Guess the race car

[strad]

Made me go look..nice hint...Smokeys sidecar.

[joseff]

I remember the car but forgot the name... it's clearly american, and your "very important race" hint obviously meant Indy 500. Took a bit of googling there to come up with Smokey Yunick's Sidecar.

[JackHammer]

I know exactly what it is, but I can't remember the name of it!

[marcush.]

Made me go look..nice hint...Smokeys sidecar.

strad ,that´s correct -the car was unofficially called "capsule" car I saw it during a visit of the Indianapolis raceway museum as it was on special display there.
the capsule is really the absolute minium of enclosure or cockpit...frightening this...


the cars handling frightened the driver a bit and he crashed it on bump day ..so it never actually raced..

[strad]

I'm not good at these so a nice easy one to pass it off...