Eegor The Eyesore! 1952 Kurtis Kraft Racer
Take a body and chassis from Indy 500 winning race car builder Kurtis Kraft, add one high-strung German Borgward racing engine, and you get something like this interesting vintage racer called “Eegore the Eyesore!” Virtually unchanged since the ’60s, the midget racer has appeared in various web articles and sold at Worldwide Auctioneers, for $12,650 in 2019. The car’s history goes back to its creation by Kenny and Wally Parks who figure into the birth of NHRA and other early racing endeavors. This historic midget comes up for sale here on craigslist where $21,995 will add it to your museum or collection. Thanks to reader MattR for spotting this slice of racing history.
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward built vehicles for postal delivery, common civilian duty, and all-out racing. This little four-valve 1.5L inline four-cylinder gem made 75 HP, and a later version double that, according to Borgwardmm, enjoying success in Formula 2 and even Formula 1. The Parks brothers set the engine rearward for better weight distribution and raced the tiny mite on oval and lake bed events.
The listing makes no mention of the vehicle’s operating condition. On oval dirt tracks, midgets spend most of their track time sideways in opposite lock, the ultimate example of your high school driver training instructor’s monotone advice to “steer into the skid.” It might be blasphemous to risk damaging a storied midget racer with actual hot laps, but those tires look ready for a day at the track.
What looks like a hardware-store galvanized panel holds minimal instrumentation and controls. This is NOT a street-legal vehicle, folks! One upside on this potential investment is the preclusion of any restoration budget whatsoever. Other than the minimum necessary to make and keep this unique vehicle running and safe, other changes would be strictly verboten. Every dollar spent on changing this car will surely subtract more than one dollar from its value. The ideal buyer maybe a museum or someone connected to the Kraft or Parks legacy. Have you ever heard of “Eegor the Eyesore”?
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Comments
A Borgward powered Kurtis?? Aw, c’mon. It’s not April Fools Day yet!
The first question here is what the comments about the Borgward RS race engines have to do with this car? This is most certainly not a “high strung race engine” – I don’t know if there’s any level of tuning but it’s got nothing to do with the RS but is coming from a regular Borgward Isabella.
Also – “other changes should be strictly verboten”? Well, at least I would approve of getting rid of that decidedly non correct steering wheel!
I wasn’t too impressed until, I saw who the previous owner and builder was, , I had no idea that Wally Parks ever had anything like this. A high-lite of my obsession with Hot Rods and Cars, was getting to meet Wally Parks and actually getting to speak with him. I would love to have it, just for the history.
The only parts on this engine that will interchange with the 1.5 Borgward racing engine are hardware: nuts, washers and bolts. The racing engine was a chain-driven twin overhead cam unit that developed in excess of 150hp. The seller says this is the “Desirable” Borgward motor. This engine is “desirable” only to someone who owns a regular production Borgward Isabella in need of an engine.
Richard Parks, the nephew of Kenny Parks, mentions Eegor the Eyesore, and describes it not as a Sprint Midget, but as a “Semi-Sprint”. While it might have some basic relationship to Kurtis Kraft, It should not be compared to their Indy creations, or even their Sprint Midget cars. And yes, Kenny parks did drive it in exhibition “oldtimer” events, but not in serious racing events.
This vehicle looks like something put together from stuff hanging around a repair shop. It’s a mish-mash of various parts, like the early 1920s Packard aluminum axle hubs, to cast iron plumbing parts for the exhaust pipe. I spot what appears to be a 2″ 90 degree plumbing pipe elbow fitting [how’s that for improving exhaust flow!] I doubt this was ever a serious race vehicle in this configuration.
That said, it does have real provenance, and IS a part of early So Cal dirt track racing and should be preserved. But for the current dealer/owner to hype it up and suggest it’s up there along the true Kurtis Kraft Indy cars, or even their Sprint Midget cars, is not accurate.
No serious owner, caring about any historical aspect of this car, would sully up the dashboard with a bunch of cheesy participation badges.
Keith Ashley,
In today’s world most people would never consider sullying up a vintage vehicle with tacky participation plaques, but they were a very popular item into the mid 1970s. But in the 1950s and 1960s having a few participation awards on the dashboard of a restored car would rarely cause judges to take off points.
In 2006 I had a couple 1930s cars in a storage building when someone broke into the place. The only thing they took was the various 1950s participation badges off the dashboard!
There should be a reverence to this car. But, given the different and various alterations over time, maybe it’s time for a more stately redo. My vision would be older period refinements in the interior/exterior, change in paint color, and possibly an alternative source of power. Prep for Pikes Peak or hill climbs, too.