Another Epic 1/4-Scale Dragster: The 10-Horse “Quarter Mortar”

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Talk about impressive weight-to-horsepower ratios!

We’ve found yet another insanely awesome quarter-scale car, which is neck and neck on the cool-o-meter with the scaled-down jet dragster we found earlier in the week, and while it’s not quite on par with a Top Fuel dragster in the weight-to-horsepower department, it’s certainly impressive for what it is.

$_57-6This pint-sized “Quarter Mortar” dragster was built by John Foster and belongs to (and is currently being sold by) Texas native Steven Konarik, who has quite an affection for miniature-sized race cars, as you may remember him as the owner and pilot of the Arctic Cat-powered mini dragster that we featured here on Dragzine back in September. The remote-controlled ‘digger gets its motivation from a 38cc internal combustion motor built by O’Neill Brothers known as the “Widowmaker” that produces an estimated 10 horsepower, and is controlled by a Futaba 4PLS 4-channel radio system.

As Konarik shared with us, 10 horsepower is pretty substantial for a car of this kind, and while the motor has never been fired, he and O’Neill Brothers are confident the car will run in the low two-second range over a 132-foot course at beastly 60 miomewhere in the range of 100 to 105 miles per hour.

The single-cylinder “Widowmaker” motor has a complete billet crankcase, sealed clutch housings, and a WT-990 carburetor, and peaks at roughly 9.7 horsepower at 16,000 rpm’s.

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The closest thing we could use to compare to this car would be a legitimate Junior Dragster, where a higher-end motor will typically make around 35 horsepower in a car that averages about 350 lbs., for roughly 10 lbs. per horsepower. Such a car covers 330-feet in four seconds and the eighth in seven seconds. The Quarter Mortar, meanwhile, is around 30 lbs. race-ready with 10 horsepower, or 3 lbs. per horsepower. Using that math, you get a pretty good idea of just how fast this little rocketship would be.

About the author

Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
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