Hot Rods Kurtis Hemi Roadster

So this morning I was reminded of a special car that I had sort of forgotten about. And as you know, I love talking about early Hemi's, as do a lot of others around this joint.

For those of you that haven't seen this car, it was a huge step in performance engine development for the early Chrysler Hemi and fuel injection. The car has been noted in the Hemi Intake Manifold thread, but got side-tracked so I thought it was worthy of it's own thread and discussion. Incredible car!

So let's open some discussion. Anyone have more information, stories, pictures, maybe some videos?

Personally I have a lot of questions about the engine itself and what all was done, but I'm not sure anyone knows all THOSE details.

Here's a great article in Mopar Magazine I ran across doing a general search:

http://www.moparmagazine.com/2008/sept-oct/too_much_hemi.html

And of course some eye candy...

 

Yeah! You said it! A BLAST! I bet whoever got first lap in that thing had a smile that wrapped around their whole head!

 

What is going on with the copper tubing coming off of the breathers? Anyone know?

 

I bet when you step on the go-pedal, the intake "whooosh" and exhaust note together sound incredible.

 

Here's some other stuff...

http://theoldmotor.com/?tag=kurtis

I see some familiar parts in this picture below...

 

Is it just me or does it seem like the injection is angled DOWN more than standard Hilborn bodies? Seems like they were more perpendicular coming of the head or angled to shoot straight up.

(here's the link since somethings seems to be screwed up with the band width)
http://www.allpar.com/mopar/a311.html



And the wire terminals are really interesting as well, shoved in those tubes.

 

Seems to go into the interior, but your probably right.

 

That's what I'm thinking too, Ive got a Hilborn set up and it looks more upright.

 

There were several cars of that style built in the 50's and not as much info available as some of us would like...


Awesome, anyway you look at them.

 

I believe it even had a 5spd trans didn't it? Or was that the Briggs & Cunningham car? Or did they all have 5spds? The stacks on the Hilborn is obviously my favorite part but I also love the looks of the torque tube and trans laying right between the driver's legs. Very inspirational.

 

This car is owned by Joe Freeman of RACEMAKER Press. www.racemaker.com/

Fellow HAMBer David Greenlees {T-head} has been lucky to drive this car as well as Joe's other historic race cars. Hopefully Dave will see this thread and answer some questions.

 

Four wheeled drug. That one there.

 

Of COURSE a HAMBer has driven it! HAHA!

 

If they din't go into the exhaust system to exit, they more than likely went into smoe sort of breather catch tank. Gotta keep oil off the track you know...

 

Should be just fumes, not oil that would cause problems.

 

Ran into the guy that builds (built) these Kurtis cars at his shop in Bakersfield. Great guy and had lots of time to talk. He had a few restos in progress.
It was good.

 

Actually, under normal cir***stances it would be vapor... It's the not the normal cir***stances that most sanctioning bodies and savy racers worry about...
I'm not sure about back then, but most sanctioning bodies today require some sort of crankcase breather containment.

 

More fun than is legal.

One of these days I do not know how but one of these days I am going to get a ride in an old open wheel car.

if I could get a ride in that one I would only need to love long enough to brag about it.

 

uuugh....bragging about the car or ...?

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

.

 

I saw this car at the Indy 500 Track last spring, along with a bunch of old Indy racers. Got a good close look at it and took this picture. As they say, "Looks just like my 331, only better!" Talked to the guy who had it, and if I remember correctly, it was so fast in testing, they came up with some rule so it couldn't run. It would have ruled open wheel racing, just as in Nascar.

 

Hey Scott, notice that in the pic above the breather does not have the copper line...?
Not sure what it would be for since a 'breather' is open to atmosphere and connecting to the exhaust would be useless (it would not pull anything from the pan since the least resistance would be open air)...unless maybe the 'breather' is sealed? Can't quite see under the cap...

.

 

That would be correct. The Offy guys got pissed. Have a look at the article I attached up at the beginning. It's super interesting about Chrysler trying to get their foot in the door.

 

In the article it was also noted that they used a "stock block" but it had a much smaller displacement. They didn't mention using a smaller bore block, so are details left out, or did they really decrease the volume that much by de-stroking that engine?

 

Gary, just emailed you something interesting.

 

At least you noticed.

Love the little car BTW, I think that the crank hole in the grill is curious unless it used a remote starter. I have cranked an A and a T as well as a John Deer before but I just can't imagine trying to crank a hemi.

 

There was a destroked crank on ebay a couple years ago from about this time. Can't remember what CID it was supposed to be.

 

Or a 12:1 compression Hemi, for that matter! Must have been for a starter box. There is some interesting things going on up front on that engine I've not seen before.

 

Did a quick calculation...

That means to achieve 271 cubic inches (***uming unmodified stock 331 block) they had to de-stroke that engine 0.658 inches. (little over 5/8") Stroke would be 2.967".