tex44 Posted May 10, 2007 Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 Can't talk of the Dirt Champ Cars without a picture of the Texan "A.J.Foyt" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted May 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 How 'bout dim oil scalders! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neon14 Posted May 11, 2007 Report Share Posted May 11, 2007 A.J Foyt won a midget race in Corpus Christi. Would this have been CC Speedway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 11, 2007 Report Share Posted May 11, 2007 yes it was CC Speedway, and the sprint car race the month before was Meyer Speedway, Houston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted May 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 Tex, I couldn't help notice the blue oval on the nose of the Foyt car. You suppose that thing has that Ford DOHC 289 they produced specifically for indy car racing for a while back in the 60's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 12, 2007 Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 thats a good eye Budman, yes thats the DOHC ford. AJ had the engine shop that built those motors after Ford got out of racing. Ford turned over all their inventory and basically everything they had related to the motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasprd Posted May 12, 2007 Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 I always thought that was a neat-looking engine - too bad they didn't come in the Mustang! I know he had his own Indy car chassis program (the Coyote?) - I can't remember if he also had his own Indy engine program and if so, was it related to this engine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted May 12, 2007 Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 Tex and Buddy, Also known as the Foyt Coyote V8. Did they build a 289 version of the engine? The Indy engines were 255 cubic inches. The original idea for this engine came about as a request from Colin Chapman, who was then the Chief of Lotus cars, and wanted Ford to build the engine for his rear engine cars. Lotus had two cars in the 1963 Indy 500, with Jim Clark and Dan Gurney, and they were running an all aluminum version of the Ford OHV small block. They were down about 80 horsepower to the Offys, but the Lotus cars were about 450 pounds lighter than the roadsters everyone was running. 1964 is when Chapman convinced Ford to build the 4 cam engine. Another interesting aspect of this engine is in the Indy cars, the exhaust came out between the cylinder heads. In the sprint cars, it came out below the intake stacks. These engines also saw some use in the original Ford GT40's, specifically the MK 1 version in 1964, although in race trim, the 289 OHV engine was more popular than the 4 cam. And with all that mass in the cylinder heads, and the gear drives, the whole engine package only weighed 400 pounds. Here is a pic of the gear drive for ya. What drove the 4 cam ford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted May 12, 2007 Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 That makes me DIZZY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted May 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2007 Ford under Iacocca in the '60s did some amazing things in the high performance area. Then along came the oil embargo in the early '70s and they dumped all of their high performance programs. Sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 Sammy Sessions Houston Astrodome 1969 Billy Vukovich Jr. Houston Astrodome 1972 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texastracker Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 How often did they run at the Astro? Could this been the idea behind the Chilli Bowl? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 15, 2007 Report Share Posted May 15, 2007 They ran 3 times in the Astrodome 1969,1970 and 1972. The 1972 race ended it for the Astrodome when the cars started runnin through the infield cause the track was too rough. USAC didn't stop the race and warn them so basically they ran 40 of the 50 laps in the infield. Cost to clean all 50,000 seats and completely rebuilt the air conditioning system from the dust was estimated to be $100,000.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted May 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 Oophs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 Pan American early 70's Frans Gillibard / Edmunds/ Offy Ricci Ware Sr. / Marvin CLark's Kurtis-Copy / ChevyII Jackie Burke / Bill Todd's Kurtis / ChevyII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 John Logan at Pan American 1973 Kurtis Midget Roadster - ChevyII There were only 10 of these roadsters built by Kurtis, only 2 are known to exist today. This car is in a private museum in Michigan, the other is in Australia Wayne Rutherford at Pan American 1973 Scott Hunter's Kurtis - ChevyII. Wayne is the younger brother of Johnny Rutherford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 Jerry Jones at Austin 1974 Edmunds - Sesco This picture was taken during hot laps on the night Jerry would go on to win the Trophy Dash, then be fatally injured in his heat race. RIP Jerry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 16, 2007 Report Share Posted May 16, 2007 Sonny McDaniel at Austin 1973 Adolf Rommells - Edmunds - Offy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neon14 Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 On the pick of the Rutherford car, what is the big lever on the outside on the car for? And also, some of the old midgets had a canister mounted on the left side of the car outside the drivers compartment. What was this used for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 For this era of Midget, My guess on the lever for in gear or not. Not sure about this car, but the midgets these days have a handle that engages gears in the quick change. The canister you are thinking about on the old pre-war style midgets is the fuel pump. In the pic below that was previously posted here by TEX44, Doc Cossey here in the foreground has his hand on a similar lever. In this era of midget that lever is the brake. Behind it is the fuel pump you mentioned. They basically drove with the right hand, while alternately switching the left hand from the pump to the brake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted May 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Tex, You've posted some Astrodome pics. Do you have any information on who won those and who some of the drivers were? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Neon14, Guessing on the rutherford car, I'm gonna say that proably was a weight jacker. That was a little too late of a car for that to be the brake the old cars used. Alot of the cars from the 70's to the 90's used a weight jacker so the driver could change the weight as the track changed. Easy to get you in trouble too...LOL Budman, Lee Kunzman won the first one I think, can't recall who won the second one. A.J. won the 3rd and last one. Correction on that, Tom Biglow won the first, Kunzman the second and then A.J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Here Ya Go Budman, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex44 Posted May 18, 2007 Report Share Posted May 18, 2007 Budman, Your pictures from Pan American in 1966. Someone identified the driver of the 21 Ace Haas car, its Cotton Farmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted May 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2007 Tex, That drivers list from '69 is nothing short of incredible! What's really ashame is it took 35 years to get USAC Midgets back to Texas. The USAC National Midget Series was at THR last October and again in April, with 30 midgets on hand. Both events were rained out. Who knows if or when they'll ever be back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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