History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Mike554 ..

I too want to THANK YOU for sharing all of this. It's wonderful information and certainly a part of racing history.

I always enjoyed being in Len Duncan's company and marveled at the many stories he told about his adventures and the adventures of others while traveling to & from the many places they raced at over the years.

Can't say enough about Lenny Fucello either. In my mind he was the magic behind the Vitucci race cars, whether Ford V8-60's, Offy &/or Chevy II.

PLEASE keep this stuff coming, PLEASE!!! It's what this site and this thread is all about.

 

FANTASTIC EARLY HENDERSON POWERED FRONT WHEEL DRIVE MIDGET ON E-BAY WITH A DOZEN GREAT PICTURES

eBay item#180595742001)

 

From 1938 .. Take a good look at this .. admisssion price, speeds, etc..

 

Does anyone know where these cars are today?

 

An early version of the Ken Canfield Chev. coupe that raced at Danbury is around, but I don't think Ormy drove that one.

 

Ken,
Thanks for the kind words regarding both cousin Len and uncle Len.
My uncle Len was a wizard with engines. Especially Offys though he told me Dutch got him started with them. I've got more pics to post when I get some time.

 

I drug home another vintage quarter midget a few weeks ago. This one is a "Moss MidJet" all original condition. I drove down to Burbank, Ca. and bought this from a young lady who's mother raced this car in 1957. I love to find them "as raced" like this, I will clean it up (wax it and carefully shine the chrome, etc.) but I will not restore it. I had to sneek it into the house until I can make room for it in the garage.

 

CT. to PA.,
The last I knew, the car is in Cheshire, CT. It showed up at a nearby paint shop for full restoration and I helped to convince him to leave it alone. The car is exactly the way it was. I took it to the car show in Rinebeck NY to reunite it with the full size midget that I restored for a friend, but it rained and never got to take photos of the two together.

 

Casper,
Congrats on your purchase! Nice car. Looks like your into tether cars? Can you post some photos. Those cars are really a mirror image of their big brothers.

 

A few tether cars....

 

Beautiful collection!

That car #2 on top Rt of first photo is my favorite.

 

were was ken hickey from, were was his shop?

 

Pretty sure it was Ambler PA

 

My daughter Judy, and I were also at Hinchliffe.

 

Littleman welcome here finally. "space" as if you wouldn't know lol

Yes Ken Hickey's shop was Ambler, not far from Charlie Stevens place, all near Jenkintown and Willow Grove.

 

Several years ago I found a copy of a 1938 Mechanix Illustrated, with a picture of a rear wheel drive midget on the cover, and after a few trips back to this fancy antique store got all three installments of how to build a midget race car. It documented how to build Don Arlen"s fwd Henderson midget in some detail...with great photos and diagrams. Finally donated the magazines to the Easter Museum of Motor racing, as they had a car built to those specs on display. Apparently several folks took them up on it, as there seem to be a few around built essentially the same way. Always thought these old builders did some pretty neat stuff.

 

Casper,
Nice find. Do you know what year it is? I have a 58-59? OFFYETTE as it came off the track in 1964?, but has a MAC 30 go kart motor in it. I need a motor like came in it [I bought it from the 2nd owner and he raced it in a diffferent class] any help? In your 2nd picture of your tether cars bottom left looks like my 42 Hillard Streamlinner. Should I redo the 1/4 midget, the chrome is not all that good but the rest is nice. Also Sonny Ates [who just pased away used to race TQ's under the name Charlie Sellers to keep USAC off his butt, but it did not always work real well]
Jimg12

 

Welcome aboard Tom.....

 

The midget article, and a similar one on a rwd "big car" can be found here:

http://packmag.net/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=28&catid=5

http://packmag.net/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=28&catid=6

 

"Casper,
Nice find. Do you know what year it is? I have a 58-59? OFFYETTE as it came off the track in 1964?, but has a MAC 30 go kart motor in it. I need a motor like came in it [I bought it from the 2nd owner and he raced it in a diffferent class] any help? In your 2nd picture of your tether cars bottom left looks like my 42 Hillard Streamlinner. Should I redo the 1/4 midget, the chrome is not all that good but the rest is nice."



Hi, jimg12,
The Moss is a 1957. Your Offyette sounds badass. I had an early Offyette and let it go, and now it has been restored (by the son of the orig. manufacture) and it's sitting in a big collection about an hour south of me.
The Mac engine is the coolest part! I know there was a class for them because one of the 1/4's in my garage has a dual carb. Mac in it and I have seen others. I would never repaint a car that is in nice original condition. Try some navel jelly on the chrome and shine it up the best you can. The engine it came with was more than likely a Continental. My friend has a few for sale and also some cool old speed equipment for them! Another friend about 2 hours south of me repros lots of cool quarter midget stuff (even for the Offyette) www.classicquartermidget.com is his website (you asked for help!).

