Ancient Hixtory

The Magical Junkyard

Collectables

Years later, an article in the journal of The Veteran Motor Car Club of America would look back at Hicksville Auto Wreckers as it was in the 1930s. Called "The Great Caruso," the article was written by no less than a former Curator of Land Transportation at the Smithsonian. With great reverence, he recounted his past rambles through the junkyard, adventures undertaken with the blessing of a friendly Mike Caruso.

The future Curator would clamber over the remains of cars, much as his nattily-attired compatriot can be seen doing below, the end of his white scarf tossed over one shoulder. Exploring in this way, he discovered treasured examples of such marques as Simplex, Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Brewster, and Mercedes.

Photograph by Smith Hempstone Oliver, printed in The Bulb Horn for January - February 1964;
provided by Brian Caruso, augmented digitally for emphasis

On a visit in 1937, he took this photograph, in which I have circled the unimposing remains of an Isotta-Fraschini "touring car" from about 1913. Several years later, Chicago-based collector Cameron Peck purchased this Tipo KM Torpedo, together with another derelict Isotta in the junkyard, for $750. In the nearby LIRR freight yard (just south of Barclay Street), Caruso had the two cars loaded onto a freight car, so that they would be shipped to Chicago.

Upon receiving the cars, Peck took the photograph shown below left. Note the ungainly windshield that had been added to the Torpedo at some point in its past. The vehicle would change hands several times after its rescue. Along the way, it was restored, displayed in a museum for a number of years, and then restored more extensively. The end result is shown below right.

Both images from bonhams.com

Several years ago, the car was up for auction through Bonhams, a centuries-old British auction house. The Bonhams summary of its provenance noted that

"The Tipo KM offered here is one of two such cars... discovered on wealthy Long Island estates in the 1930s by midget car racer and scrap merchant Mike Caruso, whose automobile junkyard at Hicksville, Long Island, has attained near legendary status for the amazing cars that were to be found there in the 1930s and '40s."

Pristine at the age of 95, the Isotta sold in 2008 for $1,492,000.

As the car's history implies, this was not the only rare vehicle rescued from the Caruso yard during those years. Indeed, there was a time when seven of the world's highest-valued collectable cars all were autos that had once resided on West Barclay. Others of the yard's occupants in those years were notable for different reasons, such as a car once owned by Kaiser Wilhelm, or the first Bugatti ever imported into the U.S.

*

Racers, Plus Ingenuity

Mike Caruso did not make all his interesting cars wait for collectors to take them away. Among his best-known racing uses of items from the salvage business were engines from two Bugattis. The first was a true four-cylinder engine from a Bugatti T-37, removed per the owner's wishes, so that it could be replaced by a Ford engine (more easily maintained in the U.S.). It powered the Midget racer shown below; note the bulge along the top of the hood, needed to enclose the tall Bugatti engine.

The second engine was an eight-cylinder, possibly from a Type 38 that had left the Bugatti works in Molsheim c. 1926. Such an engine was too large for Midget racing. Caruso "simply" cut the lower part of the engine to half its length, so that it accepted only a single bank of four cylinders - not a task for the faint of heart. The result was the car recently restored and displayed in Paris. In 1937, it looked like this:

Ernie Gessel driving the "half-Bugatti" Caruso;
the photograph appears to have been autographed by Mike Caruso
photo from Christian Anicet via Facebook

Clearly, Mike Caruso was not afraid of trying a new idea - and when the time was right, he also could give up on it. Both the Bugatti-engined Midgets had their years of success, but the sport eventually advanced beyond them. The day came when Caruso decided to instead use Offenhauser engines, a type that for many years was a mainstay at Indianapolis - but that did not mean there would be no more new ideas to try.

Stored at Barclay St. was a historic supercharger, one of three imported on the engines of racers that had been modified by Mercedes for the 1923 Indy 500. They were the first superchargers ever used at the big race. Mike set about adapting the quarter-century-old device to a contemporary "Offy" engine, and he managed to do it. Then he lengthened a Midget frame to accommodate the long engine-plus-supercharger, and proceeded to build what became a still-famous Sprint car.

Source of the supercharger: Mike and his "Indy version" Mercedes Targa Florio
He wanted it to vie for the Vanderbilt Cup in 1936, but with far less horsepower
than newer racers it could not be made competitive.
carusomidgetracing.com

***

Glory Years

Pre-War

Caruso Racing came of age in the mid-1930s. Mike's first Bugatti Midget, driven by Johnny Duncan, was consistently successful. In 1935, he won the Atlantic States Midget Auto Championship event at Freeport, as well as the Mineola Fair Cup.

