Welcome back! We’re eleven letters deep into the alphabet, and today we’re taking a look at a couple of incredibly cool ways to die – I mean, go fast – from ages past. Think your friend’s Civic with the eBay turbo setup is scary? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
We wrapped up last week with a couple of British cars that haven’t seen the road in years. A lot of you thought they were both too much of a project to take on, but as I have said before, that’s not how the game is played. You gotta choose. V8 power won the day, as it so often does, as the Jensen Interceptor took home a decisive win over the Jaguar Mark II.
The Jensen would be my choice too. And I don’t think I’d bother restoring it; just get it running well and enjoy it, rust and all. But what about the holes in the hood, you ask? Slap a high-rise intake on that 440, and you have an excuse to take the hood off altogether. Problem solved.
It has been said that the first automobile race happened a few minutes after the second automobile was built. There’s something about cars, and driving, that just makes people want to see who’s faster. Over the years, we have invented dozens, maybe hundreds, of ways to race cars, and built cars in countless different ways to run those races. Often such race machines end up either being torn apart for parts to build the next racer, or hauled off to the junkyard after pushing the limits too far. The two cars we’re going to look at today survived such fates, and are ready to relive their glory days – if you’re brave enough to try.
1947 Kurtis Kraft Midget Racer – $19,900
Engine/drivetrain: 200 cubic inch flathead inline 4, three-speed manual, RWD
Location: Norwalk, OH
Odometer reading: What odometer?
Operational status: “Ready to drive, show, and enjoy”
Auto racing is not a cheap sport, as we all know. Speed costs money, after all, and one little mistake could take your whole investment away in a split second. It’s why sponsorship deals are so crucial to professional racing teams. But there is a whole spectrum of less expensive and more accessible forms of racing, in which “the little guy” can have a chance at glory. In the 1930s, “Midget” race cars emerged, small lightweight single-seat cars powered by simple four-cylinder engines, and while the cars have gotten faster and a little more complicated, the basic idea remains the same: Put the car on like a suit, go fast, don’t die.
Kurtis Kraft, of Glendale, California, was a legendary builder of race car chassis, with many Indianapolis 500 titles to its name, but it also built midget racers like this one. Most Kurtis midgets, as well as its Indy cars, were powered by the celebrated “Offy” dual overhead cam four-cylinder, but this one appears to have a Ford Model A engine. It’s a flathead four with plenty of go-fast parts including twin carbs and a really cool-looking finned aluminum head. There’s a video of it running in the ad; it sounds terrific. A three-speed manual, probably also Ford, sends power to the rear axle, located directly under your butt. That rear axle, by the way, features the car’s only brakes – the front wheels are just free-wheeling.
It’s cramped inside; you’re basically straddling the transmission, with the shift lever between your legs. There’s a five-point safety harness and a simple hoop of a roll bar to keep you “safe.” You’ve got a steering wheel, a few basic gauges, and some toggle switches to control everything – and that’s it. And whatever you do, don’t hang your right arm out the side; that’s the exhaust right there next to you.
But you have to admit, it looks cool, and a couple dozen of them sliding sideways around a dirt oval is even cooler. Obviously you would have to find vintage events if you wanted to actually run it on a track, but just in case you do, it comes with a trailer to get it there, as well as a bunch of extra wheels and tires, some body panels, and a roll cage, in case the little hoop doesn’t feel like enough.
1951 Kaiser Henry J Gasser – $33,900
Engine/drivetrain: 355 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Commerce Township, MI
Odometer reading: 60,000 miles (but probably not accurate)
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Drag racing is motorsports in its simplest form: line up two cars next to each other, set up a finish line a quarter-mile away, and hit it. First car across the line wins. To do it well, though, requires lightning-fast reaction times, nerves of steel, and a carefully set-up car. Several different classes of drag racers have come and gone over the years, but one of the coolest has got to be the “Gasser” class, popular in the 1950s and 60s. Gassers were production cars modified for drag racing, with big engines, big rear tires, and usually sky-high front ends, intended to transfer weight more quickly to the rear tires. Because power-to-weight ratio was all-important, smaller cars were popular, such as this Kaiser Henry J.
The Henry J was originally equipped with a four- or six-cylinder engine, tuned for fuel economy. That, of course, won’t do when you’re trying to get down a dragstrip as quickly as possible, so this Henry J uses a Chevrolet small-block V8, backed by a Turbo-Hydramatic 400 transmission. Automatics are king when it comes to drag racing; launches and shifts (done manually via a B&M ratchet-style shifter) are simply more consistent without a clutch pedal.
Inside, it has the stock steering column, steering wheel, and dashboard, complete with speedometer, though I’m guessing it probably isn’t hooked up anymore. Almost everything else has been stripped out in the name of weight reduction. It does have two bucket-style racing seats with harnesses, so you can share the terror of a quarter-mile pass with a friend.
Gassers aren’t just about speed; style counts too. The high front end, the exposed exhaust headers, the big rear slicks – it’s all part of it. Usually the paint jobs are flashier than this one’s dark green metal flake, but I like this one. It does have a few flaws in the paint, pointed out in photos in the ad, but you won’t notice them when it lights up the rear tires and goes roaring down the track.
Old race cars, if they survive, often end up behind velvet ropes in museums, or tucked away in private collections, never to be seen again. And that’s a shame, because it’s unbelievably cool to see vintage racing machines doing their thing. And these two, if you have the means, you could actually buy, and experience first-hand. So – if you did have the means, which would you rather try: going around in circles in the dirt, or going straight down a dragstrip?
I wonder if there is a way of getting antique plates and running the Kurtis on the street?
I got a good laugh out of the “Tally Ho Oh Shit!” inscription on the steering wheel.
I gotta have a V8! Give me the gasser! Both are really nice cars though!
Say what you want I am going to pass wouldn’t take either for free. A go kart for $20k deathtrap or an automatic race truck not set up for racing IMHO. Cheaper ways to die than racing some backyard mechanics failure
I’ll take the Kurtis and some ear plugs and a cup. That’s one threatening looking gear shifter.
I was a little awestruck when I 1st saw the pics- like what the hell is going on here? Not a bad thing though…these are both really cool. This one I’m going on which one is an enclosed vehicle so Kaiser. Gassers are really awesome and this one is badass…great body style + V8!
I don’t understand gassers’ sky hi front end. Is it so they don’t have to do a wheelie because they are already doing one?
If the weight really transfered to the rear faster (I’m not sure physics works that way) wouldn’t ALL dragsters do this?
They’ll both kill me in under 8 seconds, so I’ll take the drag racer. I’d rather be going in a mostly straight line at the end.
Going with the gasser, because it looks cooler and doesn’t look downright painful to drive.
I know it’s called this in the ad but “Kaiser Henry J” is along the lines of saying “Ford Lincoln.” It’s just a Henry J.
Come to think of it, now I want a pre-buyout Lincoln Model L so I can refer to all of the later cars as “Ford Lincolns.”
An acquaintance owns a Ford Jeep and refers to it as such. Annoys the hell out of the AMC and later Jeep guys. The Kaiser guys seem fine with it though.
Sliding around on dirt sounds a lot more fun to me than going straight. There’s a track about 45 minutes up the road, and Gold Rush country is a fine place to breathe your last, so it’s the Midget for me.