Midget Photo Thread..

[The Rattler]

I took these pix last weekend ,
2 brothers , in there sixty`s , drove them aprox. 160 miles to the show , raced around Curborough sprint track , showed them at hot rod show and drove back home ....hero`s or mad-men ???

Can you imagine guy driving those things with no roll bars or anything? I love them but that scares me just looking at it.

Rattler

 

[racer135]

Can you imagine guy driving those things with no roll bars or anything? I love them but that scares me just looking at it.

Rattler

Does this scare you?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1180737/Man-turns-Postman-Pat-ride-worlds-smallest-car.html

Fibreglass.....

 

[Ruff Shod]

Tripper,

If ya like Midgets....my neighbor races ASCS2 Modified Midgets all around this area. We have a track down here in Alvin called Gulf Coast Speedway. Its a 5th mile dirt. Check out the ASCS2 schedule and let me know when ya can make a race. We can sit on a tailgate and drink cold beer while watchin em go round and round.

If you are closer to Cleveland.....they race there on a 1/4. Extremely fast for those little cars!

 

[RoddingRon]

Just my contribution

This was at our car show in August and I figured I should share

 

[RoddingRon]

Not exatly a midget, but....

 

[RoddingRon]

Again....not exactly a midget, but where else would I post it?

 

[Ellerd123]

wow i bet those r loads of fun [P

 

[speedwagen]

 

[bob w]

Went to World of Wheels today and this was my favorite car
A pre-war dirt midget. It has an aluminum body by Hillegass, Allentown, PA

 

[bob w]

Looks great from every angle.

 

[bob w]

Your looking at a 1940 Studegaker 169 cu. in. 6 cylinder with 1950's Jackson fuel injection on methanol. It runs locally in controlled nostalgia dirt races.

 

[zzrodder]

Fabulous car - Especially love the Stude engine !!

 

[Got Rust?]

great photo's 22, anybody know what the tube mounted on the outside left, with what appears to be a pump handle on is? Think I knew once, but can't remember

 

[willy knight]

upside down flathead

When you mentioned the innovations these boys did back then it reminded me of an article I saw many years ago where they took a flathead engine and modified it to go in one of these upside down.Yes the oil pan was on top and the heads were down by the track.The article told why but I dont remember if it was for fit or to put the center of gravity lower.The article was pretty complete about telling how they modified the oil system and how they dealt with the oil going to the cylinders.
Has anyone else seen this or am I senile already?lol

 

[bob w]

willy knight, Yes, you are correct. I've seen pics of it but can't remember any more about it than what you posted..

 

[Snake Farm]

This is such a great thread but I can never get through the whole thing Every time I come in here I start at the beginning and get so mesmerized I only make it a few pages.........I think I've been as far as page 7 once

Anyway I though I'd throw in one I took a couple summers ago not far from my house. I drove by the farm where this sat in a barn for forty or so years and I never knew it was there until the property was going up for sale and the guy dug it out. Car was built and raced by his father in the 50's and early 60's.

It's a shame it ever deteriorated to this stage..........but you can almost hear the flatty crackling through those pipes [dr

 

[BruceR&C]

At one time I knew why it was done that way but, I've long forgotten & my grandfather is long gone. He built midget engines in the 40's & I remember seeing old pics of flatties installed in this manner.

 

[bob w]

Aah! Here is is.


http://www.autohistory.org/feature_1.html

 

[jcdvw66]

Wow! Awesome pics in this thread. Midgets are something I know a little about. I was the Crew Chief and engine builder at Kalitta Racing from 1990-1997. This was the open wheel circle track portion of Connie Kaliita's racing empire. The drivers were Don Schilling and Doug Kaliitta. We started with two VW powered pavement midgets and a 17' box truck. Over the years we expanded to sprint, midgets and silver crown cars for dirt and pavement and two large haulers. We built all our engines and pavement cars in house. It was quite an operation and we were doing 60-80 races a year. Don retired from driving after a bad crash at Winchester in I think 94...Ironic because Winchester was one of our favorite tracks. Doug took over driving all the cars and eventually switched to the drag cars in 97. We did very well and won two USAC national championships. I moved to Phoenix in 97 and worked at Klien engines for a while building mostly sprint car engines. Some of the guys we raced and beat regularly during that time are Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Stan Fox, Dan Drinan, Ken Schrader and even Mel Kenyon.

 

[Paul_J]

great photo's 22, anybody know what the tube mounted on the outside left, with what appears to be a pump handle on is? Think I knew once, but can't remember

I worked on a drag car a long time ago that use a pressurized fuel tank to deliver fuel to the carbs. That may be an air pump.