History Picked this up at an estate sale

So yesterday I went on an estate sale. The gentleman who passed was a mechanic and race car driver of mostly sprint cars from what I could tell. It was quite an adventure as there was a lot of cool things. I purchased this aluminum fuel tank among other things and was wondering if anybody knows what kind of race car this would have been made for? I don’t know much about early sprint car racing but this tank seems huge for that type of racing. It’s about 27 inches high 15 inches wide and 27 inches long and weighs about 18 lbs. Anybody have any ideas? Maybe an Indy car?


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Looks like a regular open wheel dirt car (sprint car) rearend shape.

Sent from dumb operator on a smart phone

 

Im thinkin old sprint car

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

Any time you see a gas tank built like that, it was used to put maximum fuel in a small place! The car it was built for needed x number of gallons to complete the race!,
What car? I don’t have a clue!







Bones

 

Must be pretty early vintage sprint cars or midgets. All modern race series require fuel cells with a composite bladder inside a steel plate enclosure.

 

Early Sprint. About right since it was probably carrying methanol or alky. No pit stops in Sprint car racing. You pull in during a race, might as well stay there..

 

This is a vintage sprint car tank that was for sale on here 5 years ago.

 

Methanol burns quick so you have carry a lot.

 

Beautiful !

Hand formed...

Zoom in close , you can see the hammer form marks..

I would love to shake the hand of the man that built it..

I would hang it on the wall in my office !

Dave

Sent from my SM-G973U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Has to be for a sprint car or champ car. A long shot guess is a tank for an outboard motor boat.

 

Except for the Little 500 in Anderson, IN. They start 33 sprints on a 1/4 mile asphalt track and run 500 laps. They do have pit stops.

 

Sprint car, probably holds about 25 gallons. Looks a lot like the tank in my first car.

 

What are the other race car goodies? Bob

 

Thanks for the input. Yeah I’ll probably hang this in the garage. These are the other items I got. Would love to build something for TROG. The console with the steering wheel has a steering box that’s stamped “GREEN” on the aluminum portion, I’ve never heard of that brand, and the bomber seat has a circular indentation in the base so I don’t know if that was a gunners seat or what? The red tail section with the number 81 is aluminum too.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Looks like you have most of the makings, when does the project start?!

 

wow - those are some real vintage treasures. I think you could build something interesting.

Check out my ongoing champ car build in my signature line.

 

I love all those parts you bought. Can’t wait to see how you use them. I especially love the grille. I was trying to emulate those shapes using this grille on my roadster.

 

I'd give that tank a polish job and hang it on a wall. What a cool piece, you really found some neat stuff!

 

That track nose is really a work of art. Congratulations of your find.

 

The aircraft filler neck and cap are probably worth more than the tank is... pretty cool find!

 

Oops..... forgot about that one...

 

@dugydog Green Engineering way back made speed equipment for Model Ts. That may be one of their products.

 

That is a cool piece of history. I'd agree with giving it a bit of but not overdone scrub job and hanging it in a place of honor unless you find enough pieces to put together a period car with it.

 

That’s good info on these items I picked up thanks guys. I try not to purchase stuff for that “someday” project as I have my hands full with my current ‘35 Ford but in this case I’m making an exception. Hopefully I can do something with this stuff in the next year or so when my Ford is complete. Famous last words right?


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

My oldest daughter has pretty much furnished her home with things from estate sales. She says, "Dead people go off and leave all kinds of cool stuff."

 

The Green is Green engineering, they were big in early model T speed equipment for sprint cars and made steering boxes and other stuff also. The gas cap on the fuel tank is WW II and was used mainly on B24 and B25 bombers, but some fighter planes also used them.

 

Methanol doesn't burn particularly quick. However, it only has half the btus per gallon of gasoline. Hence it requires twice as much to generate the heat in the combustion chamber. The great thing about it, is it doesn't knock under compression like gasoline. It is not uncommon to see a sprint car running 13.5 to 15 to one compression on methanol/alcohol. We ran a sprinter for lots of years and always burned methanol. Works good but dissappears fast because of btu problem.

 

Looks like Riley grill.

Sent from my SM-G930F using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Wow!
That’s a score in my book.
I could use some of that in my stalled sprint car project.