Theres a video on Youtube of Opp and Ziggy from 1974 Eldora USAC and Ziggy has down tubes.

I also seen Champ Cars with em way before 86. I believe some of these were Bolt on.

IMHO there was never any proof that Down tubes made cars faster, Wolfie, Shnee, Swindell Challenger, Allen continued to run with and win for at least ten years after Down Tubes became commonplace. I think Stealth even had Non Down tube cars up till around 2005.

From a safety standpoint, I'd never argue against the down tubes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuEf6sbvLPc

If you remember, Karl put some bolt on downtubes on Steve's mile cars prior to the stationary downtubes. This was to plant the front end because the front end always skated on top of the track and made if very difficult to drive due to the speed and airflow coming up under the nose.

Like any chassis, its all about the feel of what a driver likes. The downtube cars have more flex because of the construction. Steve actually went back to a non downtube car in '96, but then went back to the downtube cars. He clearly was looking or trying something for a period of time and it must not have been to his liking.

The car mentioned above was fast out of the box when it was debuted on the western swing in the fall of '86. Everyone thought it was from outer space only second to Tom Johnson's space mobile that showed up at the '85 Knoxville Nationals.

As for the questions. It's a Gambler. Gambler was the first manufacturer to mass produce downtube cars. It was a Tommy Sanders brain child at Gambler. i can't quite remember where Ken Jenkins was at this time. He still may have been at Gambler before departing for Maxim.
Steve and Karl then went to Maxim in '89 when Ken Jenkins teammed up with Chuck Merrill when Maxim was formed.

I've saw this question brought up before. I know people can dig up photos all the way back to the 40s.