It has the feeling of an advanced high school shop project to me, or maybe a not so advanced college shop project. Cool little car, but it is certainly not an Indy car and maybe not even a real race car at all. That being said, I still dig it!
Id keep the body and wheels and build around that with a tube chassis, suspension and a good v8 of course. I agree on it being a movie car of some sort.
it would really be a shame to customize a vintage race car. It would destroy any value and history it had as a vintage race car.
I'd guess that the best clue to the identity of this car is the "eaglet" decal on the tail, which looks like branding rather than a nickname some backyard builder thought up. I did a quick search on yahoo but came up empty, but I didn't really try hard. Someone with more time and desire might be able to find the origin of the "eaglet", which I would assume is a derivative of "Eagle", as in the Eagle racers built buy Dan Gurney.
To me the car doesn't look "high tech" enough (especially suspension and drivetrain) to be a serious race car, but is almost too nice to be a scratch built toy. Kinda falls through the cracks somewhere. It would be interesting to know the history. Larry T
There are hillclimb cars that use 2 strokes or motorcycle engines and they don,t require alot of braking power. I think the one class was limited to around 800 cc. Talk to an SCCA guy who knows his stuff I'll bet he could figure this out.
EagleMotorSports. They make sprint car chassis. They used to make a "mini sprint" chassis. Class rules were 600cc engines, 12" wheels. They still make a "micro sprint" chassis. Never known them to called "Eaglet" though.
Do somemore research and restore it. I wouldn't be in a hurry to cut it up. Just my 2 cents though. I love old race cars. Tom
After looking at the pictures, it's definitely not an Indy car. Aerorocket's suggestion about it possibly being a hillclimb car is a real possibility. Cool car, none the less.
actually the name looks like "eagleto"... but that might just be the low res web version making it look like that.
It's already useable, traditional and unreal. How is cutting it up gonna change that? Looks like a prop/promotional/movie car and looks perfect to me.
neat find. by the holes in the back I would have thought i was bug powered, like some uber crazy early fromula V racer. but the sprocket may stratch that.
Before you write that off & hack it up, you should know that there were many motorcycle powered open wheel cars out there racing at one time. Here is a good example: 1958 Australian Scarab Complete with primitive suspension, triumph motorcycle engine and chain drive. The shifter in you car was configured for a motorcycle trans - push pull. Some research may make that car worth saving. It may have had a motorcycle engine in it that was worth a lot of cash. People stripped Ariel, Triumph & JAP (NOT Japanese!) engines out of those cars & sold them. B.
Yea great point and info , we are not ready to give up on it yet. I might just clean it all up make it safe, change a few things and put some type of 4 cylinder or maybe even a motorcycle engine in it. Time will only tell. Thanks for all the input and info , keep it coming!
That car was raced not that far back. A good chance someone that spent a lot of time at Pikes Peak may remember it. Those cars became SCCA Solo cars, or stayed with the hillclimbs as the smaller events to run them vanished in the 70's The tires on it say hillclimb, and back then the Peak was dirt. Look the engine bay over carefully. It was most likely a twin looking at the exhaust. Older Triumph engines had divorced gear boxes, so there will be mounts for both a transmission & an engine if it was an old Triumph. Of course Harley was the same way, but the mounts will be different. If there is only one set of mounts then it was likely a later twin with integrated gearbox. I would put a 500 to 700 cc bike engine back in it. You could mount a disc on the sprocket hub and add a small caliper to improve braking without being obvious. Newer motorcycle engines make a lot more power from the same displacement, so a 500 cc Honda twill will run better than the original Triumph did. Unless you happen to have a 750 Norton laying about... Should not be too hard to put it back together as a hill climber, and with some DOT legal skins I could see a license plate on it. I had a Formula Vee with a plate, was a lot of fun. B.
Personally, I would make it work as is. Do the research, find out what it really was. Re-power it as it was in period. DONT cut it up and make it a "custom"... it would destroy whatever value it had as a vintage racer. With it brought back to period correct specs it would likely be eligible for vintage racing events all over.. it wont be if its a "custom". A unique vintage race car that can be run at events all over the world... and one the likes of which you arent going to see very often? That has LOTS of value in the vintage racing world.
Thanks thats kindof what i was thinking , need to do some more research for sure. Like i said i do want to "use" it, and not just as a piece of art , i am not really into that scene. Again thanks for all of you guys input , really gets me to thinking!
That Australian Scarab, assuming it has a 500cc engine appears to be a Formula 3 car.The suspension is not primitive but typical as used by Cooper and others. My Cooper had the JAP engine and a Norton gearbox of the push pull, squeeze for clutch operation, and chain driven solid rear axle. The Formula 3 cars were the training ground for European Drivers such as Stirling Moss. The red car in question is a far cry from being much beyond a fancy bodied go kart judging from that front suspension (or lack there of) and what I can visually make out of the steering arrangement (I won't call it steering gear) hung on the front of the frame, and the brakes(?).
Put your glasses on. Looks to have a leading arm suspension with an eye toward reducing unsprung weight. Has dual leading shoe hydraulic drum brakes in the front - more than enough for a light car of the period. That arrangement would provide a lot of anti-dive as well. Actually fairly sophisticated. A transverse leaf spring and uprights like that scarab ARE primitive. Plenty of unsprung weight. No anti-dive. B.
Yes, thank you, I put my glasses on and I'll give you the front brakes are adequate. The rears are suspect even though the rear engine is light. Leading arm suspension? Are you referring to the rear? Isn't that trailing? I'm referring to the front and I asked earlier if that was some kind of torsion-elastic unit but it only appears to have a tie rod attached to it and is acting as a steering arm as well. I see nothing I recognize as suspension. Please help me out here. My glasses did help recognize that the steering is not what I first assumed. Looks like perhaps both tie rods are fastened to a pitman arm that may well be on a not easily seen steering box of some kind. The transverse leaf spring, lower A arm and upright was a common early independent suspension pre WWII and commonly used in many Formula 3 cars immediate post WWII. Check it out on the thumbnail, front and rear. Perhaps you and I are of vastly different eras.
Oh Jared that was so helpfull, how much would you pay for it to use it as your bed? It already has some awesome "rims". C ya in Austin! Sent from Boerne Stage Kustoms
I'd sleep in it, make some "vroom vroom " noises and all. Can't wait to see the crew next week, keep up the good work Chris!
We are from different eras. I tell all my 70+ friends to put on their glasses... Let's look at the pic together: The axle tube is rigid with the frame. The suspension is hung from the kingpin, aft of the axle tube. Whatever that round device is behind the axle on that pivot, it provides the spring & pivot. It may be a coil spring or rubber torsion, I don't recognize the specific part. Now, running forward from the spring unit toward the kingpin is an arm. This is the leading arm. It terminates very near the kingpin axis, at the backing plate. That puts the spindle inline with the kingpin - more or less because of the arc of the leading arm. Since the only unsprung parts in this design are the arm, spindle & brake / wheel it would have very low unsprung weight. The other bonus is that the steering arm does not move with suspension travel - they are turning the whole suspension. So there is zero bump steer. Somebody put a lot of thought in to that front end. That looks more like 17yr old Burt Rutan low cost racer than go-kart to me. B.
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