Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

If you see a young blonde guy, with an older trevis, stop in a say hello. That is if I get the wifes blessing.

Joe

 

Wynns # 1 and Sprinter 2 plan to make the journey from Connecticut.

 

"Wynns # 1 and Sprinter 2 plan to make the journey from Connecticut."

Great News! I`ll be sure to bring the camera along!



Where do they base the Vintage cars at the Grove? In the pits or an area in the infield?

Joe M.,I`ll be happy to say Hi if I can figure out where you guys are pitting.

Tony D.

 

Can anyone help me identify the colors on the three IMCA (and CRA) cars below. A.J. Shepherd and Jim Hurtubise brought the Abajian (33) and Kephart (67) Offies across from California in 1959. After Herk crashed the Kephart car, he switched to the Ker-Mac Offy (69). Memories or ideally color photos would help!

 

Wanted to mention that I'm selling off a set of Mag safety wheels w/NOS racemaster slicks.....

Here are a set of mounted safety racing mags with four mounted M&H Racemaster NOS asphalt tires (wide five pattern), Wheels are restored with all new hardware and clear coated. The tires are new old stock with stickers. Used only for static display for a short time. These wheels can have a six pin backing plate added and used for vintage sprint car or perfect for period correct modified or rat rod... $2,200.00 FIRM. I cannot ship this Item and must be picked up in the Syracuse NY area. (Brewerton)
6.70-15 on left front
9.50-15 on the right front
on left rear 11.20-15
11.20-15 on the right rear

Tom- paradyne65@yahoo.com (315)506-8107

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/vint....c0.m245&_trkparms=72:317|65:12|39:1|240:1318

vintage go cart ..

 

I saw a pic last night of what i think would later become the Ankeney Offy. It was at a Sprint Car show at Duquoin. I was surprised to see that it had drum brakes on the front!! On a mile track!!
cOULD THIS HAVE BEEN THE SAME CAR?

 

These are great pics. I am trying to put some photos on but dont know how??? Can somebody help !!

 

Click post reply, type in whatever you want then click manage attachements and you should be able to click on the files you want to add

 

Click "post Reply"

Then type the words you want..

Then scroll down a bit and find "Manage Attachments" and click on it..

When window appears, click on the first "Browse" block and it will direct you you to pics on your computer.

Click on the pic you like,

Then click on "Upload" and wait..

When the "Browse Blocks" are cleared then "x" out and click on "Submit Reply"

JD

 

Hope to be at Williams Grove and Lincoln with my old red #5 midget from West Virginia to run with the EMMR group. Stop by and say hello. -- Dave Hatcher

 

Rootie, Racer5C, Corngrower32 and others, thanks for the great information on vintage racers. Absolutely entertaining.

Can you guys discuss Johnny Vance...from the old days to the Johnny Vance of recent days. I'm reading the Wilber Shaw book Gentlemen Start Your Engines published in 1955 and there is reference to Johnny Vance from the 1930s. I've seen the recent Johnny Vance a few years ago and it interests me if and how they are connected.

And speaking of such things, Is Wilber Shaw a relative of Corngrower32? Tell me more if so.

 

Johnny Vance is the son of the John Vance in the 30's.

 

Johnny Vance- Aristocrat Products, long time USAC owner/sponsor. Vance Sr. campaigned cars starting in the 30s, Shaw, Mauri Rose, Bob Cary among others drove for him.

 

That's Funny!

I'm just past the Halfway mark in that VERY same BOOK! It's Fantastic!!

Zakira Jim loaned it to me and said it was a "must read" and he was RIGHT!!

As far as we know, Wilbur and I are NOT related. The only relation to old racers I have is they say Joey Chitwood is some sort of distant Uncle.

Thanks,

Joshua Shaw

 

This came in my daily e-mail newsletter from History International. I thought people like Corngrower, Rootie, and others would appreciate it.

The Smithsonian Institution acquired a Miller 1500-cc race car with the intention of displaying it. Harry Miller was the first man to concentrate exclusively on building race cars for sale. While the Duesenberg name dominated American racing in the early '20s, it was Harry Miller that carried race design into its next era. Fred and Augie Duesenberg were responsible for many of the major technological breakthroughs that made high speeds possible: shell bearings that allowed higher engine turnover speed, centrifugal superchargers, and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. But the Duesenbergs were only concerned with building race cars to increase publicity for their road cars, and their race cars were certainly not for sale. By the late '20s, Miller was designing and building precision-tuned race cars and selling them for exorbitant price tags. He pioneered countless breakthroughs including aluminum pistons and engine blocks, off-beat carburetors, inter-cooled superchargers, and practical front-wheel drive. Miller's price tags may have been extraordinary, but not so extraordinary that the market couldn't bear them. The earnings of the car drivers and the deep pockets of the racing team sponsors made buying Miller's cars possible. Consider that in the late '20s the average working man earned around $1,500 per year and the average baseball player $7,000 per year. Babe Ruth earned $70,000 per year from 1927 to 1930. The prize for the winner of the Indy 500, provided he led a reasonable number of laps, could exceed $40,000. So it was logical for Miller to assume people would pay for his race cars, and pay they did. For almost a decade Miller cars filled up nearly the entire block at Indy. The Miller 122, front-wheel driven and supercharged, was the most masterful race car of its era and it belongs in the hall of engineering breakthroughs at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.

