The Novi Special became famous for the high-pitched shriek of its engine and for power that drivers could barely control. It debuted at the Indianapolis 500 in 1941 with 450 horsepower, and its supercharged engine remained a celebrity there into the 1960s. Lewis Welch, a Novi businessman who owned Novi Equipment Company along Novi Road, loved auto racing, sponsored the high-performance powerplant, and named it for his hometown. Although Welch supported it for many years and many drivers, the Novi Special gained a reputation for danger and never won a race before he sold it to Andy Granatelli in 1961. Ralph Hepburn set the fastest lap ever run at Indy in the Novi Special in 1946, but he was killed in a practice run two years later. Duke Nalon drove the Novi Special to its best Indianapolis 500 finish, third place, in 1948, and in the 1949 race he led on lap 24 before losing a wheel and surviving a fiery crash.