The other night I stumbled onto this ESPN airing of the '94 Night Before the 500. You know, back in the good 'ol days when there were more cars & fans than you could count. That's nearly true. 40+ cars, and lots of spectators. On pavement. (But no, I'm not interested in extended discussion about car counts and fan counts, or pavement versus dirt.) Anyway, I was struck by the diversity of engines; particularly a pair of V8s, and wondered if anyone on IOW can enlighten me about those engines. There were also a handful of V6s in the race, but I had never heard of V8-powered midgets since the days of the V8 60 (with the exception of the two that ran the Chili Bowl a few years back). Any insight will be appreciated. I've added the link in case any would care to watch. Thanks.
Probably one of the early SESCO V8's. You could probably put in a search and find out more about them. They were using parts of a motorcycle engine to engineer their V8's
The two most notable V8 engines in midgets that I recall would be the Runyon V8, which were done by Gary Runyon out of Indy. I don't know much on the details of these engines. I do believe that Bob Parker bought out Runyon at one time and they were purchased at auction by an individual out of Illinois. Never heard much of those engines after that auction. There was also the Kenyon V8 midget engines in the early to mid eighties. I know these cars were based off of two Suzuki motorcycle engines, which were conjoined to a common crankshaft to make it a V8. I believe Mel and Don Kenyon sold these engines out to a buyer in either New Zealand or Australia. Both were very competitive at times. Don't know much about the reliability of them though?
There were several 215cu in Buick/Old's V8's running then also, the V8 60's were still available new as late as the early 70's, they were like the Buick, given to a foreign country to help with the horses that were needed, not unlike the early ohv Ford heads that were available from the British.
"Being old, isn't half as much fun, as getting there"! Ole Robert I!
I'm pretty sure the Buick engines were all aluminum (block and heads). I'm curious as to what those engines weighed in at and what models of production cars they were installed in? What does todays competive midget engine weigh?
I wish there could be more competition in the midget engine building businnes in hopes it could lower the cost but I just don't see it happening.
Someone back in the day was makin big motors out of the 215's, I was buying everyone I could find, putting them in Vegas, really good engines, actually lighter than the 4cyl Vega. Kenne Bell still has perf parts for them.
"Being old, isn't half as much fun, as getting there"! Ole Robert I!
