I was doing a little Saturday night surfing, and I ran across a very cool website. www.rumbledrome.com/30stats.html. I am a huge fan of vintage dirt track racing as I am sure most of us on here are. This site has stats and some very cool pictures of tracks all over the US.including Indy. Here are a couple of samples from Mines Field <ST1<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comUS</ST1Mines Field</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Calif</st1:State></ST1, witch is now LAX. Enjoy.
Fucking sweet !! Theres a track next to me that had a wooden race track with high banks they would race at.... The Rockingham Park in Salem NH. Although I have never found anymore info or pictures.
Many used modified production car chassis like Essex...anything that would lend itself to conversion into a 3 or 4 spring car. That car in your picture is a Miller...it's got its own chassis. Cris
how many millers were there? I have read tons of books on the pre-war cars and there should be about 50 millers and at least as many straight 8's if not double that with superchargers... than the Offy midgets come to mind..droool
The picture of the 34 Roadsters seems to remind me that there was a series back then that was using them as the chosen vehicle. Probably why there are so many in one place.
As to the chassis most of the AAA cars at Indy in the twenties (and most of the big boys running the board tracks) were running Duesenberg or Millers. If you ever study the Millers they are works of art and function. If you study every part on the suspension you will be amazed at the amount of thinking and craftsmanship that went into every part. The shift handles are hollowed and still they put in lightening holes. When I have looked at the front brake mechanisms I just shake my head as to how nice they made everything. The Miller team was made up of a number of people but the main four thinkers/craftsmen were, Harry Miller, Fred Offenhauser, Leo Goosen and Myron Stevens. Harry was a real thinker but Goosen and Offenhauser were the real engineers behind most things mechanical. Myron Stevens was the fabricator extrordinaire. He built most of the bodies and most of the frames for the chassis for the Millers during this era. He also would fabricate the headers out of a flat sheet and the first set I believe took him 40 hours. Duesenberg autos were built mainly to keep Fred and Augie Duesenberg in the racing business and there cars were also works of art. Much of what either the Duesenberg brothers or Miller and company put on their racing cars was done in house. The castings would often be farmed out but they trusted their own to do the final machining. Some of what I call the state fair racers were built from stripped down light passenger cars but the big boys purposefully built every part to the cars. Look at a frame on an early Dues or a Miller and then look at one of the regular racers and you will see how light weight and well thought out every piece was. The picture below has Frank Lockhart in the sweater (his promoter is the suit) while they were building the Stutz Blackhawk for the record attempts. Myron Stevens is the guy in the background with the hammer as he was forming the bodywork. Although he has not been given as much credit as the three of the Miller triumvirate, I believe he had as much talent as any of them and is the only one of the group to have ever driven a racecar in competition (driving Millers at Indy in the thirties).-Jim
Thanks for all the great info. I see on the www.milleroffy.com site they archive the Leo Goosen drawings. Are these available to the public? Thanks
They don't appear to be but... (?) Look up- mac miller- on the HAMB members list and check out his photo link. He doesn't post here much but is active on the Track Forum board. Quite the expert on old Indy cars and restores and repops them.
I bought an 18" X 24" print of a Leo Goossen assembly drawing of the 270 Offy from Gordon Eliot White. As it was about 50 years old and hand-drawn originally, it wasn't in the best of condition. I re-drew it in Autocad (with a disclaimer) and sold a bunch of them on eBay several years ago. They frame up nice ! This is the drawing that race car builders would have used when designing the chassis' for these cars.
I have no good way to plot them anymore. My old plotter uses pens and they are difficult to find and, when you find them, the price is outrageous. I'll check with a local reproduction place to see if they can plot them to bond paper.
The Jalopy Journal
