Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

When it was active link will only show this cover for a week, from Pinner's supermodified past programs page): http://www.gosupers.com/cover.html

 

The Bardahl (KK500B), the Bowes (Epperly laydown), and the Mid Continent Securities Spl (Epperly laydown that was formerly restored by Bill as the Autolite Special)....was the $500 mentioned per car or on an escalating scale similar to Milwaukee??.....Joe

 

A challenge! Does anybody recall in 1956 at Winchester a sprint car that had a female owner and a black mechanic. What is the name of the mechanic?

 

I was going to guess that it was possibly Rajo Jack but he died in February of 1956.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajo_Jack

 

Had something funny happen today that I think you guys will enjoy...A friend of mine who knows very little about the vintage racing days at Indy commented on a recent picture of me driving Akin's Mid Continent Sec Spl and the caption read: "Trusty stooge Joe K driving the MCSS at Indy" and he thought the "stooge" comment was an insult!!

Long story short-The first time I met the infamous A.J. Watson, he said "oh yea, you're one of Akin's stooges" and I admit not being knowledgeable at that time - it kinda pissed me off!!!!! Later that night Bill explained to me that was quite a compliment....the next year I told Mr. Watson about this and his instant reply (in typical Watson style) was: "Son, you're real lucky - I always had two classes of stooges - - "Stooges and Fu%#ing Stooges" ...I was honored to be in the "upper" class according to him!! I promise on an Offy crankcase this actually happened!.......Joe

 

Joie Ray ?

 

I'd give my left nut to drive one of those at the speedway!!!

 

Talk to Bill sometime....He thinks a lot of you Roy...never know, might even get to SAVE your left nut! Joe

 

Could he have been Charlie Wiggins from Indianapolis>

 

Here's a link to some info about Charlie Wiggins here on the HAMB. There appears to be a woman standing next to him while seated in a racer, but this picture looks a lot earlier than 1956.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=11192

 

Gentlemen, does anybody have any recollections of a Bob Pankratz Sprint Car??
I am reasonably confident that it was #98 with red numbers and I am absolutely certain it was black with red upholstery.
(evidence when the upholstery studs were un-rivetted, where the undertray louvres were badly paint-stripped and inside the opening for the filler cap)
It has the pivotting weight jacking system (same as Pankratz fitted to the Molloy car)on its front cross spring which is a "Hollywood Spring and Axle" unit, still has a "Culver City " 2 inch axle rear end, Nordern steering and Halibrand disc brakes .
The rear end is long parallel torsion bars (41") .
It may have been fitted with a small Dodge hemi as there are fill ins in the hood ,but is now fitted with a Chev with a very small injector which Hilborn say , by the serial number , is the earliest one they know of that survives.
Oh , something unusual , the louvres in the undertray slant forward at the top and are not the usual straight up and down ones.The body panels are beautiful, oxy welded, and fit perfectly so a real craftsman has been involved in the work.
I hope these sketchy clues might jog some one in Southern Californias memory!!
Cheers Greg

 

Does it have a tube or rail frame? / hairpin or 4 link front?

 

Here is a summary of what I currently know about this car...always seeking more though. There are more photos of the car beginning on page 1072 of this thread.

Hi All,

Seeking information and the possible whereabouts of the sprint car that my late father-in-law Jim Yoshida owned/built with Hank Higuchi in the mid to late 50's. The car won the 1957 CRA Championship driven mostly by Billy Cantrell, but was also driven by Jack Rounds, Johnny Paulson, Jack Gardner and Jim Hurtubise...although I have yet to confirm that Hurtubise actually drove the car. Jack Gardner drove it at St. Paul in 1957.

The car featured a Lujie Lesovsky tube chassis, hairpin front end, central front and rear axles...the front axle and steering box were both '29 Franklin. Torsion bar rear suspension. QC, axles and 4-wheel spot brakes were all Halibrand. Hank Henry hand-formed the body. Powerplant was a Wayne 12 port head on a GMC 6 cylinder built by Jim Yoshida. The car had a lot of success in the West, but struggled against the Offy's on the large half mile tracks. It was featured in the April 1957 issue of HOT ROD Magazine. The article and accompanying photos by Eric Rickman was titled 'Hi Torque Sprint'.

Sometime after 1957 and quite possibly closer to 1960 (This is where the water gets murky) Hank Higuchi campaigned the car in the Midwest and East. I have no confirmation of where it raced during this period. What I do know is that Steve Stapp aquired the car sometime during this era and put a V8 in the car and continued to run it...where and for how long remains a mystery at this point. I spoke to Steve about a decade ago and he told me he had some success with it, but could not recall where the car ended up. Jim Yoshida was still alive then and I made every effort I could at the time to locate the car or any of its recounted racing history. I thought both worthy of saving and I wanted Jim to have a hand in the possible reconstruction of the car...I stress 'possible'. Unfortunately Jim passed away in 2006 and all of my leads to the whereabouts of his championship winning car went cold...

We were recently told by Jimmy Oskie that Tad Kitano had the original Wayne head that was on the car. Tad passed away a few years ago and we are still trying to confirm all of this. All of the known color photographs that exist of the car were taken by Tad.

It was a beautiful car that would've been hard to miss on race day, but I don't know how much if any it changed visually once Steve Stapp campaigned it.

