This was brought in yesterday by a collector looking for my friend to restore it into a racer complete with running engine etc. We are stumped on it's design. Is it a one off? or what. Radiator is up front, hoses connect to the frame, engine is in the rear, driver in the center. No history on this so we are starting from nothing. Thought someone on the forum might have an insight into this mystery. Your thoughts?????
Looks Sprint or up right Big Car (Indy), several builders Kurtis Kraft, Hillegass and some homemade. A little strange that it has 1/4 elliptical springs. It looks to big to be a midget.
A few of the NE super-modifieds were rear engine IIRC. Almost surely a one-off/homebuilt. Interesting.
I missed the fact it is Mid-Engine, I think some people played around with mid engine sprint and midgets, mostly asphalt.
I saw a picture of a car of that configuration that ran on the dirt tracks in Kansas in the '50's-'60's. As I remember it was flathead powered. I'll post the picture if I can find it (I have boxes and boxes of magazines). Given you're in Vermont, it's probably and east coast car, though.
I remember seeing some pictures long ago of that configuration. Don't think it was ever perfected though. Still, cool as hell!
More communication with the owner this morning. He has had the frame for twenty years and he lives out in the Binghamton NY area (the southern tier of NY). In his research all he has been able to find out is that it may have been built for and by Tommy Concannon of NYC, possibly at Bomar and Marks Tank and Valve Co. He suggests that there was input from Zora Duntov circa 1948. The bracket in the rear was designed to hold the rear end in the middle of the frame thru the use of a bearing that was attached to the rear and traveled vertically in the slot. It must of had a flathead, we think a 60, as there are 4 stubs (2 on each side of the frame front and back) that the four hoses were attached to for water circulation thru the frame and up to radiator in the front. Crazy stuff! Can't figure out yet how they would have placed the engine and transmission in the space allocated between the center bracket and the rear. Maybe a in/out box??? Can't see where any linkage for gas, brakes etc have ever been attached to the frame. It has us guessing1 What fun
Did it run Shangri-La speedway southern tier in the they ran as specials. Was it one of the Mid-State Stockcar club guys who owned the chassis? Dick or Jeff Ackerman, or JohnMason? Looks like the type of thing one of them would dig up. Supers have run in/out boxs for a long time.
There was a time when a lot of unusual stuff was tried with the supers, but most were either slow or, if fast, banned! Gary
My car (built in 1965), is what they called a "Modified Stock Car" in Minnesota back in those days. Cars that I would consider "Super-Mods" didn't start showing up here until about 1969. That being said, it had an in/out box from the day it was built. Also, it is my opinion that the 1948 date mentioned is too early for this chassis.
Is there any indication that it was ever run? it may have been someone's wet dream that never went beyond what you see.
Don't really know. There are witness marks on the centering bracket in the rear from the vertical movement of a rear but oddly no marks for all the other attachments that surely would have been necessary like brakes etc.
Check out these web sites- http://www.jakessite.com/page1.html http://www.jakessite.com/07/re/ http://motorcaster.com/resc/rear-engine-sprint-car.html http://www.retrorockets.org/feature_rearengines/feature_rearengines.htm I don't think this is the car, but very similar.
Contact Oswego Speedway in Oswego N.Y. they still run Supers and have a good sense of their history. http://www.oswegospeedway.com/
Post on the vintage sprint car thread that is huge on the HAMB. Also, contact the EMMR Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.
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