jim

What did you power your TQ's with?


Honest Dad himself

I had built a Sherman Oakes copy of a Bob Bogan scaled down copy of a Watson chassis, with Bob doing some updates himself; It had a stock-displacement single-cam Honda CB750-F with Weber DCOE 40 carbs and Acro running gear. Life got in the way and I never finished it. Carl Nigh actually bought most of the Acro stuff and brought it out here to Indiana to sell it. But for over 10 years I crewed for Jack Zimmerman out of Oak View, CA; his TQ's always had CB750-K's punched out to 836, Hilborn injection, Schneider v-drive, Mallory mag, Carillo Rods and I think Wiseco pistons. That was pretty much the hot setup back then as now, although when we started there were still a few Crosleys, Triumph twins and triples, a couple of Fiats and even a guy who ran a half-VW, if I remember right he tried both 2-cylinder opposed and left-bank-only. Later on some twin-cam 750 Suzukis and Kawasakis came on the scene. Terry Farrar experimented with a Harley with a single-stack Hilborn, and CRA Sprint Car shoe and TQ chassis builder Bob Meli even tried a 3-cylinder Chevy Sprint, but the single-stick CB750 still ruled the roost. When USAC took over the sanctioning from the NMRA and CMA groups and loosened up the rules a bit one car showed up with a CB750 mounted transversely with chain drive (no trans, though) and there were a couple of guys who tried 2-stroke power with CVT belt drives, most notably a fellow by the name of Andy Bondio, who's done pretty well with some radical equipment at some obscure event in Oklahoma
Another interesting side note is that for a number of those years one of the other guys on Jack's crew was Dean Buckley, the father of Sean "Jackslash" Buckley. It's a small world...

I'll probably just end up sticking an ecotec in it...... The costs vs efficiency vs longevity just don't add up.

There is a kinda interesting car on ebay for sale, looks like a midget chassis, downtube, with an automotive Nisson 4cyl in it, and transmission, and I'd say an automotive rear end, looks like a fairly inexpensive way to get into open wheel racing, on a do it yourself budget, might be a lot of fun, for a little bit of money, just finding a place to race would be a huge disadvantage, but it looks like a very racy, kind of way to start, looks like everything except the chassis is available at your local "auto recycler"! Item # 310852574830 if you want to look. Bob

You talking about this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Nissan-Sp...ht_4436wt_1105
Ad says it's a "2010 Nissan Sprint Car" but it fits the rest of your description...

You got it, I changed it from Honda to Nissan, after you went huntin, looks like in "interesting" deal to me, and it just might be one answer to some more "midget" racing, I'd bet a guy could build one for less than he'd have in a mini-stock, if he had just even the bare essentials in tools, plus he'd have something that didn't look like a mini-enduro, all mashed to pcs. Just a thought, hell who knows, might be something someone could do, and keep the wife happy! Bob

Isn't this kinda where midget racing began / was about? On a side note, Chevette parts worked wonders for the dwarfcar folks too, but neat find on eBay. Probably has less than $1500 in the whole drivetrain...

Exactly, and don't just blo it off, till you think about it a bit, you got a car that looks like a race car, not some mangled up thing you can't be proud of, it even has reverse in it, so you can back it in the trailer if you want, clutch, starter, a one man operation if I ever saw one, just don't load it down with "rules", and "specs" that cost more than anything else, at my age, I could see myself in one, even tho I still have my TQ, it'd be something I could do easily by myself, as I have for years, and if not careful, there would be cars with 400hp motors, but ya gotta start somewhere, and the cheaper the startup costs, the more interest it generates. Just a thought, but it sure looks like a place to start, and learn, and not have to mortgage the farm to get in. Just dreaming of course, no one would want one, it'd be too much fun, and inexpensive! Bob

I know from experience how cheap a dwarf car can be built and be competitive. Four bar setup with a chevette rear end would work and be stupid cheap to do. Now to find a small trans that would hook em up.......

I think I would try to keep it all Nisson or Honda, rear end ratios might be a bit easier to find, a lot of that stuff is all from one place, Toyota might be a nice place to search, and aftermarket hopup stuff is more available, better grab ya a spare midget chassis while they are cheap, plus a good 5 or6 speed trans before things warm up, been a looooong while since I had to wear a heavy coat in a "yard"! Still think it's worth a look, it doesn't look like racing is going to get any cheaper, and there may be plenty of races to go to, but if they don't pay well, sure won't be many "road trips" like we used to pull, but it was fun while it lasted, course I pulled all over the 48 racing go-karts, and never picked up a dime that wasn't already mine, had a lot of fun, met a lot of nice people, went a lot of places people wouldn't normally go, used up a lot of that nasty fossil fuel, even carried extra cause gas pumps were locked on Sundays, anyone remember what year that "ruse" was launched on us? Oh well, it wasn't all a dream, it's been a fun ride! Bob