I know that 50+ years is a lot of time to cover and there's no doubt a lot has happened in that time period, but I'm once again seeking the proverbial 'needle in a haystack' hoping there are some stones yet unturned regarding this car. I have seen more than one amazing reunion occur between man and machine on these pages and others like them...

Please, do tell what you know. Thanks in advance for your time and recollections...

Best regards,

Gary Wise & Jamie Yoshida

 

HAMB N EGGER, it is a tube frame with a hairpin front end.Tubular front axle with International spindles, Left hand (or inside of track )drag link , steering arm and hand brake lever.Front axle and rear axle both central with the frame, not offset.
Does any of that help??
Cheers Greg

 

Actually I had the question about the frame/hairpins, anyway, all the Pankratz sprints/midgets, that I've seen, had 4 link front axles but his champ cars had hairpins.

 

Am sure Tom Malloy is interested in this.....

 

Rootie, hamb n egger, thanks for the hairpin question.
I guess I am trying to get to the truth rather than the answer that might serve me the best!!
I have posted questions about this car before but was trying a different angle.
I might still be barking up the wrong tree!!
It was bought as a Shilala, but was found next to 2 Pankratz midgets, was black which was Pankratz preferred colour, was number 98 which relates to Pankratz and had a Pankratz type jacking system.
The only thing that really names it as a Shilala is the fuel filler cap which has "Shilala Speed Supply" cast inside. The fitment of this to the bladder tank looks to me as though it has been cut from an Indy Roadster and grafted on as it doesnt centralise to the tank properly.
As a sprint car , the hairpins have certainly been cut and shortened as has the chassis and the undertray and the centre section of the hood is not original but the flare is.
When I park it next to the Ernie ruiz Travelon Trailer #65 sprinter which is a documented Shilala it is "Similar" ,but not identical.
It really is one of those cars that asks more questions than it answers.
The other people supposedly associated with it apart from Pankratz were:
Roy Prosser, Jim Devitt, and Floyd Demmit.
It is a car that certainly wasnt built to go to the store to get the milk and paper, so the mystery remains.
Any more thoughts on a cut and shut, a possible perpetrator ,or an original identity??
No body but a mother takes pictures of an ugly baby ,but this car is pretty , somebody must have loved it !!
Oh , it has brackets for front shocks like those on the Henry & James special but with the shocks parallel to the car , not across (just another clue)
Thanks again , cheers Greg

 

Thank you trentesept...Are you saying the spindles, drag link, steering arm and hand brake lever are all International? If yes, what kind of International?

The front axle and steering box are both '29 Franklin. Steering box was 6 to 1.

My apologies if we are talking about two different cars...I was referring to the Henry & James car...seems some of your cars features are similar. Carry on...

 

Could be Pankrantz built just the body for somebody else's frame. (?) Here's a shot of Malloys champ car for comparison though it seems to me it would be hard to mistake it as a sprint car even with a shortened w/b.

 

Thanks so much,
No it is definitely not the Pankratz malloy , it just has that same jacking system in Rooties photo .It is also not the Henry and James.
I will try to put up some photos

 

I worked in a welding sprint car shop in

Albuquerque in the 1990's. A old tymer sprint

car guy named Wayne Miller brought in parts of

an old sprinter,,a coupla boxes of parts,

bent up parts of the frame.

Said it was the ECCA special. We built it into

roller,,he took it to his house,, he and his son,,

Jerry Miller of Indy got it some what finished.

Dave Malcolm ,, of Malcolm towing got it into

his shop,, did more work.

Not sure of sequence of events,, Wayne passed on,

the car was in several museums around the country.

The people that would know the history of all this

is Jerry Miller in Indy,, and Dave Malcolm in Alb.

And how it finally ended up in the Unser museum.

I tried to see the car,,wanted to take pics,

as when we built it,, it was blue, number 3.

I was informed by the Unser group rather rudely,,

No Pics. I laughed,,, Hey,,I helped build this

car from a pile of rubble.

 

There's about a dozen pictures of the restored ECCA car towards the bottom of the photo page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unser-Racing-Museum/186559092543
I've come across conflicting info on the origins and early history of the car, but one thing is for sure it was the 'E-ticket' ride to the big time for several drivers.

 

Fella,s
This is a good read and has images of the Anderson car that arrived in 1971.

 

to kick off Super Bowl Sunday

 

Is that a shock mounted to the steering arm on the 2nd car? The closest one looks American. But, the other two look like they have some European influence. I assume the oldest one is the closest and the newest one is the on the far side.

 

They are all American built by Frank Kurtis.

 

Coulda used one at TWS.
Right Tom and Randall? :>)

 

The Bad Mans rocket ship.

 

Johnny didn't like this thing. Never sorted out the independent front suspension. I believe the shock was on the pitman arm to stop the chatter/feedback in the front end.

Easter, the 6 was the Novi Bobby U drove in 1963

 

Without ya'lls knowledge, those yellow cars look like mid 50's in the front, late 50's in the middle, and early 60's on the top. I figured they were all American, the last two just look the builder saw something overseas especially on the front end. Jim, the 1963 car looks like it has the rear end style of a 1963 Vette. I think this era of cars was the most beautiful in history.

There seem to be a lot of "car building" shows on TV: from Foose to The Count. How cool would it be if all those old builders were here and active and we had Racecar Build Off's?