Cunningham C4RK

The Cunningham team brought three C4 cars to Le Mans in 1952, one being this hardtop, chassis #R5218.  It had valve problems with its Chrysler Hemi engine and did not finish, but would take 10th place the following year.  It saw more action than most Cunningham race cars, with four wins in eighteen outings from 1952 through 1958.

Some feel that the C4RK is not as graceful looking as it's open C4R brethren.  The roof, designed for aerodynamic efficiency, is squashed down to keep the center of gravity as low as possible.  The front end was V-shaped, leaving virtually all of the tire in the airstream, contrary to modern practice.  The back end was short and stubby, and the K in the model name was a reference to Dr. Wunibald Kamm, who personally had a hand in the design.  Although the body was probably shaped in a wind tunnel, it doesn't look to be very aerodynamic.  Briggs Cunningham usually piloted one of his cars at Le Mans but he turned this one over to Phil Walters because he didn't like being hemmed in by the coupe body.  He would finish 4th overall and 1st in class this year in one of the roadsters.

Le Mans homologation rules required a number of street versions of vehicles be produced.  Cunningham was somehow able to comply with a series of C3 street cars, twenty-one coupes and six convertibles.  There were no C3R race cars.  The agreement had been for fifty cars but the market wasn't able to absorb additional cars.  Fourteen chassis are known to have been created but none are thought to have been completed as of 2015.  Most developed into failed homebuilt hotrod projects.

Only three C4R race cars were built, this coupe and two roadsters.