Recreating History with Modern Technology
Variations on a Racecar Builder’s Obsession with Quality

In 1917, the quirky looking Golden Submarine forever elevated the art of racecar design and performance. It was the first racer with a steel safety cage and one of the first tested in a wind tunnel, which led to its curved airfoil shape. The result was an unintentional blueprint that influenced the Art Deco movement in the decades that followed.

Beneath its bubble-shaped, bronze exterior lay evidence of a compulsive designer fixated on detail and craftsmanship. Harry Miller meticulously constructed his cars well beyond most practical consideration. Parts unseen, deep within the chassis, were formed and finished to the same painstaking standards as the rest of the visible components.

Two years ago, Ridler Award winner Dan Webb set out to honor this iconic creation by building a low-sloping hotrod variation of the original. For Webb, however, the project needed to transcend mere steel and rubber and embrace the spirit of Harry Miller’s obsession with quality. And what Webb brought to the project 90 years later was a new level of technology available only in the past few years.

By 1917, The Lincoln Electric Company had revolutionized steel construction with new welding technology, but the equipment of that era was better left to heavy fabrication. European and American militaries began arc welding battle ships and warplanes by the First World War. These new applications were not yet widely available to civilian welders, at the time, and would not be for another 10 years.

Early car builders experimented with different techniques of oxyfuel welding, which was a more popular choice at the time. But many builders, including Harry Miller, were unconvinced that welding was ready for the intricate craftsmanship required for thinner steel. So, many racecars at the time, including the Golden Submarine, were riveted together.

Today, most high-end racing and show cars are TIG welded. Webb TIG welds every part of his show cars with Lincoln Electric power sources, which offer precise control in starts, power settings and arc stability. In recent years, Lincoln Electric introduced its Invertec® V310-T AC/DC, which provided control over a great number of welding parameters as well as an innovative active digital display that shows the operator the effects of each welding parameter adjustment (Note current model is now Invertec® V311-T AC/DC).

Webb considered this technology a substantial modern breakthrough. So, with the original builder in mind, Webb decided to lay down perfect TIG beads throughout his Golden Submarine replica, regardless of the need or visibility – just as Harry Miller would have done.

“Sure, there’s stuff in there nobody sees, but I know it’s there,” Webb said. “When you leave a perfectly stacked-dime weld on every joint, you know the car is done right, and that’s something Harry Miller would have done.”

Welds on similar parts were all made of equal lengths. Identical welds repeated on opposite sides of the car have the same number of ripples. Each ripple is spaced equally apart. On brackets, for instance, with two parallel welds, identical stacked-dime patterns are laid down the first side and then back up the second side, creating mirror images of each other.

To ensure similar weld sizes throughout, Webb used a center punch to mark the base metal on the starting and ending points. He then counted the number of times he dabbed the consumable rod into the molten puddle, precisely timing intervals and travel speeds. His ultimate goal was for weld continuity throughout the entire car.

The digital display on the Lincoln Invertec® helped him achieve this strict level of control. As needed, he could scroll through pre-set welding parameters and dial in current settings for each application. He also controlled AC frequency and balance by monitoring the digital display to see how the arc reacted to different parameters between welds.

Over the course of three years, Webb put more than 3,000 hours of metal shaping into his Golden Sub. He said the meticulous quality rested on his ability to be aware of the current and heat going into the welds.

“A good welder must control the metal at all times,” Webb said “The technology facilitates much of that, but patience plays a pivotal role as well. You really have to have the fortitude for this kind of work. The original builders would have loved this machine, and I also like that the inverter technology is quieter than other power sources. That makes a big difference when you’re welding for long periods of time.”

Webb’s Burton, Michigan, shop also includes several additional Lincoln TIG welders: Precision TIG® 275, Precision TIG® 375, and Invertec® V205-T AC/DC, which allows extremely low input currents for better control. To further enhance the craftsmanship, he used chrom-moly consumable electrodes on mild steel base material.

The original Golden Sub’s notable golden hue came from a combination of lacquer and bronze dust. But Webb’s modern tribute car features a hand-formed, unpainted raw steel body that purposely exposes the workmanship. Webb says he will never paint the car.

Steering, shifting and pedal controls on Webb’s car are all hand-formed in steel. It sports a 2.0- liter, Ford® Zetec, four-cylinder engine with mounted disc brakes borrowed from a Buell® motorcycle. The torque tube passes between the driver’s legs, and the exhaust is channeled through wrapped pipes down the drive's left side, exiting through the rear tail tip of the teardrop body.

In its day, the original Golden Submarine embodied a never-before seen blend of form and function that won 20 major races and qualified for the Indianapolis 500 before its engine died, along with its chances to race on. It cost $15,000 to construct entirely by hand, but was later lost in a fire in Joliet, Illinois. No known original remains.

Its driver, Barney Oldfield, was considered one of the most fearless drivers on the race circuit, and the Golden Sub’s revolutionary steel safety cage was forever adopted by the sport. After a car show last year, when Webb first displayed his replica, Oldfield’s nephew sent a letter to Webb writing that he thought his father would be proud of the reproduction.

“That really meant a lot to me,” said Webb, whose next project is a replica of 1940 Phil Remington racecar, which he began in 2008.