B. S. Cunningham Company

In 1949 Briggs Cunningham met Phil Walters, who raced Midgets and Stock cars under the nom de course "Ted Tappet".

Walters began driving for Cunningham, taking the wheel of the latter's Cadillac-powered Healey Silverstone the following year.

Walters was also a partner with Bill Frick in Frick-Tappet Motors, which had started out as a Volkswagen and Porsche dealership but had begun building auto conversions called "Fordillacs" by installing new Cadillac V8 engines into 1949 Ford chassis.

The Fordillac was rejected by the Le Mans organizers due to its engine swap, so instead Cunningham entered two cars based on the Cadillac Series 61.

[1][2] This car's appearance was essentially stock, with changes that included a dual-carburetor intake manifold, brake cooling ducts, a second fuel tank, and extra lights.

[3] The custom body, lower and narrower than stock, was designed and built with the help of engineer Howard Weinmann from Grumman.

Designer and bodywork specialist Bob Blake was hurriedly brought in to repair "Petit Pataud" when it was damaged in a pre-race shunt with "Le Monstre".

The operation was moved from Long Island, New York to West Palm Beach, Florida, and renamed the "B. S. Cunningham Company".

[8] After fielding cars at Circuit de la Sarthe from 1951 to 1955, several of the Cunningham racing team retired following the 1955 Le Mans disaster.

[9] 1955 also marked the end of the grace period the American Internal Revenue Service allowed for a company to become profitable.

With few cars having been built and no profits to show, the IRS reclassified the B. S. Cunningham Company as a hobby, meaning that the racing and production expenses were no longer tax deductible.

[17][10] The C-3 also used the 331 cu in (5,424 cc) Chrysler FirePower V8, but with a new intake manifold with four Zenith 1-bbl carburetors, and a dual exhaust system.

Two different transmissions were offered; a three-speed manual from Cadillac, or Chrysler's Presto-Matic semi-automatic fluid-coupled two-speed with electric overdrive, for an effective selection of four forward ratios.

[12][19][20][21] The factory considered chassis 5206 the official prototype, and subsequent cars received the Michelotti body style.

Although a new independent rear suspension of Cunningham's own design was touted early in the car's development, it seems that later a live axle on coil springs was substituted.

Cunningham used a carbureted version of the engine, and had to reduce the compression ratio to 7.5:1 to accommodate the fuel available to the teams at Le Mans.

Engines considered for the car included a two-stroke inverted V-12 designed by Mercury Marine's Carl Kiekhaefer, and the Ferrari V-12 from the Italian marque's 375 MM.

[36] After consulting with Leo Goossen, the engine's designer, Cunningham's team managed to get power output up to 270 hp (201.3 kW).

[11][39] Designed by Stewart Reed, the car was a grand tourer styled as a modern interpretation of the Cunningham C-4R.

[48] After winning the Grand Prix du Million prize in 1939, this car had a red and white stripe painted diagonally across the forward part of the blue colored body, completing the French Tricoleur.