The history of open wheel cars
 

My buddy and I were talking about the history of open wheel cars and got to thinking, which came first? I think it was the midget but after that was it the sprint or the champ car? If it was in fact the midget, how did they come up with the name midget? What were they comparing it too? A Studabaker lol

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Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

The first Indy 500 in 1911 was won in an open wheel car. And I think other open wheel race cars preceeds that car by a few years, probably in the late 1890's.

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

For many years, most race cars were more or less the same. They ran shorter wheelbases on the 1/2 mile tracks than they did on the mile tracks, but otherwise, they weren't much different.

Midgets were invented during the depression, in California, to have a car to race on the 1/4 mile motorcycle tracks. They were called midgets because they were smaller than the "standard" cars, which soon became known as "big cars". Sometime after WWII, the term "Sprint Car" replaced "Big Car". I've never heard anyone claim to know who invented that term; even Chris Economaki said he didn't know.

Midgets were, for a while, the most popular sport in the country. Right after WWII, there were a number of tracks that drew 10s of thousands to midget races. The fact that many midget tracks were in cities helped.

So it sounds like sprints did come before midgets. Did the champ car come after the sprint but before the midget?

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Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

avast maties the indy cars been open wheel from the bloody beginning of time:23:

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

They were championship cars before Indy cars. Indy didn't race it's first race until 1909. The champ cars were running fairgrounds dirt miles before then. The AAA had there first championship season in 1905.

So if I'm understanding this right the Champ cars came first, then the sprints, then the midgets. If that's correct then the sprints would've been smaller than a Champ car and midgets weren't invented yet so they had to have got the name "big car" after the invention of the midget. So what did they call a "big car" or sprint car before the midget came along? Was it just considered a smaller Champ car at the time and eventually the sprint became its own class? Thanks for the replies. I've been curious of this for awhile and couldn't come up with an answer.

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Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

And, "tin tops" were very few and far between, if any, so you might just as well say, racing began as "open wheel", even in the earliest days of just seeing who could climb the hill the fastest, which is still going on today, another one of those "best kept secrets", and it happens right here in Indiana! Bob

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

I think, if you go back and read old newspaper reports, they were all "racing cars" through the 1920s. The Indy Cars were also run on the miles. The cars run on shorter tracks were much the same; they just shortened the wheelbase. I think the term "Champ Cars" is post-WWII.

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

The term "midgets" was actually coined by a newspaper out in California, they held exhibition races of smaller versions of the "Big Cars" they were refered to a midget cars. This was in the 1912-1914 era. They were little replica's of the Stutz. There is actully footage of this in one of Max Sennett's films called "Kid Races at Venice" featuring Charlie Chaplin in one of his first films.

These cars competed as a prelim before the Vanderbilt Cup races in Santa Monica, Culver City,Venice and Ascot Park.

After this they went on tour in the midwest fair circuit.

Midget racing was organized in 1934 in California.

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

The "Midget" photo is from Jack C. Fox's book "The Mighty Midgets", the other photo's are from Harold Osmer's book, "Where they Raced". As you go thru the books, there is little to no difference from the "Indy" or champ cars and sprint cars until the late 20's, and early 30's. By the early 30's the shorter track cars had an obvious shorter wheelbase. I'm no expert, just sort of going by the evolution of the cars thru photographs from the past. If you look at the cars at Legion Ascot in 1932 they look smaller than Indy cars of the same year.

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

If my fading memory doesn't fail, as I recall, the actual "sprint" car name didn't appear til about the early, to mid 50's, maybe even a little later, in the mid 50's, the "roadster" was to become the sprint car of today, until then, they were simply refered to as "big cars", bigger than the midgets, and smaller than the Crown cars, the big cars had V8 engines, most had wire wheels, early, then the heavier steel wheels came on board, then of course to the early 2pc, cast aluminum and magnesium, than to what we have today. That's what my memory lets out, anyway. I have a book from Crocky Wright, on the history of the midget, if I can find it, I'll see what ole Crocky has to say, probably the most respected name in midget racing, and driver. Bob!

Good stuff guys, thanks

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Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

First around the turn of he century people began to race cars, the natural evolution was to strip the cars down as much as possible, hence almost were fenderless. All of the original Indy cars, as today were open wheel. As stated earlier many of these same cars competed throughout the US mostly on fairground tracks of one mile as there very few tracks built exclusively for auto racing. As time went by some specialty tracks were built, many of wood. these lasted for a short time. the delineation between midget, sprint, and champ cars actually began a bit prior to WWII, yet there was no official timing of this. Big cars and what we today call champ cars were very similar if not the same. Some cars were purposely bulit for Indy, hence the early days of roadsters. The roadsters precipitated that cars for the pavement of Indy no longer worked on the mile dirts which were the dominant force for the national championship, the last upright to win Indy was Troy Ruttman in I believe 1951. The midgets began to emerge as stated earlier as entertainment and an alternative to the Big Cars. So just as today the Indy car became a specialized breed, the midgets the cars of the people and the so-called big Cars morphed into what we know today as Sprint Cars. The early sprinters were of many designs, but sat between the so-called champ Cars and Midgets. Sprint Cars took up the mantle of the 1/2 mile tracks with many engine and chassis combos. Ultimately in the early to mid 1950's the dominant engine was the Offy, later replaced by a couple of California Hot Rodders named Parnelli and Herk who introduced the small block Chevy to the AAA and later USAC. The evolution continues, and like all evolutionary ideas it is difficult to draw clear lines of demarcation; and as a guy now dedicated to our brand of the sport into 7 decades I am not so sure that big wings, giant tires and bodies that often resemble mods are necessarily an evolutionary upgrade.

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

Sorry for any confusion in my comment about the "roadsters" morphing into todays Sprint car, the "roadster" I was referencing was the early, MRA/CRA Mutual Racing Association, that ran in the early 50's in Indiana, "roaring Roadsters" as they were called then, a lot of them made homes here, and still have family living here. I still haven't found Crocky's book, but it's on my list. Thanks! Bob

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

Didn't they run some kind of little cars on real real high bank tracks made out of 2x4's up east back in the 20's and 30's. Think a lot of them were powered by motorcycle engines.

Honest Dad himself:6::6:

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

Midgets on the Boards is what they called it, the board tracks were the "vogue" in the East, fast, scary, and deadly, not to mention, somewhat flexible, took someone with a "numbbutt" to really get around them, don't remember them being especially over run with motorcycle engines, like all midget cars of the era, anything and everything was used. Bob!

Re: The history of open wheel cars
 

Speaking of old midgets, Granny wanted to hear the ole boardtrack car run a couple laps just one more time. We got the car out and "borrowed" my buddies 1946 evinrude outboard engine, it's a whisper speed engine, one of the good ones. Anyhow we got the car up and running. Seems to be running ok but has alot of exhaust vapor/water. Now were runnin her on mash juice from the corn fermenters with just a dash of homemade turpentine to juice up the top end some which tradtionally has been a dry running fuel and we didnt get much water from the pipes. One of the ole timer guys said that maybe my drain pipe slip knot on my spit line might need adjusting. I use a double hitch quaker knot about 8 inches down on the spit line adjusted to about 12 english units of totalian force. If any of you guys have any idea whats going on with our midget let me know, Granny aint gettin any younger.