History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Speaking of Rex Easton, I remember seeing a famous picture of him holding on to a rear radius rod that had broken off at the chassis, still hard on the throttle. It didn't appear to slow him down at all, that is when "men were men".

 

I believe the correct spelling, and name, was JOHNNY PAWL.

 

If you really want to pick nits, his name was Johnny Pawlowicz. His father was Russian and his mother was Austrian.

 

Some you guys might want to call a guy in Gresham, Oregon, He has a lot of Midget history, and had some Offies, Ford 60's parts, etc. Havin' a tuff time, maybe buy some parts from him. Maybe even an old car.
Does not do "puter stuff " word of mouth only, city won't let him have a sign,, Name is Jack Corley @ 503-667-1725

 

Can anyone explain the story behind the hand brake on the old cars?

Thanks,
Andy

 

I appreciate the correction and never knew of his ancestry.

 

I not sure if I'm right, but my personal experance with an Offy was the engine had enough compression to slow you in a race unless you were in crash mode or coming in the pits and it made it easy to unload.

 

How old is old?

All of the above reasons plus in the case of many pre-WWII and some post war, there was only a drum brake on the left rear and it has been said that applying the brake helped to get around the turn. Maybe with a diferential, but with a locked rear axle, I would need to be convinced.

Now coming down a straight and using the brake to help pitch the car would be a diferent story.

Today the brakes are also for starting the engine by locking the wheels to minimize the driveline shock from the push truck getting you rolling. The real early cars were either pushed by your pit crew (some had clutches) or towed with a rope, there were no rear push bars.

 

I had also heard that after Bill Schindler lost his leg in 1936, his car owner put a hand brake on the midget.

 

A lot of the early midgets did not have a foot brake; I remember an old rail frame Ford 60 that Johnny Logan, the supermodified driver from Charlotte, MI, picked up somewhere in the 60 never did get a foot brake on it.

Our old rail was set up so the hand brake only actuated the rear brakes and the foot brake hit all four wheels. This was really for push starting the car, but it could be advantageous on some tracks during the race.

Doc

 

I have no experience with the 1/18th scale GMP midgets (I build in 1/25th scale) but I know several friends and builders who love them as well. I understand that since GMP went out of business, their midget kits are getting hard to find.

 

Again, how old is old.

I would guess that almost all pre WW II cars had mechanical brakes and on the left rear only, or both rears only. It was originally easy to route a pull rod from a hand lever on the outside left of the car to the left rear.

Later we see the outside lever connected to a shaft going across the chassis with a pull rod on both sides. Then came conversion to hydraulic on both sides, with the outside handle now operating a push rod to the master cylinder which was commonly mounted outside the frame rail and then again later, inside the frame rail, but still mostly no inside brake foot pedal.

My updated old pre War V8-60 had only the outside handle operating an inside the rail frame master cylinder with Airheart single piston calipers on the rear only. While running a Vintage meet on a 1/3 asphalt track I had the throttle jam going into a turn. While honking on the bake lever with my left hand, I had all I could do to turn the car with my right hand while flipping the kill switch with my fingers and still needing to uncog.

That is why when I did my current pre War car, I put in a foot brake that operates the master cylinder but retained the outside brake handle to operate the brakes mechanically (it has rear only) as an option to remain classic and for brake operation when off loading from the open trailer.

 

It was the most common practice to use adapted Model T Ford Brake handle, cross-shaft (with the "U" shape in center, to clear the drive-shaft), bottom rail mounting brackets, and outer cross-shaft, brake-link cast ends. It was more common to use both rear brakes than one. This set-up was commonly used on Both pre-war midgets AND sprint cars. The cast brackets (in which the cross-shaft rotated) that mounted to the flat bottom of the rail frames, could be easily slid inward or outward to match the width of the frames. Actually this photo would be a Reverse, or the mounting, as the long brake handle would almost always be on the left side of the car.
Many of the pre-war midgets also used a cut-down/narrowed (about 3.25 inches on EACH side) Model T rear end. Almost always from the 1926 and 1927 Model T, that had the Larger brakes. Many of the early, pre-war Sprint cars used a Model A rear end, and this Model T handle and cross-shaft also worked with them too.

