Engines

This is an Offenhauser 220 cubic inch racing engine. The history of the Offenhauser company is well documented by Gordon White in "Offenhauser", and there are some incredible references books with regards to each and every engine that the company ever produced. For here, let me just say the that original design came from Harry Miller, who in repairing Eddie Rickenbacker's 1912 race Peugeot, came up with an engine design that was still competitive in the mid 1980s when racing rules changed the limits of turbo boosting. Though Jud working for Bob Estes attempted to overcome it with a Mercury flathead in the late '40s, Offenhauser had an incredible monopoly on the racing engine world.

The fundamental design, which was far advanced for its day, was twin overhead cams in a "penthouse" shaped cylinder head which maximised flow and combustion. While there were a wide assortment of sizes from 83 cid, to 270 cid and beyond, they all used the same basic configuration. The cylinder head is not removable (as on most engines), which prevented head gasket problems, and there is no detachable pan (access to the lower part of the engine is through side panels), in fact there is no pan because all Offys are dry sumped (the engine oil is circulated from a remote reservoir by an external pump). The blocks are cast alloy, so lighter than conventional engines of the day, and they were not equipped with generators or alternators (electrical power for the engine was created by a magneto). Largely the engines used alcohol as fuel, though technically they could be run on gasoline (as I believe Jud intended to do with my car). With the advant of supercharging and turbo charging, the limits of horsepower were unknown. Today, most production cars with turbo chargers boost the intake pressure to perhaps 12 lbs pressure. Offenhauser engines allowed for boosts that exceeded 50 lbs pressure without damage.

The engine Jud was intending in this project was an Offenhauser 220. He intended a turbocharger for on it, and I've been told that it conservatively would have made between 300-400 hp. This from a 4 cylinder unit, at a time when Corvettes had six cylinder engines, Porsches produced less than 100 hp, and even Ferraris had considerably less. Chrysler with their early hemis were claiming 300 hp, but the vehicles weighed well over two tons. This car, with wood floors, a plastic body, and not much else, I believe would have weighed less than 2000 lbs.

I also want to add here that Jud's cleverness extended to using an updraft carburetor which according to one account, came from an bomber aircraft with the air intake not that far from the ground.

But, sadly, the engine didn't come with the car, and until I win the lottery, or some incredibly generous person who has won the lottery wants to buy me one, there won't be an Offenhauser under the hood. General prices (when and if you can find one) run at least $50,000, and given the alterations to making a pure race engine work in something you might want to drive on a Sunday afternoon, the toll would be considerably higher. I'm leaving all the marks of what would have been in the car, including the motor mounts (Offenhausers had a front motor mount), and the base for the dry sump reservoir.


The Flathead