If this isn’t the wildest thing we have ever featured from the seemingly endless listings on eBay we’re not sure what is. According to the seller, this is a street legal Indy car that was built in 1961. We can see that the car has working lights and a license plate, so the street legal part seems to be covered. The chassis does look like something of that era, power is from a fully worked Buick 215ci V8 that is backed by an unobtanium Hewland LG 500 4-speed transaxle that actually has a reverse gear. Old Hewland stuff is worth a mint, but one of these transaxles with a reverse gear? We’ve never heard of such a thing, and that is cool as hell.
Amazingly, this car has been titled in Illinois since 1961 as a home built street rod. As previously mentioned, the engine is a full boogie aluminum Buick 215 that has a snotty cam, some type of “experimental” heads, and tuned racing headers. The seller claims that the whole package was made to sing at 6,000-7,000 RPM, which makes sense if not the best street engine in the world. Did we mention that fact that this thing weighs 1400lbs?
The front and rear suspension setups are full on race stuff with and inboard rocker arm style system using coil overs. Out back, the best technology of the day including unequal length control arms hand made from 4130 Chromemoly, coil overs, an Indy style sway bars front and back.
The car had been stored from 1986 right up until 2011. It is complete and in total working fashion. Bidding was at $17,000 when we wrote this. In our opinion, this baby is neater than all get out and would make an awesome rig to take on Hot Rod Drag Week 2012! You may not be the fastest, but you’ll surely be the coolest!
Thanks for the tip Mark!
LINK: 1961 street legal Indy car for sale on eBay
1961?
No.Looks like 1971,1961 was all roadsters at Indy.
I think they used those trans axles in F5000/CanAm cars so a reverse may have been used there.
Had Long Beach Run in 1971? If so you would want a reverse on a street course for sure.
But the thing would peg the fun meter for sure.
I agree- had to be ’71, not ’61
Several years ago, a bar in Fremont, CA had a promo day including a ride-in motorcycle and car show in the parking lot. One of the big liquor companies brought in a 2-seat F1 or Indy-style car with lights and license plates. Rides for customers could be won by answering trivia questions or a raffle. The demo route was a mile or so through a residential area. After several rides were given, the coppers showed up and shut it down. Rumor had it there were complaints from people living on the route. The driver didn’t get squirrely or anything, but folks musta got freaked out over the sight. It really wasn’t that loud. The cop-in-charge used a head light height or ground clearance vehicle code to pee in our Post Toasties. The car hauler was blocked-in by the cars and bikes, so it couldn’t be loaded. The cops hung around to make sure no more demo rides happened.
Not all cars in the 61 Indy 500 were roadsters. Sir Jack Brabham finished 9th in a rear engine “Cooper Climax”. Great time in Indy cars but very deadly too!
I’m wondering if the 1961 on the title reflects the year of the engine rather than the year the car was built? In some states, street rods & special constructions can be titled using the year of the motor. Buick sold the aluminum V8s in ’61 and ’62, and while the Mickey Thompson/Dan Gurney car ran one in the ’62 Indy 500 (the only non-Offenhauser that year), the car on eBay looks like a later Indy car.