At the end of World War I, Cunningham's uncle street raced a Dodge Touring car that was powered by a Hispano-Suiza airplane engine. Briggs would accompany him on many of these races, thus fueling his interests for automotive racing.
Cunningham was a wealthy man. His father, who passed away when Briggs was only five, was the founder and president of the Citizens' National Bank and a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
He married the grand daughter of Standard Oil's co-founder.
Briggs went to Yale, and his classmates and friends from that time were pivotal in some ways to his successes. One friends father was the head of Chrysler engineering, and came through with new Hemi engines when Cadillac withdrew engine support, powering the C1 and C2 Cunningham cars.
The Collier Brothers also were college friends, and were race car drivers for Briggs and founders of the Automobile Racing Club of America, which is where Briggs met Luigi Chinetti, winner of the 1949 Le Mans, who invited Briggs to race in Le Mans in 1950 with the pair of 1950 Cadillacs.
Cunningham amassed a collection of automobiles that included the first Ferrari in the United States, sold to him by Luigi Chinetti, and a Bugatti Royale, one of only six made. When moving his collection to his new museum in Costa Mesa, the parking lot was washed out by a rain storm, and his friends and connections in the right places jumped in to help, with a rescue mission mounted by the U.S. Marine Air Corps, which laid sections of perforated landing strips to facilitate the movement of vehicles over the mud and into the building.
When it was clear that the museum was a financial loss, and always would be (as most museums are) he sold it all to Sam Collier, nephew of his racing friends.
Sam Posey states his own entrance into racing came when he (at 16 yrs old) and his mom were given pit passes by the Cunningham team to the 1959 Sebring race.
He participated in some vintage racing with his 1914 Mercedes, and joining him were Today Show founding host, and inventor of the morning talk show format, Dave Garroway with a 1937 Jaguar SS, and Charles Addams (Addams Family cartoonist in the New Yorker) with a 1932 Alfa
He invented racing stripes, nearly all his race cars were white with blue racing stripes down the center... Carroll Shelby was so impressed he inverted the colors for his race cars looks with the GT 350 Shelby Mustang, and GT 500
Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/?fref=nf
Learn more at http://www.briggscunningham.com/home/le-mans-era/lemans50-html/
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z8847/Cadillac-Le-Monstre.aspx
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