The Midget

The Midget

The Midget # 12

All the specifications and details you'll ever need to know, giving you a bit of info on what makes these wild and wingless little machines motor around these oval track speedways.

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Engine:

166cu/ins 4cyl RODECK/GAERTE with BRODIX -12R raised runner cylinder head, 4.30" bore, 3.25" stroke ultra lite crankshaft, Crower titanium conrods, 2.5" Kinsler mechanical fuel injection, Shaver Wesmar gear drive, alloy dry sump, Barnes oil pump and Joe Hunt magneto. Uses Methanol racing fuel.

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Chassis:

Cheetah Chassis, a locally constructed frame based on the latest American chassis, but with a few personal touches we were looking for to aid with driver safety and comfort. Frame made from 4130 Moly tubing. With a minimum of 4" clearance from top of roll cage to top of driver's helmet.

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Wheels & Tyres:

Front Wheels 13" x 7" with no wheel centers they mount directly to the hubs. Inside Rear Wheel 13" x 8" with tyre bead locks on both sides of rim, so you can run tyre pressures as low as 4psi without the tyre peeling off the rim. Outside Rear 13" x 10" with a bead lock on the outside edge of rim, so you can run tyre pressures of 8-15psi, also has a removable centre cover to prevent the rim filling up with mud when racing. Tyres are Hoosier or American Racer with various diameters and compounds to alter the car for changing track conditions.

Steering:

KSE Power steering box that is fed by a KSE high pressure pump that bolts to the engine plate inside the cockpit between the driver's knees and is spun by a hex shaft that screws into the back of the camshaft. We top all of this off with a light weight aluminium steering wheel and a quick release hub to remove the steering wheel when required.

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Diff:

A Winters Quickchange diff is used. It has a magnesium center with a removable cover at the rear to make it easy to change the two gears inside. You can alter dif ratios in just a couple of minutes. Also an aluminium hollow axle with splines on each end to enable wheel offsets to be changed by spacing the rear wheels in and out as required.

Drive Line:

Midgets don't use a gear box, they have a Uni Joint that bolts directly to the crankshaft with a splined Drive Shaft that runs between the driver's legs straight into the diff. It is covered by an aluminium Torque Tube and Torque Bell covering the uni to protect the legs. A in/out cable puts the car into gear and we have to push start the racecar to get the engine fired.

Brakes:

The rear uses a single 4 spot caliper bolted to the diff with a floating disc attached to the axle. On the front only one caliper is used that works on the inside (left) front wheel. The brake on the inside front wheel can sometimes help you get the car into the corner.

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Suspension:

The front uses adjustable coil suspension with the coils mounted on threaded body shocks, and the rear uses torsion bar type suspension. The rear shocks are normally adjustable on compression and rebound and in some cases are adjustable by the driver from within the cockpit.

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Fuel System:

Midgets use Alcohol fuel which is housed in a special plastic Tail Tank mounted to the rear of the race car. The fuel is fed to a mechanical fuel injection system by a W-400 mechanical pump that is bolted to the Power Steering Pump between the driver's legs. We clean the fuel with two stainless steel element filters and have two shut off taps, one for the driver and one for the crash crew in case of emergency.

A Midget can be quite a wild little race car, all the above combined into a car that has approximately 330hp and a minimum weight of 408kg flying around a dirt oval track, sideways inches from the concrete wall, you know your alive when she's hooked up, hiking wheels and sliding backwards full noise into turn 1, it doesn't get much better than that.

LETS GO RACING!

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