 

The first Midget I drove for Max Reichenbach At Joliet Ill. was a Ford 60 with a hand brake only and a hand fuel pump, BK

 

As nice as the GMP cars were, I'd venture to say that they came around at the wrong time and at the wrong price, which, it sure seems could be the reason for their demise?

 

We've begun work on a history of Max Reichenbach, noted Chicago area car builder, in cooperation with his family. It would be great to hear from any of you with stories of Max, his son-in-law Bill Krueger, or the cars he built.
I only met Max once, in the early 1970s, when I borrowed my father's station wagon to pick up a cage kit for our crashed Hamburger-Chevy II.

Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois

 

Tom, these GMP midgets are quite nice, and you can find them quite reasonable on ebay, as well as at various swap meets. GMP made a lot of these, and collectors who bought up all the variants are starting to sell off their collections. I have a few, but I would never pay the list price for any of these fine diecast cars (I paid three bucks for the Caruso Offy).
Here's a sample:

 

I have the complete run of GMP midgets and will not parting with any for $3....LOL
My favourite GMP releases are the 1/12th dirt champ cars. Having never seen a champ car in anger on dirt, I just sit back ...look at my model and wonder what it would have been like.
Here's 1 of mine. I recall purchasing this by Fax from GMP on the day it was released as they weren't available in Australia back them.

 

I wouldn't mind finding one of those monsters in 1/1 scale that runs! Great model, though I'd be afraid to ask what the price was. If you go to Youtube, you can find old films of dirt champ cars in action.
How many GMP midgets were in the series?

 

gotta be tough to drive it. Very cool great post.

 

Thank you Joe, and all others. Now I understand.

 

Bob, I can understand your wondering. I watched this car win at the Indiana State Fairgrounds mile dirt with Al Unser Sr. driving, from the inside of the fourth turn. It was really something to see those things go by.

 

The Lu Holland V8-60 at Webster City, IA 2008.

Notice the identically painted and numbered sprinter in the background.

 

This is a hand made (no kit) of Johnny Ritter's 3# my uncle made.

 

That is a truely nice one-of-a-kind replica. Congrats to your uncle on some really fine work.

 

Here's the real deal - Johnny Ritter in his own Offy.

 

My 1937 midget has a kill switch on the top of the brake handle and I am sure it was placed there for the reason you stated (throttle sticking open).
While racing in the 60's I had my throttle stick at the start of the race, I was on the pole going into the first turn and before I could hit the switch while my foot was pushing the brake to the floor the car's right front wheel climbed the car next to me and went over his hood. Lucky for him he had a roll cage. Im not sure of what would have happend but it would have not been good.

 

Since you guys are talking pre-war midgets, did the always have in & out box's on them? the midget I have is from that time period and judging by the space I have between the back of the un-cut V8-60 bellhousing & the end of the torque tube an in & out box would have to be pretty long in length or as long as a v8-60 trans. I have a stock v8-60 trans but hesitate to install it if it was not common to have one in a midget? I guess back then as well as today there were always guys who could not afford to run the best stuff & substituted it for OEM stuff? Just want your opinions I have to lay out the re-assembly of my midget based on the shortened T-tube that came with it & engine placement based on the body/firewall location.

paul

 

This information really helps me with dating my midget I am glad you guys brought the hand brake topic up. My midget is a rail frame, narrowed model A rear (5 pin) with model T spring & left rear mechanical brakes only, the front end is a narrowed model A i- beam with 5 pin hubs as well. the original nose was one of theose box'y type but is now a conventional midget nose (1950's), the body (tail) is also more like a 50's High tail.
from what I am reading & seeing if it was pre-war wouldn't the tail be flat with no top on it? Maybe someone rebodied it at a later time.

paul