Fairchild aircraft engine. Six cylinder air cooled. Ran at the front.
And some other cool V8's. It was not a question of who had the most horsepower, it was more a question of who had balls enough to use more of what was available than the other drivers.
Dwarf and midget cars run motorcycle engines.
High dollar cars but they still beat on them like a rented mule and stuff happens. It was an open wheel special over two nights. Thanks to Agassiz Speedway for the pics.
That second-to-last picture: are the drivers legs really as close the the engine/header as it looks?
I always wonder what it would be like to drive one of those on a road course.
bearmtnmartin said:
Fairchild aircraft engine. Six cylinder air cooled. Ran at the front.
I am both confused and aroused by this car...More details (and pics) are required.
In reply to ebonyandivory :
They are that tiny, but then a GT40 is only 40 inches tall. They sit right along side the motor. Must get pretty toasty.
I cannot find any more info on the aero car. Most of these are owned by older guys and I expect they don't have a big internet presence.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
The crank is at the top of the motor and the cylinders go down from there. Expand the picture of the cutaway on the Wiki page. It appears to be laid over on it's side in the race car and I think those tubes out the bottom are six air intakes. Weird.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
It is in the normal aircraft installation that the crankshaft is at the top. This photo is the only one I have seen laid over on its side, but earlier inline "big car" installations inverted them to put the crank at the bottom. My uncle built an airplane with a Ranger in its conventional position. Lots of oil scavenge lines for the dry sump. These offset cars are old supermodifieds. I wonder if any other Ranger supers were made? This one appears to be a retired Indy roadster chassis, which was a common theme in supers through the 1960s.
bearmtnmartin said:I cannot find any more info on the aero car.
That's ok, I'm reaching out to the guy directly.
Fueled by Caffeine said:In reply to Driven5 :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_L-440
inverted 6 cylinder???? Wut?
Only 6:1 compression. “Only” 175hp@2450rpms. And only weighs 376lbs. Imagine what it could do with more revs and more compression? Or more turbo...
I wish there was a good video of that fairchild car, I want to hear it and have for a while. A while ago I tried to see if anything was on youtube and found nothing.
In reply to Driven5 :
Check out westcoast vintage racers website lots of pictures and some video of the loan ranger sprintcar also on my facebook page Dixon Helgeson
In reply to Dixon :
I'm not sure if you saw my (Jusin) Facebook message to you, or who pointed you here, but thanks for taking the time to come over and post this. I did see the pics and video you've posted of the car, and appreciate the additional pointer to the West coast vintage racers site.
Can you elaborate a little more on the history of the Lone Ranger, where it currently resides, and how such a concept came to be? When was it built, by whom, and was this Its original configuration? From a more technical side, how is the engine mated up, and do you have any pics of it (especially the engine installation) without bodywork? What modifications had to be made to run it not only in a car, but also laid over on it's side with the cornering forces actually being 'inverted' to its installed configuration for aviation? I saw you state on FB that it's mostly stock but is being modified to close the HP gap with the V8 cars. Can you share more about what is planned and being done there?
Ohh I so want to here more about that as well.
I posted this thread to the "Innovative, Banned, and Unique Race Cars" group on Facebook, and found there was a bit more info on the Fairchild powered car there.
Picture of it under construction:
Youtube video:
And another link on the car's history that somebody in that group turned up.
https://www.vintagesprintcars.com/2018/07/16/ranger-powered-sprint-cars/
I wonder if you could fit eight Air cooled VW barrels on a pushrod V8 bottom end. Air cooled four liter V8!
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Thanks for the links! That's some good stuff right there.
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In reply to bearmtnmartin :
Not sure what you're thinking for heads, as the VW's would work well for a V4 but not a V8, but you would also probably have to fabricate a V8 bottom end. Possibly something similar to how Pete Aardema did it, except using (L) angle as the basis rather than (C) channel...Not that I've put much thought into similar ideas before. 
I thought there was some aircooled japanese motorcycle cylinder bucket that was the go-to for 'roll your own vintage-ish' engine creations?
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Building my own V twin, maybe a little ~3 liter air cooled V8 after that, is a bit of a bucket list for me. I know just enough about machining to be dangerous, and have none of the required tools, but the want-to is strong. I was looking at big single cylinder Japanese bikes and ATVs for jugs, pistons, and rods, then found the Flying Millyard and went down the aircraft radial engine rabbit hole.
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