1934 Charlie Allen
midget
While passing
through the Indianapolis International Airport for the 2018 Performance Racing
Industry (PRI) show, the author spied this 1934 Charlie Allen midget race car
on display.
Owned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, this car was built
by Los Angeles race car builder Clyde Adams, who got his start along with
fellow car builder/metalworker Myron Stevens working for Harry A. Miller. After
Miller sold out to the Schofield Company and the company went into decline,
Adams and Steven left to start their own race car shop.
The first
documented midget car race took place on June 4, 1933 at Hughes Stadium in
Sacramento, California, and less than a year later, Adams built this car for
car owner/driver Charlie Allen, powered by a 2-stroke 4-cylinder ELTO engine.
Outboard motor
pioneer Ole Evinrude sold his eponymous company in 1913 to care for his ill
wife with one of the terms of the sale that he could not enter the outboard
motor business for five years.
Ole kept experimenting and developed a lighter more powerful two-cylinder outboard motor and in 1921 he founded a new company to sell his invention. Ole couldn’t use his name for the new company so he called it ELTO, which stood for “Evinrude Light Twin Outboard."
Ole kept experimenting and developed a lighter more powerful two-cylinder outboard motor and in 1921 he founded a new company to sell his invention. Ole couldn’t use his name for the new company so he called it ELTO, which stood for “Evinrude Light Twin Outboard."
During the
early nineteen thirties ELTO marketed two two-cycle engines to the midget auto
racing community; the ELTO 4-60 (as in this car) comprised of four cylinders
with a single rotary valve that displaced 59.4 cubic inches that produced 60
horsepower, lot of power in its day. For lubricant, racers added castor oil to
a mix of methanol (wood alcohol) and benzene which created the signature trail
of smoke associated with ELTO engines.
In 1939, Charlie
Allen continued his ground-breaking ways, as he purchased the first Frank
Kurtis-built midget which was equipped with a four-cylinder Offenhauser engine.
Photos by the author
Photos by the author
This is Very very nice article. Everyone should read. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteCarRacingGamesToPlay
Thanks for sharing this excellent post with us. There was plenty of details that you provided in this article and I enjoyed stopping by to read this. Have a great rest of your day.
ReplyDeleteGreg Prosmushkin