After we published our blurb yesterday about the miniature slingshot dragster that the infamous Postman Pat Van gang has been working on, one of our readers from “down under”, upon seeing the story, tipped us off to a very cool mini Funny Car that he currently owns and has plans to restore to running condition that gives the Pat Van ‘digger a run for its money on the scale of awesomeness. It also predates Junior Funny Cars by a couple of decades.

Aussie David Murray from Whyalla, South Australia, is the fifth owner of this unique creation that was originally built back in the 1980’s by Herk “Boss” Bulloch, hence the “Hurk’s Turkish Delight” namesake on the side of the car. Standing just about waist high and roughly two feet shorter in wheelbase than a full scale Funny Car, the car is motivated by an early model Kawasaki 1428cc motorcycle engine that’s situated in the rear of the car behind the driver. According to Murray, the car utilized a 1200cc bullet originally, which propelled it to 1/4-mile elapsed times in the high 10-second range on 9-inch wide by 22-inch tall slicks. All of this rested under a fully hand-beaten alloy body that closely resembles some of the early Chevrolet Corvette Funny Car bodies. The “Roo Man”, Keith Burgan, a legend for his artistic craftsmanship of many iconic front engine dragsters, built the original body.

The Turkish Delight ran in the Modified category alongside dragsters, Altereds, and door cars in the C/MD (four-cylinder modified dragster) classification. The car was, according to Murray, one of an estimated five motorcycle-powered cars in the Modified division, and, as evidenced by an image shared with us showing a pair of them, not the only mini Funny Car of its kind.

Murray shared with us that after he purchased the car, the sanctioning body changed their regulations regarding chassis tube specifications, making it illegal in its current form for competition. At some point in its long life, the body was left outside in the elements, leaving the alloy body brittle and worse for wear, however, Murray, who also campaigns an Altered, plans to eventually restore the car to running order within the rule parameters and return it to the track.

We’re hoping to gather more information on the car and its future restoration, and perhaps even dig into the history of the other mini Funny Cars that did or still exist, so keep it tuned here for more.