How
to Build
Midget Racers
Back in the depths of the Great Depression, Johnson Smith of Detroit offered this for something like 12c. But today it's a very hard book to find.
Apparently
Johnson Smith contracted a printer to reprint articles from earlier magazines
on building midget racers, powered bicycles, midget mobiles, 
and
pushmobiles with plans for a small plane thrown in for good measure. But the
printer obviously didn't know what he was doing or didn't care. The plates
he made were poor quality. Then he did a sloppy job of putting ink on the
cheapest paper money could buy (what money that was available back then).
The result was awful.
The photographs on the yellowed, brittle paper are "muddy", some almost impossible to make out. Plans are faded out in places, indistinct in others. After some scanning tests and computer cleaning techniques, the reprint is actually much more readable than the original.
Having
said that, it's a fun book. If you think you're going to find detailed plans
showing you where to put every nut and bolt, you're a dreamer. But if you're
like the majority of builders who read this catalog, you'll find ideas that
you can run with. You'll have to. The engines pictured from seventy years
ago are going to be hard to find. Take the ideas and build the midget racer
of your dreams!
This is for boys who want to build their own small cars. And since people tell me that you never grew up, this book is for YOU! Tough reading in places, much easier in others. Worth having nonetheless. Fascinating content. For building, dreaming or reminiscing. Get a copy. 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 softcover 64 pages
No. 22903 ...$8.95
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