 

That's BAD ASS!

 

I'm glad it's not just us gear heads that 'get' that.

 

I seem to remember seeing the Miller Packard Cable Special at the Smithsonian several times over the years when I lived in Maryland.
So....did they acquire another one?

http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=220

http://christopherleydon.com/Zportfolio/xMiller/photos/bonus pages/PackardCS/packard.html

 

Griff Borgeson bought the two of them from Bugatti and brought them back to the US- one is in the Smithsonian after being in the Briggs Cunningham Collection and then at Harrah's for a long time (saw it the Harrah's in Atlantic City). I don't remember about the other one, just that Borgeson bought the pair back from Bugatti around 1954.

 

Tony, We are not bringing the cars. Doug

 

Griff Borgeson sold or gave one car to the INDY 500 collection, and restored the other. It was in the LA County Museaum for some time before Bill Harrah bought it and RErestored it and painted it yellow. Then a collector on Long Island, New York bought it, and did some work to it. The Smithsonian swapped a very early Mercedes and maybe some funds and got the car. They Restored it a third time in the correct purple bodywork. It is my personal favorite MILLER frontdrive.

 

I remember staring at it for hours with my dad at Harrah's in AC (he's not a gambler), then taking a good look at all the screw head with the slots lined up on the trim on an early Packard Touring...

 

I read your links. Great .

I never knew the Miller engines were so small in displacement. Smaller than an Offy midget engine .

 

Sorry to inform ya boys...

04/23/09: Chet Herbert passed away this morning after a battle with pneumonia. A pioneer to the racing industry world wide.
Dedicated LSR builder, designer, cam grinder, and innovator. RIP Chet

The service is at 10:30 AM, May 2nd at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Orange.


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Here are a few photos from the 1954 Sun Valley Speedway Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana. The first photo is Cliff Riggins who finished fifth that year, The next one is Johnny Arnold and the last one is Tom Cherry from Muncie, Indiana who in the Howard Hall entry led 496 of the 500 laps and set a new Qualifying record of 14.34 sec. that year. I'd say he came prepared......
Thanks to RoadsterDale for the motivation to post them....
HG

 

There were a couple of 85cui offy midget engines made I have read.
And dont forget thsoe 2 blown engines with cubes right around 63 cui. or maybe abit bigger than that?
aXe

 

Part of that was the rules at indy at the time. They kept playing around with the c.i. rules, changing them up and down. The more racing history books you read, you will be amazed at the amount of engines that were in the final stages of completion only to be TOTALLY SCRAPPED cause of a last minuite c.i. rule change. Also, there were different c.i. rules for Blown or unblown engines.. A well tuned 122 c.i. SUPERCHARGED Miller could run with a 300 c.i. naturaly asperated MONSTER.

Miller's theory might have been:

Smaller moving parts = less violent vibrations = 500 miles trouble free = your face on the side of the trophy...

As for MILLERS... Harry Miller had a "thing" with wanting to build engines with very small bore sizes, but a lot of cylinders. In his mind a 16 cylinder 150 c.i. supercharged engine was the "ticket".. Fred Offenhouser (Millers head Machinest) felt differently, and when he bought Miller out in the Bankruptcy sale, the rest was history and we saw 300 c.i. FOUR bangers..

When I was going through the MILLER parts a few pages back, I found Miller pistons that were no bigger than 2" in diameter..


JS

 

Gene, is that one of the Cherry cars that were later Yellow then? I know there were two yellow ones..

I never knew them to be any other color.

Interesting.

JD

 

That's not a Tom Cherry car. He drove it but it belonged to Howard Hall of Frankton, IN. Howard was a long time participant in the Little 500 starting with roadsters and "upgraded roadsters". This car was a purpose built sprinter-by Joe Silnes no less. It ran a Flathead Merc from '53 thru '56 when it was changed to a Cadillac. Ran C.S.R.A., I.M.C.A., & A.A.R.C

The yellow Tom Cherry car you're thinking of (which has been reconstructed by Don Anderson of Tipp City) also won the Little 500 with Tom at the wheel. It was a former M.R.A. roadster built by Hack Winingear and rebodied in '51/2 by Harry Templeman (-ton?) of Terre Haute. The car won the '50 Little 500 as a roadster and the '55 race as a sprinter. Tom campaigned that car in NASCAR's Speedway Division and in his own ALL AMERICAN RACING CLUB. When Tom switched from roadsters to sprinters, he also aquired a Wayne Ewing built sprinter (also Mercury powered) and put Red Amick in it. They were painted identically but the numbers were reversed: 38 & 83.