Offenhauser

Offenhauser was an American engine design that dominated American open wheel racing for more than 50 years and is still popular among vintage sprint and midget car racers.

History

The Offenhauser engine, familiarly known as the "Offy", was developed by Fred Offenhauser and his employer Harry Arminius Miller. Originally, it was sold as a marine engine. In 1930, a four-cylinder 151 cu in (2.47 l) Miller engine installed in a race car set a new international land speed record of 144.895 mph (233.186 km/h). Miller developed this engine into a twin overhead cam, four-cylinder, four-valve-per-cylinder 220 cu in (3.6 l) (3.6 L) racing engine. This would be used in midgets and sprints into the 1960s, with a choice of carburetor or Hilborn fuel injection. When Miller went bankrupt in 1933, Offenhauser bought the shop and the rights to the engine. He and another Miller employee, draftsman Leo Goossen, further developed the Miller into the Offenhauser engine. Then in 1946 the name and engine designs were sold to Louis Meyer and Dale Drake. Meyer was bought out by Dale, wife Eve and son John in 1965. From then until Dale Drake's son John Drake sold the shop to Stewart Van Dyne, the Drake Family designed and refined the engine until its final race days. It was under Meyer and Drake that the engine dominated the Indy 500 and midget racing in the United States.