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

Your Midget is probably near the same wheelbase as mine (91.5 inches)! Midgets came into popularity during the early years of "The Depression" as a cheaper and safer alternative to the 3/4 cars or "Big Cars" (later to become "Sprint Cars"). Champ Cars and Indy Cars had longer wheelbases! As a matter of fact the 1951 Indy winning car, The Belanger Special, was a stretched Midget with a bigger Offy engine! All that said, I think your car is appropriate for this thread!

 

Thanks for that explanation Old Dawg. I was trying to figure out what powerplant was in the car - maybe a V8 60? with possibly external reverse cooling plumbing under the header. If that is the case would it not be a TQ (as in Three Quarter) midget? My dad once built a TQ with Crosley power and it was about that size.

 

That is a Kurtis Kraft V8-60 midget, not a sprint car.
Not reverse cooling, but the normal post war crank driven water pump with external plumbing into the bottom of the water jacket to get more water around the cylinders.

 

car shown on track appears to be a different car-shorter wheelbase[sprint car instead of champ car] and has different style rear radius rods-in fact I think the on track shot is an Edmonds sprint car

 

also note how much higher the cage brace that runs forward mounts

 

darn-had to get out of my chair to check-yes the same on-track photo is on page 156 of "big Car Thunder Vol..II"the Dean Hathman owned.Don Edmunds built driven by Bill Utz-photo was taken at Lincoln NB photo credit goes to Joe Orth

 

You are actually showing photos of 3 different #56 cars-the champ car in your showroom,the Edmunds sprint car on track and the sprint car in the copy of Historic Indy Cars

 

I have to agree with " oldtom69 " on this .
Those are different cars , unless the car went through major changes . . .

 

someone didn't like what they were hearing-original post has been deleted-also question the roll cage on the champ car-says its a 1965 chassis,but champ cars didn't get roll cages until 1970-may have been added at some later time

 

Most midgets are 72inch wheelbase, give or take.

 

As far as I know, most rule books allowed 66' to 72" midget WB.

 

That's a big variance LOL.

 

Seen one of the rare BELL in/out box (empty cases) on the auction site last night, i know nothing about this stuff just wanted to pass the info along if your a collector...

 

Very valuable if you are restoring a vintage midget.

 

Looked cool wanted to know what it was figured it out from a post on this thread.
I learned some cool history searching around last night, pretty dang rare almost no mention of it online that i could find .

 

Who was he and what was this car?

 

This was my fathers uncles Gus , it had a model A engine and the body was made from a '40 ford hood .
He still has the picture hanging in his shop its 2' ×4' its huge

 

I have one of those, its a quick change unit and the above is missing the front section this bolts to. Its pre quick change rear end before they figured out changing hot trans mission gears was not fun.

 

Did you ever hear of Woodward dealing with Don Brick Taylor back in the seventies ? This was in PA. Where he screwed Brick out of money Giving him fake land rentals from the Poconos. Does anyone know where the car landed in Indiana ? So the story goes. It was a Curtis car with # 89 on it and orange. Had to be mid seventies.

 

It was the Mighty Mouse Car .

 

Little more work:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...car-drivers-from-ian-todd-collection.1216177/

 

This is my first HAMB post although I've spent hours reading several threads, primarily this one. I am now the proud owner of Galka's Riley. I was very excited to see a picture of my car featured in this thread. The car has been modified since this picture was taken but it is a fairly complete roller. Its aluminum body is in tact and still sports the #20, it has faint "Galka's Riley" lettering, although I don't see Art Rousseau lettering on the car. It has a Model B flathead engine, the Riley 4 port head is unfortunately gone. It now has a 37 Ford V8 60 tube axle up front and 4 wheel juice brakes. I am interested in acquiring pictures of the car and learning anything of its history. I intend to restore the car and drive it in special events at our local Meridian Speedway paved track. I will post pictures soon.

 

What a find! Good luck with your restoration.

 

There is also one of these quick change, in/out boxes in Galka's Riley. It was made by AMBLER not BELL though. I also got a second set of gears with the car. They are beefy and appear to be much stronger than the gears in the Model A transmission of the day. I've seen many pictures of quick change rear ends in restored pre-war cars. I don't believe quick change rear ends were in the original configuration of early cars although there's no denying their cool factor. In addition, a quick change rear end drops the input shaft 3.5". The torque tube-enclosed drive shaft of Galka's Riley is just over 20" long. A quick change rear end really isn't feasible due to the radical transmission-drive shaft angle that would result. For context, the wheelbase of Galka's Riley is about 90", it has no flywheel or flywheel housing, the back of the Model B engine is bolted to an aluminum plate, the AMBLER gear box is bolted to the opposite side.

 

A “set of gears” for the Ambler and Bell change box is a misnomer as it only takes one spur gear to change ratios as it runs against an internal ring gear.

Other change boxes that needed two spur gears to change ratios were called “over and under boxes”.

 

I'm still not sure how they work. I would like to see an exploded view drawing of one. Or better yet, a cutaway.

 

See the HAMB thread "Ambler Quick Change Gearbox" and my post. I may have a picture but it will take a lot of digging.

 

Aah, Now I understand. And now I see the need for the slotted housing holes to engage the various toothed gear(s). Thanks 28dreyer.

I learned something today...

 

I see I did have complete pictures on page 109 post #3265 of The Vintage Midget Picture Thread.

The input shaft is Model A Ford with the 3rd or high gear doing the in/out meshing with the special gear with flange that bolts to the flywheel. The rest is all special. Blowing up that photo makes it a lot clearer.

 

On those Ambler/Bell quick-change gearboxes the slots are not enough : there also must be 2 rows of holes parallel to the slots for through pins to lock the cases in place as the bolts in the slots aren't enough to keep the cases properly in place due to the loads from the gear-train "working" them apart. An old midget racer from the late '40s/early '50s passed this on to me when I was starting out before I was able to afford a proper "quick-change".