1951 KK Midget Race Car - Those Were The Days

This air pump on the right side of the car was used to pressurize the fuel system. It was added to accommodate the Ford engine when it was installed. The fuel pressure was about 7 to 10 pounds per square inch.

Nerf bars were very small back in the day as compared with today’s units.

Here’s a view of the right-front suspension. Note the cross-spring with its end joined to flanges on the front axle.

Looking at the car from the right rear, you can see the suspension and the right side exhaust pipe which reaches nearly to the rear of the car.

A closeup of the steering reveals some nice machine work on the pitman arm.

Looking down the right side of the car, it’s easy to see the headers merging into the exhaust pipe. The greater-than-normal distance of the headers from the frame was done to provide hand-holds when swapping engines.

Many race teams took artistic license in designing the rear bumper. The knob on the top prevents a push truck bumper from sliding over the top of the bar and damaging the tail. The tail was also the location of the 32-gallon bladderless fuel tank.

The front grille opening provided cooling for the radiator. The stout double-bar bumper provided front protection from other cars, or as a help for moving other cars out of the way!

This Ford 60-horse V860 replaced the 110 Offy with which the car started its career. The Ford engine had to be shortened 4 inches to fit the Offy motor mounts which was accomplished by milling the rear bell housing. During this period, alcohol was becoming the fuel of choice for many Midget racers, including this car.

There were a number of upgrades made to the V860 with the compression ratio raised to 9:1 along with the addition of high compression Meyer aluminum heads. There was even an early Edelbrock aluminum intake. The most noticeable additions though were the two Stromberg 81 single-barrel carburetors. The additional carb helped boost up the “stock” 60 horses to a considerable upgrade in performance.

This in-out box was state-of-the-art during this period and allowed the driver (by means of the small handle) to engage or disengage the engine. Today’s Open Wheel cars have a handle mounted on the right wall of the cockpit to perform the same function.

This Evans Denver steering box used a circular gear which moved the left side pitman arm to turn the wheels. No power steering here!