This belonged to long time family friend's Sid and Rick (father & son). The first time I ever saw it I was about 5 years old, that was over 50 years ago. At that time it shared garage space with a Flathead V-8 powered Midget, that car is LONG gone. It was about 90% homebuilt by Sid who was a dirt track racer most of his life. Karts, Midgets and stock cars. He didn't believe in buying anything he could build ot adapt himself. This car is a testament to that, if you took it to a race today they wouldn't even let you unload it and that's part of it's "charm". They are both gone now and Sid's daughter held an auction last Sunday. It's no Kurtis but it has a lot of history and it has a ton of sentimental value to myself and several of my friends who offered to loan me money if needed so one of us could save it from becoming some spoiled brat's toy. Fortunately I bought it cheap, I've already had people asking to buy it, that ain't happenin'. It will be preserved "as is" for as long as I draw breath.
I love looking at home-built quarter midgets, they are true "folk art" to me. I am groovin on the rebar rear nerf and the gas tank on the side (Indy style!) held on neatly with plumbers tape also the tail cone with the handle on the top. The whole car is just awesome! Great save.
The spreader bar on the front nerf is a rebar "S" and the front axle ends are PTO shaft u-joints and yokes from old farm machinery. Sid was a true "Do-It-Yourselfer".
Man that is to COOL! Does it still have it's engine? What did it originally have? I'd put a 5HP Briggs in it just so it would run.
Absolutely! Flathead Ford I believe with a home made adjuster on the RF corner. The front floor pan looks like the side out of a galvanized metal cattle feeder. There are some things missing that I know got robbed for the other karts after the this car was retired around 1960 or so. I'm going to ask his daughter if she has any pics of it and will try to replace those items with as close to what it originally had as possible. The engine is out of it and it has had several different 2 strokes over the years but I managed to snag a mostly complete Power Products 1000 2 stroke and most of another PP 1000 that we believe were in it at one time along with a stack of rear sprockets of different sizes that were used on it for an additional $10. Both engines turn free and have at least some compression. The mounting stand on the frame matches up and puts the engine in perfect alignment with the sprocket on the axle so we're pretty sure we grabbed the right engines. There were about 40 small engines there of all types but these were the only ones that even looked close to being correct for a 1/4 Midget or racing kart. Don't have the intake or exhaust for it but I do plan to put it back in running condition someday but cosmetically it's being preserved just the way it is except for the missing seat pads. Those will get replaced even though I'm about 45 years, 2 Ft. and 180 Lbs. past fitting in it LOL. But even if it's just sitting on stands smoking up the garage and irritating the neighbors it WILL run again. They had a really nice 50's racing kart too but it wasn't in the auction. Have a bad feeling one of his nephews sold it off but I'm hoping the family kept it or another friend of the family got it. It didn't have anywhere near the "character" of the 1/4 Midget though.
The Jalopy Journal
