in the vehicle. Upon further research, it was noted by reader John DeCoster in another 2014 post, that the car was featured in the aforementioned Science and Mechanics magazine. An old copy was located and purchased and is shared in this post shedding some new light on Russ Case's vehicle.

“The Bridgehampton Cup Race June 9, 1951”

First, a quick background of Russ Case:

Russ Case (March 19, 1912 – October 10, 1964) was an American trumpeter and bandleader who led jazz and light music orchestras.

Case was born in Hamburg, Iowa. His professional career began when he was hired at WOC (AM) in Davenport, Iowa to arrange and play trumpet with local bands on broadcasts. He worked with Frankie Trumbauer in Chicago and Paul Whiteman in New York City, then was hired by NBC to arrange for radio and television. He led orchestras which accompanied broadcasts of singers such as Peggy Lee, Eddy Arnold and Julius LaRosa, but became best known for directing ensembles behind Perry Como, including on his hit single "Till the End of Time". The song was written by lyricist Buddy Kaye and composer Ted Mossman and published in 1945. 

Page 1 of the article describes Russ's creative process of coming up with his vision.

Vehicle specs.

Page 2 goes into body building detail.

Ventilation, Engine modifications and instrumentation on Page 3.

Page 4 details the rest of the mechanicals, costs and also goes on to explain that the car garnered so much unwanted attention that Case had to sell the car in less than a year of ownership.

Soon after this article, the car was sold.

Chuck Kotchan of Grand Prix Motors in Great Neck purchased the 'Case Special Superspeedster', renamed it 'The Beast', and painted it up in Grand Prix Motors livery. Chuck was the Effyh FIII car importer for the U.S. in 1951 and is the one towing the Effyh with The Beast in the 1951 Bridgehampton film.

Unfortunately, it is unknown if this car still exists today.  Does anyone have any information  on what happened to it?