Knucklehead-water-cooled & in a midget race car!

[Fire-medic]

I don't care who you are, this is cool! I had a friend in MI whose dad owned an Indy car team, racing from the early 1950's into the late 1970's, and this is just a cool construction. He ran midgets too, and I used to go w/them to watch them run the midget. Midgets are a very interesting source of racing lore in America. They were often higher-tuned than the Championship Cars as the Indy cars were then referred-to. Essentially, they were smaller versions of the Champ Cars. In the Formula Libre races of the 1950's, which was pretty-much a 'run-what-you-brung' class, the midgets accounted very well for themselves, even against Formula 1 cars of the day. Look-up the Monza Italy races of the late 1950's where USA dirt track & paved track racers went to Italy to run against whatever the Brits & Europeans could muster against them. Jaguar D-Types, Birdcage Maseratis, some of the finest racers of the day, and the Americans accounted very well for themselves. My buddy's father was one of the Americans who took his car to these races, but didn't have the luck to finish. Fast, but broke during the race.

So, look at this elder representative of racing in an earlier time, and see what a creative mind can do. The guy who built the engine is Dale Drake of Meyer-Drake Offenhauser fame. Meyer and Drake bought the company after Offenhauser went belly-up. The Offenhauser was a close copy of the Miller, which was a copy of the pre-WW I Peugeot DOHC racer. Story is, two of the Peugeots came to America to race at tracks of the era, but only one returned to Europe. The other one was 'reverse-engineered' and the Harry Miller engine which was eventually to morph into the Offenhauser was one result.

Look at the starting line-ups for nearly any of the Indy 500's in the 1950's/'60's and see what powered the racecars.

http://youtu.be/bu-2SsGiESc

Be sure to see the video, great shots of a bygone era of racing! A great soundtrack of the engines too!

Water Cooled Drake Harley Davidson Powered Midget Racer

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 8/3/2012
in Engines, Motor Vehicles
Water cooled Drake Harley Davidson powered midget racer ? click to enlarge

These so seldom come up for sale, I wanted to be sure to bring it to your attention, it?s a midget racer powered by a Harley Davidson knucklehead with Drake water cooled cylinders. These are such a neat car and engine combination. As I mentioned in another post:

Dale Drake ? took a Harley Davidson Knucklehead engine and installed water cooled cylinders. The result was an 89 cubic inch V-twin that was 10 percent smaller than the Offy midget engines then used but it was lighter at 185 pounds and had more torque and seemed to get better traction on slick dirt than the Offenhauser.
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Water cooled Drake Harley Davidson powered midget racer engine bay

There were, according to the seller, something like 400 Drake engines made, though only a few remain. It?s a pretty interesting non-factory engine variant, Dale Drake decided to do it, and he did. I like it!
Link: Drake powered midget racer on eBay
Drake Harley Davidson knucklehead engine

Drake knucklehead midget racer