Kurtis Offenhauser KK500G Indy Roadster

A couple of days ago I showed a photograph of a group of cars in 2004 at the Old Hairpin at Donington Park, one of which was a Kurtis sports car. The name Kurtis to me always conjures up pictures of the front-engined Indianapolis cars of the 1950s and early 60s and today's photographs are of one of these cars driven by Stuart Harper at the VSCC Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in May 2005.

It's shown in the programme of the event as a 1957 Kurtis Indy-Roadster, but from other photographs on the internet it seems that it should actually be described as the Kurtis Kraft Offenhauser KK500G Schulz Fueling Equipment Special. In fact this site, which lists all Indy Roadsters that are known to exist, says it has a Watson nose and (on two separate lists) shows it as a 1961 and a 1962 car. I'm not an expert on Indianapolis cars, but I must say that looking at photographs of the Indianapolis 500 race it does look more like a 1961 or 62 car than one from 1957, I assume that it's actually a 1957 car with the nose from a 1961/62 Watson.

In this photograph you can see the offset engine with the drive shaft passing to the left of the driver giving a lower car and better handling for the left-hand turns.

You can see here how the driver sits on the right-hand side of the car

Here's Stuart Harper during the Hawthorn Memorial And Spanish Trophies race, on the straight between Clay Hill and Druids Corner.

And here's Stuart Harper a few laps later rounding Lodge Corner