Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Anyone know who had the 1st downtube sprint car chassis and when?

modern day was Steve Kinser at WoO on the final night of a 3 day show at the San Jose fair grounds in fall of 86, i believe. It was a Gambler. He won with it the first night out.

That's a good way to answer it. Agreed.

Karl Kinser had that independent suspension one that seems to have run in Florida before that, I think it had downtubes, too. Didn't run it much.

USAC Silver Crown cars bolted on what amounted to downtubes in the 70's & 80's. Chuck Gurney had that really good looking 30 car that was written up in Open Wheel (the sprint car bible as far as I'm concerned).

There have been some pictures of cars in the early 70's/late 60s of true downtube cars. I don't recall the team/driver but it seems it was a solid white car.

DHowe is right on the money!

I spent that afternoon in the parking lot of the Peppertree Motel watching Karl and Steve put it together . .

swapping parts from the old car to the new. I did about a 45 minute video of it going together and some

of the conversations they had about it. He did win that night on the half mile track. The new hood only

had a small oval hole and it over heated . . . but he made it to the check amongst alot of steam.

http://lqss.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bftp&action=display&thread=1131

Hope the link works. While not technically a sprinter at the time, these local modifieds eventually morphed into the IRA sprints. Either way, its a nice pic from years gone by, and the racing world could use more of the likes of Carmen Manzardo.

The first production downtube car was the Gambler. I think the '87 model year was the first year it was offered to the public from Gambler. Not sure if Manzardo had the first one ever but that one off creation was definitely the first in our area.

The first down tube car was a usac non wing car owned by Ben Leyba and wrenched by Jack Steck, late 70's early eighties

I agree with flyingryan. Pretty sure Charlie Fisher designed it for Gambler

There was a guy that raced usac back in the 70`s that was from lafayette indiana that had a bolt on down tube.

I recall seeing an old photo of a car from like the 30's or 40's that had downtubes? I'm trying to remember where I saw it and if it was a sprintcar or a midget....hmmm

Part time racefan, part time race photographer.

Tailtank i like the picture!

Thanks, it's actually mine. I bought an old Nance tailtank off Ebay several years ago and a buddy of mine is paiting it up to resemble the Nance house car which were my favorite.

Part time racefan, part time race photographer.

Vince Conze built and owned the first down tube sprint car

Chuck Gurney in The Louis Seymour Silver Crown Car

Tailtank is right,the was a picture in open wheel(I think) of a downtube car at williams grove in the 30s or 40s

Ralph Parkinson had bolt on downtubes on a spring front Edmunds in 1975 and 1976

I remember Jack tecks cars having bolt on down tubes in 1974