Boat tail, check Fenders, check awesome racing exhaust, check. I think we have a hot rod! I cant quite tell what that motor is, maybe an overhead valve converted model a engine?
No help but the photos sure are fun to look at. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a hood strap laced threw the hood before
Interesting car. Noticed some aftermarket head, maybe even an F-head style? I see a single up-draft carb, but the manifold is hard to see where it attaches, maybe in block, as there doesn't appear to be enough room twixt headers. Also 4 exhaust pipes, maybe 3 exhaust ports(?), can't tell if center exhaust is separated at ports or only divided at header flange. Too bad there aren't more engine shots. Looks like someone used an early alt(later addition/modification?) on it in 2nd pic, doesn't appear to be a coolant pump. Note the louvers in the hood top = Miller-style of reversed & inverted. W/s appears to be a homemade Brooklands-style. Pivots are interesting, wonder what they're off of? & the 1 d/s hand-operated wiper. Leather hood-strap mountings look par-for-the-course for neat-mounting back then. I also noticed that even though he split the bones, the builder used orig front-ball-pivots for the front & tie-rod ends for the rear; instead of just flattening the ends & bolting them to the frame w/bolts - as per Kuhn's many pictorial-directions/schematics from the 30's How to Build a Racer series. Somebody was thinking. I also notice the emergency/parking brake isn't hooked up, but the handle/arm for the mechanical brakes also appears to be missing from the bracket/pivot mechanism. Hopefully they have these parts to install. & the little step on the pass-side rear bone. . Tail is nicely done, rear nerf bar, too. Heavy-duty mount to the rear frame kickup. Even as a racer, running w/out any gauges is kinda odd. ??? This thing looks like a mini-version of a cross between a dirt-tracker, a board-tracker, & a Brooklands racer; which would make sense if raced under AAA in the 30's. But what class it'd fit, idk, but would like to. Best ideas combined, w/what was available DIY on a short budget - & all that. Then put on the street by someone, maybe dual-purpose back then, although from what I've read, the real racers towed their race cars, & they weren't driven on the street. Fleshing out the history on this one will be interesting. . Hopefully, someone better well-versed in this stuff can notice more. Marcus...
McMillen's first name was Louis, not Albert (which was his middle name,) and he was an architect in Boston, where he met Walter Gropius and became one of his partners in The Architects Collaborative a bit after Gropius came to the US. (Louis' mom founded an interior design firm in NY that's still in business...that may be where the New York confusion comes from.) The car was originally built in/around 1934 by, as mentioned, Frank Griswold. Before it went to McMillen, it most likely passed through the hands of Saunders Draper. McMillen's record with the car in ARCA events is fairly well documented. The Shelsley Walsh hill climb he ran the car in was on September 11, 1937. He ran in Class 6 (2001 to 3000cc) and recorded a 50.16 first run a 47.32 on his second (those times are based on a program I have for the event which had all the times penciled in.) There are two theories on who actually "built" the car. Based on its construction (which is similar if not identical to a two-spring sprinter,) It could've been made by any race car builder down in PA at the time. There's also a slight chance a company called General Sheet Metal (which was out at Roosevelt Field on Long Island,) may have at least built the body. There's another detail about the car's body which I'll leave out for now... The car's history from the early 1970s on is well known, at least among the handful of us who care about these cars. I have photos of it from the mid '90s which the previous owner who donated it to the museum provided us with when we were trying to buy the car about 15 years ago. Bob (The37Kid) has photos of the car in the '70s when it was owned by Chris Eggsgaard (sp?) and has some good stories about it. Mark Smith (who left it to the museum via his will,) said he had purchased it from Steven Griswold (a well-known Ferrari/Alfa restorer in California, and also the son of Frank Griswold,) probably around when Griswold was leaving California to move overseas. I believe Bob knows of at least one other owner before or after Chris. Since Mark died and word got out that the car was donated to REVS, I've been waiting to see when/where it would pop up. I keep the register for all the known/extant ARCA cars and the history of this one is great...Originally owned by the first guy to ever officially import Alfa-Romeos into the US (and the winner of the first big race at Watkins Glen,) then owned and run by a famous architect; first American car/American driver to ever run at Shelsley Walsh, then at some point (probably post war,) repainted. I have a photograph from what seems like the early 1950s that shows the car in its current color scheme along with 16s front and rear (like it wears now...it ran Model A wheels in its earlier life.) The fenders and headlights have also been changed (the fenders used to be fixed; now they rotate when you turn the wheel.) Bob will probably chime in with what he knows...great little car. I wish it was in our garage...
Just doing my job, Boss. Also, the head is a "RECORD" head, which is a brand that there isn't too much detail about. Bob can speak on it. I think it's a European knockoff of a US head...can't remember which brand. Also, the car was most likely all black in the pre-WWII years. All the entries and documentation I have from the club it raced in have it as black, but I always thought the masked section on the tail (which has the blue underneath the gold/brown) was kind of odd...like the gold was sprayed on top of a once all-blue car. Cris
The McMillen Special can be seen multiple times in this movie from the ARCA's 1938 New London rally. The rally was initially supposed to be part of a larger event which included a "round the houses" race in New London but that was unfortunately cancelled very late in the game. Cris
Remarkable history. Note the dash does not have a hole for any gauges, not that they are necessary. Maybe the dash is a replacement and unfinished???
Absolutely stunning and magnificent that it’s survived and will continue to survive . history in the flesh as they say .
The dash appears to be original; I don't think I've seen a photo in period that shows any gauges were ever present, but I'll check my files. At one point—probably later in its life—there was a small, auxiliary gauge cluster mounted at the bottom (see photo.) Cris
this is the real deal, we have a lot of information and pictures on it in the early days just trying to find what and who had it after the war from 1948 on.
Chri shared a lot of information he seemed to know about the car. Would like him to share his knowledge with our research contact at REVE Museum.
Chris seemed to have a lot of information on this vehicle. We would like him to contact our research man at PKierstein@revsinstitute.org Paul would love to find out all he may know. Appreciate anything you might be able to know or remember. Thankyou Jim Wood
Dear Cris: I am the one researching the McMillen Special at REVS that Jim mentioned above. I have more pictures and some information. We would like to find out more about the car. Please E Mail be at the above address and I can send you some more pictures. Thank you Paul Kierstein
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