Quarter Midegets

About 4 years ago me my brother and my pops started the restoration of our 1958 Mantz 500 quarter midget. my father got the midget when he traded a paint job for it in 1997. we hardly knew anyting about the car when we got it. the only identification we had for it was it said mantz 500 on the steering wheel.
Around 4 years ago we pulled the car out of the corner of my pops garage. we immediately started in on the body work for the car it was full of holes from being neglected throught the years. the car required tons of fiberglass and hours of body work. me and my brother did most of the body work including the fiberglassing sanding and most of the grunt work. which it took to complete the restoration properly.
While we were doing all of the body work we were also trying to dig up as much information on the car as possible we found out that the car ended up being a 1958 mantz 500, mantz also made a 300 but ours was the biggger of the two so we determined it was a 500 we found all kinds of literature on it including flyers and sales literature. we also found out that the car was a local car and had lived in Rushville IN all of its life my pops was actually friends with one of the machanics who actually worked on the car during its hay day.
another problem we had with the project was locating all of the almost non-existant parts for the car we couldnt find any origional nerf bars or bumpers for the car so one of my dads friends made some exact replicas for us. we lucked into finding some period correct mag wheels and nostalgia quarter midget tires. probably the hardest part of the project was locating a grille for the car we searched for almost a year for one and finally my pops found a guy in texas who was reproducing them. this same guy was actually an author for the Coast to Coast Racing News magazine he tought that this was going to be a pretty interesting build so he agreed to put an article about the car in is magizine.
the next step in the build was to paint the car we decided on a copper and cream color scheme. my brother and i did all of the paint work for the car. my father had been doing custom paint jobs on midgets and sprint cars for years so painting it was the easiest part of the build.
now we were on final lap of our restoration project we had to rebuild and piece the car back togeter after paint. for the motor we put in a 2.5 hp briggs and stration. the interior of the car was done in a sort of a antique bommer seat brown with an engin turned dash plate it took a year for us to rebuild the car after paint with my pops doing most of the mechanical work and me and my brother helping him.
the car eneded up being the number 51 Rootbrothers special, and was lettered by Dan Shaw the car has only been 2 car shows so far but we are planning to put it in alot more we built a trailer for it and we towit beind my fathers 37 chevy. the car turned out great and and we had a great time restoring it.




P.S. post storys of your quarter midget

 

Well, I think it's pretty cool. You're lucky to have a pops who shares his wisdom and talent with you. Stu

 

My best friend,Mike LeNarz,used to race a Quarter Midget when we were kids. I think it was a Curtis. I'll ask him.

 

A long time ago when I was a kid, I remember seeing an old dictionary, I don't remember if it was a Funk & Wagnalls or what, but in that book, under "race car" was a picture of what looked like a Kurtis midget or a quarter midget like this one........it was all crossed up, sideways just roostin' the marbles. From that time on........I knew.....and I still believe, that's the real definition of "race car".

 

Mikes was black with silver scallops on the nose,and the number was done in gold leaf. He has a bunch of pic's in a book. His dad and one of his buddies used to take it out to the tracks on the top of a Hilman Husky. His friend still has the Husky.

 

What's the difference between a "quarter-midget" and a "micro-midget"?

My brother has one he bought -- Cushman engine, ran on alcohol. Chain drive off of the camshaft instead of the crank?

 

Quarter Midgets ran on small ovals. Looks like an old Midget or Indy car, from the 30's ,40's,and early 50's. Micro Midget looks like a modern Sprint car with a motorcycle engine. Please correct me if i'm wrong!

 

That car is almost big enough to be a TQ. Are they still racing TQ's in Rushville? They put on a great show. It is much more entertaining than going to the big show in Indy.

 

I picked a Mantz up off the curb for nothing quite a few years ago and started to work on it. The body was a total mess. No motor in it. I think that the left rear wheel only was powered and the rear suspension was also only on that side. Front was torsion bars. Moved and ended up junking all but the grill, steering wheel and gas pedal which I just looked for and haven't found. Senior moment I guess.
Your car looks to be quite a bit larger than the one I had. Is it powered by a Continental engine?

 

You and your brother did a great job restoring your 1/4 miget . My son and i raced them back in the 70's and you got the right look for the period .
My biggest fear then was i did all the paint and body work on 6 cars with show finishes and to send them out on the track with 10 other kids that wanted to win a race.Always had work to do

 

First, Great work on the resto. It looks beautiful.
As a kid in the early 60's my brother & I helped build the local 1/4 midget track behind Columbus Motor Speedway.Our family was running go-carts at the time & our mom was afraid we would get hurt due to a great lack of safety gear in those days. When she saw the midgets she told dad,"We switch or quit racing." We had midgets within the month
Mine was a Kurtis rear engine AA open class(alcohol burner)#222 & my brother got a Waughburg 1/2 midget with a alky Honda in it #6.
While we were pretty competitive winning our share it was hard beating the Factory Kurtis team out of Indy. They ran a new sidewinder with all the bells & a fearless driver named Charlie Workman. Of course if anyone ever beat them there was surely something wrong with the car & a team of 4 or 5 factory mechanics started thrashing on it.
The track is still there & greatly improved over the years. The cars have really changed over time but the kids all look the same
A long walk down a short memory lane.
Al

 

wrong on all counts.

quarter midgets used to look like the one he's got, but don't anymore. they now have roll cages etc. just like a full sized sprinter.

as for a "micro midget" I'm not sure what that is, but it sounds like you are thinking about micro/mini sprints. micro sprints have 250cc+ 2-strokes mini sprints have 600cc-1200cc motorcycle motors.