Your right, the tether car is a Hiller Comet

Again, PLEASE do not restore your nice original "as-raced" car !!!

 

What can you tell us about these cars?

Who owned them?
Where was he/she/they from?
If possible, who drove them & when, where?

If known, what color(s) were the cars in the b&w photos?

Any and all info, no matter how trivial, would be helpful to the folks here.

The Blue car, seemingly restored, seems to have the name Dynamite Dugan (maybe) on the cowl and Pop Jones Garage, Lunenburg, Mass (possibly) on the hood. Does that have anything to do with the car as it ran or something else?

The #64 seems to have Jones Special lettered on it. If a Jones was the owner, what was the first name?

 

arundel 30,is the first photo Rousie Rousell ,Rouseau (Not sure of the spelling.)

The driver I`m thinking of was from VT or NH there was a life story in Open Wheel years ago and the face looks familiar.

 

Hugh,
The modern mechanics book is not 1938, it is june 1937. I have that book and the front drive Henderson at EMMR is mine. Paxton and I picked it up in Ohio many years ago. We had to take it apart to fit it in my motorhome to get it back. It was a decent car and was sponsered by the X-cell Battery Co. and carried an X on the tail.
There is a photo of it in the EMMR brochoure, It is the orange car. I was told that the builder had a gulf gas station and that is why it was painted orange and blue. I also have the Kaufman Hal sprint from thhe 30`s was the same colors for the same reason.

 

Jim Nice and Buildy,
You guys were posting about Ken Hicky`s shop being in Ambler. I visited Ken many times and always trased him that I was going to steal the stainles cut out midget off his mailbox. One day when I went there it was missing. I asked ken about it and he said he did`nt want it to come up gone.
When he passed away, his sister gave me an envelope with the midget in it. Iwill always treasure it, and some day pass it on to EMMR.

 

I remember that Stan. Glad it was "preserved".

Ken garage was the neatest garage I have ever been in. After a saturday night show at hatfield, if you stopped by sunday morning, the car was spotless and the garage looked like an operating room.

Charlie Stevens was nearby in Willow Grove. he was not so neat!

 

Buildy; You just made me "crazy."

I still own the # 37 Granite State Special (our restoration from the late 80s-We started with 90% of the original car. can be seen on our website, listed in the si, below) It was driven to New England Championship just before the war and one of its main drivers was Art Rousseau. We had a whole pile of original racing photos of the car, Rousseau, and two other drivers, and I put the photos & letters away, for my older son, who is going to get this car. They were lost in my piles of stuff, for a couple of years, and I just found them, again about two weeks ago. NOW!!! having seen your post, I went to look for them, and cannot find them AGAIN!!

To add to YOUR post, the Art Rousseau, bio/article by Dick Berggren, runs through six pages of the November 1984 issue of "OPEN WHEEL" It has the same photo of the #6 Jones midget, saying they starred at the Lewiston Maine State Fairgrounds mile. Rousseau's home track was Keene, NH, and one of his nicknames was "Keene's Little Sweetheart." Mostly in sprint cars. Circle Track featured our Granite State Special in a great two-page color shot and three more with text, as the June, 1989 issue, as the Circle Track Classsic.

 

A few pictures of a V-8 60 Solar that I had the pleasure of been the keeper of awhile back. The last time I saw it was in a private collection in Colorado.
Ron

 

<tt><tt>I received this request from Gregg Kishline in Kenosha Wisconsin:
Chuck,
I have long wondered where this car ended up. It raced in UARA (Chicago area)
in the 1970's.

The car was unique in many ways. It was an aluminum monocoque chassis built by
Harry Turner (2456 N. Western Av in Chicago - don't know why I recall that). He
and Gary Bettenhausen cooked up a prototype about 1967.

This was the 4th or 5th one built, ordered by Don Reidelberger in Chicago. I
drove the car for two seasons.

The front suspension was independent A-arm with a X-torsion helper bar on the
right front. The rear was a conventional Halibrand with a tapered axle. Oil
tank was under the seat, as I recall.

It started life as a Chev II, but a VW was installed in 1975 which required that
a section of the tub be made removable just above the cylinders on the right
side. An inside stiffener was added. When it left the area, ignition was
battery/distributor, not a magneto.

The car was orange - black upholstery - when it was shipped to a buyer in
California, about 1979.

Given the coverage of the internet, any clues as to the current owner or
location would be appreciated.
gk

Gregg was Harry's last stooge & was first on the scene when Harry was run over at Kankakee. He is trying to locate the estimated (11) Turner "tubs" and to establish a TurnerCraft registry.

Thanks,
Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois
</tt></tt>

 

"IF" I remember correctly, there's been one or two talked about on either here &/or on the sprint car thread.

 

Here's pics of my "home- built" 1940 rail w/ a V8-60. Car is basically the same as when put together in '40. I run is a half dozen times each summer in the Rockies /Kansas. Fun, fun, fun.
olracer66