Filed under: Car Buying, Motorsports, Sports/GTs, Infiniti
Never be late again: Street-legal Dallara Indy Car
by Alex Nunez on Jul 11th 2007 at 3:43PM 
Click image to view more shots of the street-legal Indy car
The DuPont Registry is the car shopping guide many of us use for that mission-critical research on what to buy when the good ship Powerball sails into our lives. After all, you can never be too prepared for that sort of thing. The August issue has a real gem nestled among the countless Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and Lamborghinis you'd normally expect to see in the Registry's glossy pages.
It's even less practical than the most cramped exotic, too. It seats one, and that seat belonged to Eddie Cheever back in 2000. It's a Dallara Indy Car, and yes, it's 100% street legal. Back in its day, a 3.5L methanol-fueled Infiniti V8 sat behind the driver, and while the Infiniti decals still adorn the bodywork, a small-block Chevy provides motivation today. Wearing its original livery, the car's outfitted with all the required lighting, runs on pump gas, has electric start, a carbon fiber and leather-surrounded cockpit, 5 gauges and launches like a sportbike with its 2.5-second 0-60 time. In an era where the phrase "racer for the street" has become become cliché, this bad boy lives up to the description in every sense.
The car was put up for auction on eBay back in December but didn't meet reserve. The old listing's still up, where you can find additional pics, info and video.
Gallery Note: Some pictures appear distorted when first viewed because the gallery sets the preview size automatically, and the images are actually smaller than that default size. To see them in undistorted form, just click them again, and they'll reduce down to their correct original size. Apologies for the inconvenience.
[Source: DuPont Registry, August 2007 issue]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
zach 4:08PM (7/11/2007)
shame they put such a boring engine in it.
a V8 from a wrecked Ferrari or something a little more exotic like a Hartley V8 could make this much, much more interesting
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Graham 1:19PM (7/12/2007)
Yeah, a Ferrari engine would slow it down nicely. These engines pump out massive horsepower, well beyond anything a Ferrari non-racing engine pumps out.
zach 1:38PM (7/12/2007)
first, the main point i was trying to make concerned the sound; a small block chevy just sounds dumb in an indy car.
second, neither of the car's listings suggests that the engine has had any exotic mods that would lift it's output any higher than a plain 350 crate engine.
third, it's simply dull sticking a small block chevy in things just because it's easy and cheap. If you're willing to invest the time and expense to own something as impractical as this, have some courage and try something interesting. as i said originally, i think a hartley v8 would be amazing. check the specs on their website... even has about the same rev limit as the original race engine.
finally, and not really relevant to your comment, looking more carefully at the pictures; the exhaust looks to be completely uneven from the back. it makes you wonder about the rest of the workmanship on the car.
ray ray 4:21PM (7/11/2007)
Wonder if this thing has a parking brake? Or I guess you can just leave it in gear...
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Boone Pickens 4:27PM (7/11/2007)
The engine sounds so wrong in this. I definitely would prefer the high pitched sound of a small V8.
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felipe 4:28PM (7/11/2007)
does it have a cup holder? thats important to me.
and the plates go where?
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Dan 5:03PM (7/11/2007)
Officer, it was a indy car, but i don't remember the license plate number!
CARLOS 4:29PM (7/11/2007)
doesn't it need wheel covers, bumpers and airbags to be legal? or maybe thats just for production vehicles.
I remember that Plymouth was required to add bumpers and wheel covers to the Prowler which IMO killed the look of the car, but they were easy enough to remove.
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zach 4:38PM (7/11/2007)
i believe there are different rules for production cars and that most states have exceptions for "experimental", "prototype", or some other special designation.
Johnny Rocket 4:56PM (7/11/2007)
I want one.
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RoadRunnerSTi 4:57PM (7/11/2007)
Whoever buys this car needs to do the right thing and ditch that engine for something more race-car like with the sharp aural bark and bite of a high revving small displacement motor racing motor...
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Sean Flanagan 5:03PM (7/11/2007)
Methinks a Powertec engine should be swapped in for that small-block. http://www.powertecracing.com/
That's the small-displacement V8 based on two mated Hayabusa engines.
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Daniel Hammerberg 5:20PM (7/11/2007)
You can also see it at the duPont Registry web site.
http://www.dupontregistry.com/autos/Search/DRauSearchDetails.aspx?itemid=395229
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johdaxx 5:22PM (7/11/2007)
Honestly, a SBC is a hard unit to beat both on power to weight and packaging. Overhead cams make a large tall engine. Consider it's easy to work on too, so you'll spend more time racing and less working on it.
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Mr. Oak 5:28PM (7/11/2007)
LS1 thru 7 all small block Chevy engines. I'll take it with the LS7.
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Gary Blomquist 6:53PM (7/11/2007)
Street legal?
I thought all cars produced for U.S. consumption had to meet a 5 mph crash test front and rear without damage.
Also, where's the air bags, and all the other stuff a Yugo has to have to be sold here. lol
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The Penguin 7:03PM (7/11/2007)
I have seen Indy cars made street legal for sale before. The one that I remember was a 2003 Dallara that still had the original Honda V8 in it.
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Robert K. 7:14PM (7/11/2007)
That engine just sounds soooo wrong. Where's the high pitched "weeeeeeeeeeee" of an Indy Car?
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Jaymez 7:18PM (7/11/2007)
I'm a big SBC fan, but the thought of an Indy car making a "blub blub blub" sound instead of sounding like a bumblebee just doesn't seem right.
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RedBeauty84ZX 8:06PM (7/11/2007)
I still remember seeing those Infiniti indy cars on TV....the VH45 that was used in the Indy car was also used in the production Q45s...amazing engine. Sad too see such a boring engine in an automotive piece of history...
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