National Championships began two years later:

• The "half-Bugatti" was built in 1936, and the next year it became dominant. Ernie Gessell drove it to the 1937 National Auto Racing Circuit Championship.
• In 1938, Paul Russo drove a Caruso Midget to the AAA Midget Championship.
• Caruso Midgets finished in second place for the title in 1939 and 1940.
• In 1941, Henry Banks (new to Caruso's team) drove to the American Racing Driver Club Championship.

*

After the War

The success resumed after World War II, a tribute to Mike's continued inventiveness as a mechanic, and also to his ability to run an effective team, which now drove from coast to coast, wherever the races led. Often, it raced eight times a week. Rose was part of it, as were sons "Bif" (Louis) and Mike Jr., honing their own skills as mechanics. At the end of the long days, Rose would start to "break down" the engines, cleaning their parts for the next day's races.

Bound for a day of racing at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a dusty Buick Special
stops for gas in Figueroa in 1946, gleaming Midget in tow.
Bill Schindler, Mike Caruso, and one "very careful" smoker
carusomidgetracing.com

Bill Schindler drove one of Mike's Midgets in the early post-war years, and he practically owned the track:

• In 1945, he won the American Racing Driver Club Championship.
• In 1947 and 1948, he again was ARDC champion, winning 53 races each year.
• 1948 was an astounding season for Caruso. The team competed in 106 races; Schindler had his 53 victories, and his teammate Mike Nazuruk had 38 more - giving the Caruso team wins in an incredible 85.8% of the races it entered.
• In 1950, Nazuruk drove the Midget-cum-Sprint with the Mercedes "blower" (described earlier), and he finished third in championship points. An off-beat highlight was his winning two races - one Midget and one Sprint - at two venues on the same day.

After Schindler's 1948 season, people called him "The Babe Ruth of Racing." Both Schindler and Nazaruk left Midgets in the early 1950s to race Indianapolis cars; despite the loss, the team continued to have solid, although less spectacular, success.

*

Not Really Retirement

Around 1953, Mike started focusing less on his racing, and more on business, including his new Gulf service station at West John and Wyckoff Streets. Ever the mechanic, he still dabbled hands-on when he could, taking on projects like putting a Chevy II engine into a Midget, or testing an Offenhauser engine fitted with a Maserati supercharger.

Rose, Mike, and a contented spaniel inside the Gulf station in the early 1950s
(now, if only the "Good Gulf" pump outside wasn't idle....)
photo provided by Brian Caruso

He also paid personal attention to Indy-style racing. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, his son Bif was a mechanic (and later, chief) on pit crews for a number of cars at Indianapolis 500s. Among them were cars for Paul Russo, who years earlier had driven a Caruso Midget to a championship, and Andy Granatelli, of STP fame.

1964 Studebaker STP entry and pit crew at Indianapolis 500;
Bif Caruso third on the left, Andy Granatelli wearing necktie, Bobby Unser driver
photo provided by Brian Caruso

*

In 1978, Mike Caruso was named to the Eastern Old Timers Racing Hall of Fame, the first car owner to be granted that distinction; Rose also received an award, because of her dedication and contributions to the sport.

Four years later, Hicksville's Gregory Museum held a "Caruso Day" in conjunction with its exhibit about Caruso racing.

In 2003, Mike was named posthumously to the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

In Las Vegas, where Mike and Rose had a second home in their later years, there now is the Caruso Racing Museum, established by Mike Caruso Jr. and his son Brian. It features restored racing vehicles, and a great many other racing items of interest (some of which relate to things not covered in this article, such as one-quarter Midgets).

Mike Caruso Jr. and Hollywood stunt driver Joie Chitwood Jr.
at the Caruso Midget Racing Museum in Las Vegas
photo from Caruso Midget Racing page on Facebook

The Museum's website at www.carusomidgetracing.com and its Facebook page (at www.facebook.com/CarusoMidgetRacing) are fascinating in themselves, rich in facts and photographs.

The Caruso "stretched Midget" supercharged Sprint car can be seen in the Automobile Collection of the Collings Foundation in Stow, Massachusetts. At present displayed in the Foundation's historic aircraft hangar because of space limitations, with the rest of the Automobile Collection it soon will be housed in the Foundation's newly expanded American Heritage Museum.

Stretched Caruso Midget in Automobile Collection of the Collings Foundation
photo from Caruso Midget Racing page on Facebook

***