by Mike
In the 1950s what would you do if you had a lot of money and you wanted to own and drive race winning cars? First you would buy the best car you could find, then you would get the best drivers like Phil Hill, Dan Gurney and Richie Ginther to drive those cars. And one more thing – you would go to Meyer and Drake and have them make a special, extra fast Offenhauser engine. It was already the best racing engine in the US – but you would want it even better.
George Tilp did all of this and now this special engine (Offy S/N 165) once installed in an Aston Martin DB2 and a Ferrari Mondial is for sale.
This unique Offenhauser engine was later owned by Phil Hill.
Offenhauser Engine S/N 165 – photo by Mike Gulett
George Tilp
Phil Hill Receipt click to enlarge
George Tilp was a corporate executive, a race car driver and race team owner who helped advance the careers of several notable race car drivers. George Tilp wanted a special Offenhauser engine to be used in his Aston Martin DB2 and later it was installed in his Ferrari Mondial. In the early 1950s Tilp commissioned Meyer and Drake to build this unique engine.
Phil Hill was one of the drivers that George Tilp sponsored in his early career. This may explain why Phil Hill became the owner of this unique Offenhauser engine. In 1985 Phil Hill sold this engine to his friend, and current owner, Ron Kellogg.
Phil Hill wrote Luigi Chinetti’s obituary for “Road & Track” magazine where he wrote,
…he sold the cars to men who could afford to put promising drivers in Ferraris, men like Allen Guiberson and George Tilp, who sponsored beginners like Richie Ginther, Dan Gurney, and myself.
Offenhauser Engine S/N 165
From the book, “Offenhauser” by Gordon Eliot White,
The C6R-Offy effort made a lasting impression on George Tilp (the gentleman at the helm of a company in New Jersey producing Ronson cigarette lighters). He responded with one of the most unique Offy projects Leo Goossen ever had the pleasure of engineering. A sports car racer and owner for several years, Tilp purchased his 180 Sports Offy S/N 165 from Meyer & Drake in 1954. His idea was to construct and race the most technically sophisticated Offy ever run in professional road racing competition. Tilp’s Mondial Ferrari would be the Offy’s new home.
Offenhauser Engine In Tilp’s Ferrari Mondial
Notice the one-of-a-kind crankcase front cover/ injector-pump drive housing; crankcase side-cover plate/injector pump mounting bracketry; bellhousing/clutch/starter adaptor housing; intake plenum and related plumbing; and purpose built exhaust header (for the Ferrari Mondial chassis). This is arguably the most stately Offy Leo Goossen ever designed.
Tilp’s Ferrari/Offy was a money-no-object foray into satisfying his curiosity. Through unique circumstances, Tilp observed the factory Mercedes 300 SL sports racing cars in competition and being tended to in their garage. From this exposure, he concluded that adapting the Bosch mechanical fuel injection system (the world’s most technically sophisticated at the time) from the 300 SL engine to an Offy, would render it superior to the competition.
Offy S/N 165 in an Aston Martin DB2
Offenhauser Engines
Offenhauser was an American engine design that dominated American open wheel racing for more than 50 years. The “Offy”, was developed by Fred Offenhauser and Harry A. Miller in the company owned by Miller until he went bankrupt in 1933. Offenhauser bought the business and with the help of Leo Goossen they developed the Miller engine into the Offenhauser engine. The twin-cam 4-cylinder Offys could produce 420 hp – a major component in the success of this seminal engine design. Offys were also known for their excellent reliability – important for a race engine.
Meyer and Drake took over the business in 1946. The Meyer and Drake Offenhauser engines dominated the Indy 500 and midget racing in the United States for decades. An Offy powered car won the Indy 500 twenty-seven times from 1934 through the end of the 1970s.
Mounted on a beautiful stand this unique Offenhauser engine will be special in any display of race car history and it would look great in the living room, museum or a special garage!
A beautiful sculpture with an amazing pedigree.
This is the only one and no more will be made.
Offenhauser Engine S/N 165
Some of the documents
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I looked all over for a Price?
It is just above the slide shows:
Price: Offers Invited
Location: Whittier, California USA
Contact: Mike Gulett: Email: michael.gulett@gmail.com
All available documentation comes with this special piece of history.
Offers invited that elite!
It’s worth it just for that “state of the art” intake. It doesn’t look at all efficient by today’s standards.
These engines will have a special class at Amelia Island in a couple of months.
Great looking motor.
It doesn’t just have to work, but needs to look great too.
Intriguing though, that in the two cars (Aston and Ferrari), the intakes and exhausts are swapped.
I wonder if the valve sizes were so close that it was possible to simple swap the cams and fits alternate manifolds.
Possibly yes, I have a 98ci, a 110ci & a120ci all inlet and exhaust ports and valves are the same.
The exhaust note of an Offy a speed is something very special. You cannot call yourself an aficionado of automobile antiquities if you have never heard an Offy on the track. Required reading is the book by Gordon White “Offenhauser”
This Offy S/N 165 is on page 310 of Gordon White’s book.
Page 119 and 120 in my copies. You can see this book in the photos of the engine in this thread. Page 120 includes the photo of the Offy installed in the Ferrari shown in this thread.
Rod,
Thank you for the correction.
If you have to ask the price….you cannot afford it.
Everyone cannot be born with a golden spoon in their mouth either.
I’ve read a good deal about the Bugatti Veyron and the subsequent Chiron, and I have to say I’m no longer impressed with them, at all. Offenhauser had it all over current engines! The Offy was making 3 hp per cubic inch when Detroit was struggling to get 1 hp per cubic inch in the muscle-car era, and the Offy was the first hemi, that idea being stolen by Chrysler. Now we see Bugatti come out with the massively complex and ridiculously expensive W16 engine with the goal of 1001 hp with enough heat produced by it to nearly burn down it’s test facility and requiring 12 radiators in the car when Offy was doing that with an inline 270 cu 4 cylinder back in the day with nowhere near the excess heat produced and NO radiators! Credit where credit is due. Bugatti produced a 16.4 liter engine, 1000.789 cubic inches to produce 1001 hp and Offy did that with a 270 cu engine and 4 cylinders! Who really did the amazing engineering here? Bugatti did 1001 hp with sheer displacement, Offy did it with pure technological excellence. Put an Offy in that Veyron and save yourselves a hell of a lot of money without 12 radiators!
BMW M12/13 ……………………………!!!!!!
No mention that it was a big failure on the track ?
Just give me a cash price! Jack McGhee
It sold at the Gooding auction in Scotsdale – 2020 for $60,480.
https://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1954-offenhauser-180-racing-engine/