If you’re a man of a certain age, like I am, you might remember Mickey Thompson’s Indy Racer, the Harvey Aluminum Special from the early 60s. It impressed me at the time, because of its unique look, a wide and flat oval cross section and small 12 inch wheels with low profile tires. It resembled a roller skate of sorts and it picked up the nickname of the roller skate car. I liked it. Paul Kalenian liked it, too.
Paul decided to design and build a car for street use, inspired by the Indy racers. He didn’t have much to go on in the way of actual prints of the old car, so much of what he did is his interpretation of the original design, with obvious allowances for two seats and street legal necessities.
The monocoque/bulkhead design came together with power from a GM LTG DOHC 2.0 Turbo at 325 HP, more than enough for a very lively drive in a car that eventually came in at 1530 pounds wet.
The process of building the car was pretty straightforward, as Paul says: “I bought some 66” wide plates for water jet cutting into bulkheads. I made a jig from 2×4”s and drew on each numbered plate for numerous trips to Water Jet Inc in Albuquerque NM.” The frame was heliarc welded by Skip Canfield who teaches precision aluminum welding at UNM, Los Alamos.
The design is a combination of observing airplane structures and Frank Costin’s designs and Colin Chapman’s concept to add lightness.
Paul’s dad owned a precision machine shop that did work for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft and Paul now has his lathe, milling machine and hand tools which he obviously put to good use. Paul says, “The entire car was designed and built over a 7 month period …all water jet cut and heliarc welded in my garage at home. Lots more time and machine shop work than expected.”
You’ll notice some photos show a sort of lawn chair seating setup which his buddies said looked “primitive” in such an otherwise impressive car, so he bought some aluminum replacements, which certainly look better, but after his first 150 mile trip he noted, “my ass was numb.” Lulu now has about 3000 road miles, mostly trouble free.
I think this is an excellent example of just deciding to do something and doing it, figuring things out along the way and learning by doing. Since this one turned out as well as it did, Paul says, “I’m now designing Lulu 2. I found and am using my old drafting table to design a ‘formula car’ in which I’ll mount a BMW 1600 6 cylinder motorcycle engine and transmission in a narrow lighter frame now that I’ve learned a few things.” Drafting tables in the age of CAD, I like that a lot and I’ll be very interested in seeing what his BMW powered Formula car looks like.
This build is impressive in so many ways, from concept to just drawing the bulkheads, water jet cutting, Heliarc welding, a combination of old school skills and new technology. Great work Paul!
George says
Mind: blown!
If the dates matched I’d call it the Corona Car.
George says
ps: on the subject of Indy, my biggest disappointment as a teenager 60 years ago was learning that the Offy engine was a 4-cylinder!!!! Took me a year to get over that, after seeing pictures of Ferrari and Merc engines in magazines!
Cheers!
Paul Crowe says
Yes, those big, front engine Offys were the standard, until they weren’t. Remember when Jim Clark showed up in a rear engine Lotus?
And the 2 liter 4 (122 cubic inches) in this build puts out more horsepower than the 289 V8 I had in my 65 Mustang. Times have changed.
Andreas says
I’d love to hear its sound!
Paul Crowe says
Yes. Me, too.
Paul Kalenian says
Lulu has a 3” inlet x 4” outlet Supertrapp muffler with 20 baffles . The more baffles at the tip the greater the outlet’s opening and flow and exhaust note.
The Turbo absorbs a lot of sound, so its not real loud ( or I’m deaf) but the engine really likes to rev, so the sound thru the gears is great. Lulu revs quickly in first thru third like a bike, since she is so light.
5th and 6th are useless (60 MPH @ 2000RPM in 6th ) because the car is going much too fast.
I worry about aerodynamic lift at high speed so ive only driven her to 100 MPH …..seems stable but i worry about flipping over. I could easily lift the entire front end during the fabrication until i put the tires and brakes on and filled the tank.
She is vey motorcycle like in handling and acceleration and braking. Add lightness Costin would say .
Pete plaster says
When is someone going to do the Smokie Yunic movie. The sequel should be Mickey.
Paul Crowe says
Those are only two great names from an era that had many that deserve more recognition today. I get all nostalgic just thinking about it.
Russell Mowry says
A Smokey movie ? Impossible . It would take 4 or 5 …. and each one would be different !
Clay Cornett says
What a great slide show of your car taking shape! Thanks for sending it to us. Clay Cornett
BigRedRivi says
Great job Paul K. You need to bring it down to Albuquerque and look me up, I’d love to see it maybe get a ride? Feel free to share my email.
Paul Kalenian says
Lulu goes for longer trips each time she goes out, Abq is a bit far to push her home if she breaks.
As I’m driving her, i think about all the nuts and bolts and stuff that could break……i always inspect her before and after drives, so far so good.
Maybe end of Summer she will want to to to Water Jet Cutting Inc in ABQ and meet some of her makers.
Dan Cox says
Well,well,well quite the project with an incredible outcome. Congrats and it’s one more reason I should come for a visit. I’m still old fashioned and buy my toys, especially as I don’t trust my mechanical, electrical Or otherwise non existent engineering skills. In fact the only definite skill I still possess is tasting coffee!!!