The Mini-Indy series of projects began nearly fifty years ago in the early '70's. We had wanted to explore coasting again, memories of downhill fun of our childhood. It was great fun, but we quickly tired of pushing the Formula-Zero racer (that was what we called it in 1974) back up the hill...We spent a bit of time in the shop and out rolled the first Mini-Indy!
The eventual article in Popular Mechanics magazine was very well received and began the legacy of Mini-Indys which continues today. (Oddly, we would go on to do almost the same thing in the '90's:
Build a coaster to remind ourselves how fun downhill racing is, then add an engine to keep the fun going! In this case, these cars became the
CycleKarts...)
In 1978 we brought out the second version, the Mini-Indy II. This was primarily a styling update to incorporate some of the visual pizaz we liked from the late-'70's Indy cars. But it STILL looks HOT to me, and so do the older Indy Cars of the '70's and '80's!
We spent a lot of time in the '70's at the unbelieveably wonderful Briggs Cunningham Auto Museum. Sadly, this museum no longer exists, but these photographs of the Mini-Indy and Mini-Indy II were taken there and we're glad to share these as a reminder of the amazing cars, people, and memories of that very special place...Cunningham's inspired the M-I II, also, as they had a really nice mid-'70's Indy racer on display in the entry foyer for awhile and we definitely were influenced by that car!