History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Bill Randall 1956

 

Randall received severe burns on his arm and torso from the exhaust pipe as you might imagine.

 

I just found this picture in some my father's stuff
in the attic. Not in the best of shape.
The back of it says West Springfield, Mass.

 

Bobby Boone

 

For any of you guys that were at the 2008 New Hampshire Vintage Racing Show that featured Kurtis Kraft and Arlen Kurtis was the Grand Marshal. I have listed on ebay a NOS Poster that is signed by Arlen for your collection. Just type "kurtis kraft poster".

 

For you Kurtis Kraft Midget guys, I have just listed a Layout drawing by Frank Kurtis 1948. This was reproduced in 1993 by Nick Hardie. Please read all conditions carfully.

 

Update regarding the George Shilala build book. I received an interesting email from one of our members on this site. He stated that he knew George and he told him that he started the book while working for Frank Kurtis. Well I went to the books owner and told him the story and I also said I remember seeing pages in the book that dated to 1950. I was then told that George worked for Frank untill 1952 as Forman over the Midget Department. He also said that he never went page by page thru the book but if indeed it was written from the late 40's to 1952 than it could be the Kurtis Kraft Midget build book also. He is going to go thru the book and let me know what we are dealing with here. I feel that if this is his personal Kurtis Kraft build book along with changes he made after leaving Frank and building his own midgets this brings a whole new light and value to this document. I will let you all know.

 

Sideways 27.. Thanks for the update....

 

My Rymsa checkerboard before it was painted in 58. Ben Cook11 driving at Evergreen Pa. Second pic now.

 

I finally took my model A midget rear apart today to rebuild it. Looks to be a basic rebuild with new bearings etc. One odd thing was the holes between the 2 axle halfs where you would normally be able to see inside the carrier to the spider gears was filled with lead, I guess it was an early way of locking up the spider gears to make it a locker rear???

anyone ever hear or see this done before on an early midget rear?

Paul

 

Anybody on here re-upholstered a cageless midget lately?

I am getting close to doing mine and would like to see some pics of how others have gone about the task.

 

Stan, another picture of your car in 1955. Illustrated Speedway News.

 

Thanks, John. Al Rymsa sold that car to Ben Cook. Johnny Mann was leading the Bloombsburg Fair race in the late 50`s and blew it up on the last lap. I`m still mad at him, if he won I would now own 5 winners of that prestigous race. Three of the in the Mighty Mouse and Paul Young in Kaufmans Hal in 1938 when they ran big cars at the fair.

 

This is a pre-war Hillegass. I have the upholstery out of it, stored inside for the winter, and could easily shoot some photos if its anything like what you need.

I also have access to a distressed set of original early post war Kurtis that is stored on a shelf that was replaced and here are some photos of the new installed and also photos of another pre-war, a Reichenbach.

 

Can I presume this an A without a quick change?

If so, do the axles have a 1 1/4" diameter 10 spline inner end and are removeable by pulling the wheel and hub or is it stock A axle shafts?

 

28Dreyer,

Thanks for your response. Those pictures are quite helpful.

Pictures of the old Kurtis trim set would be greatly appreciated. That way I can see the various elements of that make up the trim.

Cheers,
Fred

 

..28Dreyer.......nice photos.....nice car.....

 

28dreyer, yes this is an early (28-32) narrowed A rear that came with my midget, no quick change. here is a coupe shots of the carrier after I pulled apart. bruce lancaster called it a "Quicky locker" LOL

Paul

 

So thats what Billy Shuman doing now. Loved to watch him "Shoe" a sprint or a midget...

 

Ahhh so, yes quicky locker.


Remember the Sears...level of goods? Good Better Best

You have the Good.

A spool using splined axle shafts was the Better.

A spool in a QC housing using splined axle shafts was the Best.


The QC first appeared from Voelker about 1939 I believe.

 

I think mine was set up by a couple of farmers with a jug of shine A torch & some old battery lead...2 sides are filled real nice and the other 2 holes not so nice, I think the liquer kicked in LOL
Paul

 

Hey,Sideways,you say you have listed a KURTIS KRAFT Midget drawing. Where do i look for it. I did look at EBay but cant find it ,THANKS ,Speedie

 

Just type in "Kurtis Kraft Drawing" It will pop up.

 

Coincidentally an old Kurtis set showed up on e-bay today. Do a search on e-bay for...Item # 330902704699

Also, I will get photos of mine posted today as well.

Art

 

Here are the photos of mine. Hope they help.

The old Kurtis upholstery on e-bay (330902704699) has a wrap around for a semi containment seat on the right side. I do not, preferring a Sam Browne belt for support as commonly used in the early days.

I would ask the question of participants here...Did Kurtis ever provide a wrap around seat or were they all retrofitted? The original Kurtis upholstery a friend has, does not

 

28dreyer,
Thanks for posting the pics of the trim set . They are really helpful.

Gives me a good starting point for me and my trimmer.

Cheers,
Fred.

 

Are there any Evans-Denver steering assembly experts on here ? I have a complete aluminum Evans-Denver steering gear that I pulled off the shelf to possibly use in an old rail frame midget. Unfortunately, I have all the aluminum housing pieces in good condition, but there are no internals......shafts.....worm.....sector gear etc.
Does anybody know whether these parts were made specifically by Evans-Denver or were they adapted from other passenger.....truck....tractor gears such as Ross ?
Or even better, anybody out there have any internal parts ? Thanks

 

SIDEWAYS27, just a question on the George Shilala book.
Is the document you saw specific to Midgets or does it carry information on Kurtis midgets , Shilala midgets and George's later cars built under his own name , including his bigger cars?
I have a later Shilala Sprinter (picture included ,I hope) and a friend has the #65 Travelon Trailer.
Van at Vancraft alerted me to a "Black Book" which he said George kept with details of cars and a code of numbers stamped on them.
This he said was to track which employees had worked on and/or welded which components so that any subsequent failures could be traced back and retribution distributed (his words)
Van was closely involved and hand made every grill for George and the cars are identifyable by the grill's different shapes.
If this is the book, could you let me know where it finally ends up, or if you are going back for another look ,Ican send you the code from my car for confirmation
Many thanks ,Cheers Greg

 

Yes, this is the black book from George. I had a conversation with the person that own's the book and told him that a person on the web said he knew George and he knows all about the book and said that George started the book while working for Frank Kurtis in the late 40's and early 50's. When I told the owner this he said he wanted to take a closer look and see exactly what is in the book. I am trying to go see him on Thursday and see if he has done this. While I was looking thru the book at a few pages I noticed a page dated 1950 and another 1957 so I would say this would include both Kurtis Midgets and George's race cars. George worked for Frank as shop forman until 1952 when he left to start his own shop. I told the owner that if the first part is Kurtis midgets this makes this book a really big piece of racing history. I will post when I find out as I want to digitize this book and offer it to the racing community. At this time not sure how we are going to handle this as it is hard to let this book out of sight.

 

By the way Greg, that is a nice sprint car and I can see it has a lot of the Kurtis design built into it. If I can I will see if this car is in the book. The book is very detailed with drawings and dimensions all done by hand and included every part of the cars he built. This included every thing from the rear nerf bars to the front nerf bars and all body panels. I also looked at some pages that showed both the V8-60 and Offy motor plates to the in-out box.