 

Great looking car.. You boys did a fine job!

Wheres that footage of you guys racing the "other" homebuilt cart down the hill in the yard?



Hey, by the way.. these kids are in highschool!


Joshua Shaw.
ShawShop Cin OH

 

I love these little things.

 

Wow! Love the paint and lettering!

 

hey man thanks for the reply. I will get you the footage of us riding the cart down the hill.

 

Yep they are still racin'n in Rushville.About 4 races a year

 

Let us know if you find the stuff.

 

I agree,they don't look the same anymore,but they DID look like mini Midget racers. Mine was a Curtis,but I just drove around the streets. Never raced it. I raced Rotax shifter carts. Think your right about the Micro Sprints though.

 

i've got this one listed in the for sale section // it's a complete 54 wholberg

 

I talked to my buddy Mike today and he told me his Quarter Midget was a Speedway chassis. When he was racing it there were only three on the west coast competeing. The track he raced at was Firestone,behind the Cal Worthingtom Dodge,on the edge of Downey,California. He said the track in Pamona is still there. We went a few years back and watched the racing.

 

Very Nice midget. I have a Kurtis sidewinder

 

Friend of mine raced a Kurtis back around '59-'62. I had forgotten all about it until I helped him carry some stuff into his storage building behind the garage last summer and there it was hanging on the wall with all his old racing carts from 40+ years ago. NOT for sale.

 

Boy that's a real fine midget.....funny I saw your post and I've been doing a little hunting myself on Micro's.
Back in the early to mid 60's my father raced Micro's in Bartlesville, OK and Coffeyville, KS. His car was real similar to yours only the next size bigger. It was bright red and number was 43. It was a front engine car, ran a Mercury outboard engine on castor oil/alchol. He traded it to Smiths Honda in Pittsburg, KS for a motorcycle. He's regreted it ever since. My father is 87 now and I'd love to find the car if it's in existance at all. I remember a few guys he raced with....Johnny Pearson, "Red" Coonfield and a guy named Sawyer.
If anyone knows somebody that raced in that era or knows any info at all....shake the bushes for me! I'd love to restore Dad's midget and give it back to him. Just a shot in the dark...but you never know. I can be reached at alan.morris@leggettmachine.com

 

The difference between Quarter Midgets and Micros when I was growing up (in Nebraska) back in the '50s was that the Micros were undersized race cars for grown-ups, and the Quarter Midgets were scaled down (the seating anyway) for kids. There were lots of variations in rules around the midwest (and elsewhere, I'm guessing), so I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are a wide variety of recollections here.

The Micros around here were virtually all home-built, but for the most part they were styled pretty much like the old Quarter Midgets, but were larger and had bigger motors (Cushmans were real popular, as Lincoln was the company's headquarters).

About the only thing I really remember was that the folks who promoted the Micro Midget races back then had a huge dog (think it was a St. Bernard) and they would give the kids a ride on his back. Pretty cool stuff for a seven-year-old.

BTW - As with the full midgets, and Indy-style cars, the Kurtis micros were far and away the best looking. Old Frank really had the eye for style and set the bar real high very early on. To my eye, his racers remain the quintesential examples of open wheel form and beauty.

 

Heres one from Phoenix. Don't know anything about it but it's cool.

 

Found the remains of the Mantz "from off the curb".

 

hey great find on those parts man those grills are really tough to find

 

My Dad built the Viking Craft cars and owned a track called the Jelly Bean Bowl

 

Yeah...Micros where a size larger than 1/4 midgets. An adult couldn't fit in a 1/4 midget so I guess they come out with the Micro. In the 60's most micro's were powered by Mercury outboards, Koenigs, Anzani's which were two strokes running on castor oil and alcohol. I remember Cushman having a water cooled engine. It just wouldn't run with the others. The early cars were a spittin image of the early sprints and had the engine in front. As time went on they changed the front ends to a more lower streamline look. It reminded me of a flathead catfish nose. They also moved the engine to the rear because of the low nose. The Micros had to be push started either by two guys or a push truck. I remember someone putting a Honda 250cc engine in one.....it was a dandy! At the starting line he just hit the starter and went around the track shifting. All the rest were direct drive with one gear ratio. He ran it on straight alcohol.