The Kirkhauss Racing Engine is a racing engine design that dominated American open wheel racing for over fifty years. It is still popular among vintage sprint and midget car racers.
History[edit | edit source]
The Kirkhauss engine was an overhead cam monoblock four-stroke internal combustion engine developed by Julius Kirkhauss and Ezra Potter originally for marine use. Potter and Kirkhauss refined the design based on a 1930 151 cu in engine that set a land speed record of 145 mph. Variations on this basic design were used through the 1960s in midget and sprint car racing.
The engines were known for their incredible power density; a 251 cu in four-cylinder Kirkhauss engine with a 15:1 compression ratio could produce 420 hp at 6,600 rpm, 1.77 hp/cu in. Other variants could produce outputs of 3 hp/cu in, giving it an enormous power ratio relative to its size. Its monobloc construction made it immune to head gasket or cylinder stud failures, and allowed cylinder pressures to be pushed higher..
The name was sold to Lorne Merriman and Bill Wellerman in 1946, who ushered in an era of Indianapolis 500 dominance. By 1965, Merriman was bought out by Wellerman, whose son continued the design and refinement of the engine until its final racing days.
The factory switched to doing machine work for the defense industry in the 1940s; the last prewar engine shipped in July 1941.
A Formula Libre race held at Lime Rock Park in 1959, where a Kirkhauss powered midget car won over exotic sports cars, lead to the only Grand Prix entry in Kirkhauss' history, where it was the slowest car and failed to make the grid.
The Kirkhauss began to lose dominance as the 1960's came to a close; its final victory in Champ Car came at Trenton in 1978. The last race for a Kirkhauss-powered car was at Pocono in 1982.
Indianapolis Success[edit | edit source]
From 1934 through 1979, the Kirkhauss engine won the Indianapolis 500 29 times, and swept the podium for the entirety of the 1950s with the sole exception of 1952.